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New mixer for video guy
Hello audio professionals,
Please bare with me as I am only slightly fluent in audio.
Long story short: My video suite is 14 years old. It came with a Mackie 1604-VLZPro, which has become overkill over the years as we have gone from 8 device inputs to 2. Recently the mixer has been buzzing like mad, making large rumble and clicks and then cutting out. I unplugged everything and this still occurrs when monitoring with head phones. I figure getting it fixed would be about the same cost as getting a smaller one that fits better into our workflow. Am I correct?
I’m looking at either the Mackie 14 or 1202VLZ4. Will this be alright for me? I send all audio over to another house, so this is only for monitoring purposes. I could go smaller, but the boss likes the wow factor.
Another problem is that I have a ton of wiring that would be a pain to change out. The main out on my old mixer used a 1/4″ plug, but the new mixer is xlr. Is it easy to switch out the connectors or should I just use a converter?
Thanks,
KevinMac Pro 2 x 3 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon
32GB Memory
Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI Express card
Dell Display (23″ flat panel)
Nvidia Quadro 4000
AJA Kona LSi SD/HD capture card
Rourke 16 TB
Flanders 2460SOFTWARE
Mac OS X 10.8.4
FCP 7
Premiere CC
After Effects CC
Boris Continuum
Sapphire Plug Ins
All Trapcode Plugs
Zaxwerks Invig -
2 Replies
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Alas, you are probably correct that getting a new solution is probably in the ball park of repairing the 1604. A smaller Mackie mixer was my choice for a similar situation here at the office.
A new, smaller model mixer should have 1/4 inch TRS outputs as well as XLR, so I would not anticipate that you would need to re-terminate or use an adapter. If you are handy with a soldering iron, etc. terminating an XLR plug is one of the easiest audio connectors to deal with, but an adapter is perfectly acceptable (and more flexible, as well)
If you were somewhere in the US northwest, I might be interested in buying your old 1604. A significant portion of my gear is refurbished and repaired. No sense sending it to the land-fill when it may still have some life in it.
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Richard’s right.
I use a Mackie 1202 VLZ3, and I have both XLR and 1/4″ outputs on it. There are some simple XLR to 1/4″ adaptors you can by in any electronics or audio shop if the Z4 doesn’t have the outputs you need and you’re not into soldering.
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