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anonymous 27 January 2005

Ok, my father owned a night club for a very long time. it closed recently, and he said "grab all the gear you can get out of there before they lock the doors on me" so my friend and i hauled away everything we could get our grubby hands on. this includes a Mackie 24.4 VLZ (I'm guessing only really for live stuff) and a bass cab/ampeg SVT-3 head combo. here is the question:

i go home last night, and i rig the Mackie mixing board, via the XLR main outs in the back, to my m-audio mobilePre XLR ins. ive got the line out (post preamp) on the bass head going into the board, as well. i assumed this whole operation was fairly standard, but the thing that made me stop is this: the trim's on my mobile pre. i have to turn them to about 7 o'clock (right between on and "off", if you know what i mean) to get them to not clip. ive turned the master signal down on the mackie, but its still clipping awfully in the mobile pre. the odd thing is, as well, that the signal is not clipping in cubase, it still has some headroom. the level on the mobile pre has always been the same level as how it picks up in the computer.

I'm not going to blow anything up, am i?

btw, one quick question: i have a vocalist who wants to have delay on her vocals in her headphones, but i don't know how to do that without it printing to disk. ive got some Lexicon hardware effects units, how can i do this with the mackie?

Comments

anonymous Thu, 01/27/2005 - 14:18

nak wrote: turn down the pres on the mackie for one. mackie pres are not that great.

thanks for responding and helping me out.
however i don't follow...you mean the trims or the faders on each chanel strip?

nak wrote: second, for reverb in head fones just use the auxilary sends/returns. i do that all the time for monitors (i use the same board for live shows)

will this be output through the xlr main outs, though? im thinking about rewiring it so that the 1/4" outs for submix1 go to the soundcard.
1. would it solve this if i did that? as in, get the aux to go to submix2, which will only be in headphones and not submix1? can i do that?
2. would it be better anyway to go XLR to XLR in my soundcard, or the submix 1/4" to the insert/line in's on my soundcard? would i lose signal or get hiss?

drumrob Fri, 01/28/2005 - 10:09

MrSpecial,

I don't know the MobilePre from a hole in the ground, so forgive me if I am just spitting in the wind. But it sounds like you may be sending a LINE level signal (from the Mackie board) into a MIC level input. Just because they are both XLR connectors does not mean that their signal levels match.

Hope this helps. Have fun!

Rob

ghellquist Fri, 01/28/2005 - 10:52

Yep, the XLR-s on the mobile pre are for mic input. Mic signals typically is 0.01V. Line level typical is 1V (ballpark figures).

Get or make a cable, fitting to the output from the Mackie going to the "Line Inputs" of the Mobile Pre. I recommend you go to a decent musicians sound shop and ask for help, they should be able to do it.

And, by no means are the Mackies what comes out the backside of chickens. You should be able to use them for decent work.

Gunnar.

anonymous Fri, 01/28/2005 - 10:58

ghellquist wrote:
Get or make a cable, fitting to the output from the Mackie going to the "Line Inputs" of the Mobile Pre. I recommend you go to a decent musicians sound shop and ask for help, they should be able to do it.

the bus-outs in the back of the mackie are 1/4". i ran those intot he line inputs of the mobile pre, but the problem still remains. is this the same thing, or should getting a cable to go from the main outs to the line going to help?

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