Mackie 1402-VLZ Pro Owner's Manual - Page 21

OUTPUT SECTION DESCRIPTION Still with us? Good for you. Here come the tricky parts, where the mixing is really done. MAIN MIX As the name implies, this fader controls the levels of signals sent to the MAIN OUTPUTS: XLR , 1⁄4" and RCA TAPE OUT . All channels and AUX RETURNS that are not muted or turned fully down will wind up in the MAIN MIX. Fully down is off, the "U" marking is unity gain, and fully up provides 10dB additional gain. This additional gain will typically never be needed, but once again, it's nice to know it's there. These are the faders to pull down at the end of the song when you want The Great Fade-Out. VLZ MIX ARCHITECTURE When designing a mixing circuit, the lowest noise and best crosstalk specs are achieved by using Very Low Impedance (VLZ). To implement VLZ in a mixer, the power supply must be able to deliver plenty of current to the circuitry. That's why those "wall wart" mixers are often noisy - they can't power a VLZ circuit. At Mackie, audio quality is much more important than the price of wall warts. All of our mixers employ VLZ and built-in power supplies that deliver more than enough current, resulting in sonic specifications that rival consoles upwards of $50,000! SOURCE MATRIX Typically, the engineer sends the MAIN MIX to an audience (if live) or a mixdown deck (if recording). But what if the engineer needs to hear something other than the MAIN MIX? With the 1402-VLZ PRO, the engineer has several choices of what to listen to. This is one of those tricky parts, so buckle up. Via the SOURCE switches, you can choose to listen to any combination of MAIN MIX, ALT 3-4 and TAPE. By now, you probably know what the MAIN MIX is. ALT 3-4 is that additional stereo mix bus. TAPE is the stereo signal coming in from the TAPE IN RCA jacks . Selections made in the SOURCE matrix deliver stereo signals to the CONTROL ROOM, PHONES and METERS. With no switches engaged, there will be no signal at these outputs and no meter indication. The exception to that is the SOLO function . Regardless of the SOURCE matrix selection, engaging a channel's SOLO switch will replace that selection with the SOLO signal, also sent to the CONTROL ROOM, PHONES and METERS. This is what makes the Level Setting Procedure so easy to do. WARNING: Pushing in both the TAPE button (in the SOURCE matrix) and ASSIGN TO MAIN MIX can create a feedback path between TAPE IN and TAPE OUT. Make sure your tape deck is not in record, record-pause or input monitor mode when you engage these switches, or make sure the CONTROL ROOM / PHONES fader is fully down (off). U U OO +10 AUX 1 MASTER PRE POST AUX 1 SELECT EFX TO MONITOR OO OO 1 +20 U NORMALLED 2 AUX +20 RETURN C-R/SOURCE LEFT RIGHT 0dB=0dBu 28 MAIN MIX 10 7 4 ALT 3-4 2 0 TAPE 2 4 ASSIGN TO MAIN MIX SOLO MODE NORMAL (AFL) LEVEL SET (PFL) PHANTOM POWER 7 10 20 30 RUDE SOLO LIGHT LEVEL SET CTL ROOM /SUBMIX dB 10 MAIN MIX dB 10 5 5 U U 5 5 10 10 20 20 30 30 40 40 50 50 60 60 OO OO 21