Pre PRO Mackie mixer question

[woolybooly]

Just bought a used Mackie 1202 and asked a friend of mine if it was a good mixer and he replied

"The one thing I heard about the "pre-pro" Mackie is that it sounds better to use the alt3-4 outputs instead of the main outs to record with. This involves enabling each channel you want to send to the PC with the alt3-4 button that is down by the solo buttons in each channel strip. And of course using the alt3-4 outputs on the back of the mixer."

Has anyone else heard this? Also, is it better to use my m-audio AudioBuddy mic preamp or is the mic preamp in this mixer adequate?


finstah

 

[MadAudio]

There should be no sound difference between the main outs and the Alt 3/4 outs. It's more of a routing/convenience thing. As for the difference between the pre's, your ear will tell you better than my guess would.

 

[mshilarious]

There should be no sound difference between the main outs and the Alt 3/4 outs. It's more of a routing/convenience thing. As for the difference between the pre's, your ear will tell you better than my guess would.

There could be, but I'd guess the auxes are typically worse. I just finished rebuilding an Allen & Heath mixer, and it used cheaper opamps to sum the aux busses than the main mix.

But, as with all things, have a listen and see what you think. Have a friend do the switching so that you aren't biased.

 

[xstatic]

More often than not, the aux sends will sound different. They use different electronics stages in most consoles, especially cheaper ones. Normally I would tend to think the auxes wouldn't sound as good. Using the auxes changes the stereo imaging though which could be both good and bad, depending on how it was done.