xenyx 1204 - LEDs for volume

[nun]

Glad to have found this forum and a newbie section. Am definitely a newbie. Been working with Xenyx 1204 for podcasting. Almost since I set it up, I've rarely seen the LEDs for volume light up. Once and a while the first set of green LEDs lights up (-30) but nothin above that. Audio is find via headphones and digital recorder but no matter what I do, can't seem to get those LEDs to increase. What am I missing? Many thanks.

 

[Washburn100]

Sounds like the signal into the mixer is low. What mic are you using? If it's condenser, are you using phantom power?

 

[nun]

We've got two Shure mics SM58, BroadCast Host on channel 5/6, and music via computer plugged into channel 7/8. None seem to have any impact on the LED lights. Haven't used phantom power, but interestingly when I do turn that on, I begin to see a light or two on the volume meter if i bump the mic. Thanks for your response, Washburn100.

 

[mattr]

Sounds like the signal into the mixer is low. What mic are you using? If it's condenser, are you using phantom power?

If the mic did need phantom power but it was off, there would be no signal at all (unless the mic could also be battery powered)...

...but with SM58s, it should make no difference to the signal at all. Maybe you were observing the small signal peak that you sometimes get when switching phantom on and off?

What is your preamp gain set like, and how did you set it without using the metering on the mixer? Did you use input metering on the computer?

More than likely the main meters follow post-fader, so try setting both the channel and master faders to unity, then observing the meters whilst adjusting the channel preamp/input gain.

I'm not familiar with the mixer, but does it have PFL or solo/AFL functions?

 

[nun]

Hi mattr ... probably what I hear with the phantom. Okay so that switch just stays off then.

I have a digital recorder attached so that's where I measure my input sound. Typically the recording is awesome, but that doesn't always mean that the live shows are good. We've had problems lately with it sounding like static, garbled, tinny, "robotic" as one listener said. But our digital recorder version sounds great.

Now I'm new to this and spent the last few days learning what "gain" even means so, please bear with me with the terminology! The preamp gain for channels 1-4 (mono, mics attached to 1 and 2) is set at unity. At regular speaking volume, there is no LED lights lighting up. I have only just figured out what the preamp does! So after reading your post here, i did adjust the preamp on my mic. I have to put the gain all the way up to the highest gain to begin to see movement on the LED lights. The lights go up as far as 4, maybe 2 below the 0 mark on the LED lights. It then is really loud in my headphones even though the headphones volume control on the mixer is set at middle point (does the headphones/"control room" volume knob work with unity at center or is it like a radio volume that goes from mute to full volume??).

Mixer does not have a PFL or solo. I think the FX version of the same model does.

Don't know what a post-fader is. I did all of the above with the channel slders at 0 and the Main Mix volume sliders at 0.

UPDATE: I did find this in the manual. "In the 1204, the first aux send is labeled MON and is permanently switched pre-fader."

Many thanks for your help.