Mackie 1402-VLZ4 Owners Manual - Page 19

Owner's Manual Signals passing through these controls will proceed directly to main mix, with one exception (see paragraph below). The stereo returns do not have mute/alt 3-4 switches, so if you want these signals to get to the alt 3-4 mix, you'll have to patch the effects device's outputs into one of the stereo channels, and mute/alt those channels. 42. Return To Aux 1 If you want to add reverb or delay to the stage monitor mixes of aux 1, this is the switch for you. With the switch up, stereo return 1 and 2 behave normally - they deliver their signals into the main mix. With the switch down, stereo return 1 still behaves normally, but stereo return 2 will feed aux send 1 instead of the main mix. Jack Normalling Jack normalling (not to be confused with Jack Normalling, Chicago Cubs utility infielder, 1952-61, .267 LBA) is a feature found on almost every mixer, keyboard and effects device. These jacks have special spring-loaded pins that connect to the signal pins, but when something is plugged into the jack, that ­connection is broken. These normalling pins can be used in all sorts of ways. The ubiquitous phrase "left (mono)" means that if you plug a signal into the left side and have nothing in the right side, that signal is also fed to the right input, courtesy of jack normalling. As soon as you plug something in the right side, that normalled connection is broken. Still with us? Good. So far, with the switch down, we have stereo return 1 feeding the main mix and stereo return 2 feeding aux send 1. Now, suppose you only have one effects device, and you want it to feed both the main mix and aux send 1. That's where "jack normalling" comes in: How does all this relate to the return to aux 1 switch? Stereo return 1's inputs are normalled to stereo return 2. If you have one effects device, plug it into stereo return 1. Plug nothing into stereo return 2. Now the signals feeding the stereo return 1 inputs will also be sent to the stereo return 2 inputs. Engage the return to aux 1 switch, and now the stereo return 2 knob will become an additional aux send 1 knob for the signal at aux return 1. Say that ten times fast! Once again, aux return 1 will behave normally, as always. Congratulations! You've just read about all the features of your 1402VLZ4. You're probably ready for a cold one. Go ahead. The rest of the manual can wait. Owner's Manual 19