Mackie 402-VLZ4 Owners Manual - Page 13

Owner's Manual 1. Power Switch Press the top of this rocker switch inwards to turn on the mixer. The power LED [23] on the top surface of the mixer will glow with happiness. Press the bottom of this switch to put the mixer into standby mode. It will not function, but the circuits are still live. To remove power, either turn off the mains supply, or unplug the power cord from the mixer and the mains supply. As a general guide, turn on your mixer first, before the power amplifier or powered speakers, and turn it off last. This will reduce the possibilities of any turn-on, or turn-off thumps in your speakers. 2. Power Connection Push the 3-pin female side of the power adaptor securely into the connector on the rear of the mixer. Plug the other end into an AC outlet properly configured with the correct voltage as indicated on the AC adaptor. Only use the AC adapter that came with your mixer, or a factory-authorized power supply. 3. Mic Ins (Ch. 1-2) Never plug ­s­ ingle-ended (unbalanced) micro­phones or ­instruments into the mic input jacks if the p­ hantom power is on. Do not plug instrument outputs into the mic input jacks with phantom power on, u­ nless you know for certain it is safe to do so. Do not use phantom power with ribbon microphones. 4. Line Ins (Ch. 1-2) These inputs share circuitry (but not phantom power) with the mic preamps, and can be driven by balanced or unbalanced sources at ­almost any level. You can use these inputs for ­virtually any audio signal you'll come across. To connect balanced lines to these inputs, use a 1⁄4" Tip-Ring-Sleeve (TRS) plug. To connect unbalanced lines to these ­inputs, use a 1⁄4" mono (TS) phone plug or standard ­instrument cable. These two line inputs are a good place to connect older instruments that need more gain. You can correct weak levels by adjusting the channel's gain control [7]. Phantom-powered, balanced Onyx mic preamps are on every VLZ4 mixer. These 5. Low Cut (Ch. 1-2) circuits are­ e­ xcellent at rejecting hum and Each low-cut switch, often referred to as a noise. You can plug in almost any kind of mic high-pass filter (all depends on how you look that has a standard X­ LR male mic connector. at it), cuts bass frequencies below 100 Hz at Professional ribbon, dynamic, and a rate of 18 dB per octave. condenser mics will all sound excellent We recommend that you use low-cut on through these inputs. The 402VLZ4's mic ­every microphone application except kick inputs will handle any kind of mic level you drum, bass guitar, or bassy synth patches. can toss at them, without overloading. These aside, there isn't much down there that you want to hear, and filtering it out Phantom Power makes the low stuff you do want much more crisp and tasty. Not only that, but low-cut Most modern professional condenser mics can help reduce the possibility of feedback are equipped for phantom power, which lets in live situations, and it helps to conserve the mixer send low-current DC voltage to amplifier power. the mic's electronics through the same wires that carry audio. (Semi-pro condenser mics often have batteries to accomplish the same thing.) "Phantom" owes its name to an ability to be "unseen" by dynamic mics (Shure SM57/SM58, for instance), which don't need ­external power and aren't affected by it anyway. Another way to consider lowcut's function is that it actually adds flexibility during live performances. With the ­addition of low-cut, you can safely use low equalization on vocals. Many times, bass shelving EQ can really benefit voices. Trouble is, adding low EQ also boosts stage rumble, mic handling The phantom power for both channels 1 clunks and breath pops. Applying low-cut and 2 is turned on and off together using the ­removes all those problems, so you can add phantom power [20] switch. low EQ without blowing a subwoofer. Owner's Manual 13