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stickpile39 29 February 2012

I am really puzzled as to how to use this mixer and I'm hoping for some help. Here is a link to the specs with a picture of it http://www.Behringer.com/assets/MX2004A_P0030_S_EN.pdf

Our fundamental set up for our 3 piece band (guitar, bass, drums) is as follows:
Bass Amp miCD into Mic 1 on the mixer
Guitar Amp miCD into Mic 2
Bass Drum into Mic 4
Snare Drum into Mic 5
Tom toms and Ride into Mic6 & 7
3 Vocal mics run into an old Carvin PA. A Mic in front of the speaker captures vocals and goes into mic 7 on the mixer
Crash cymbal and Rack Toms into mic 8

The mixer goes into a CD player from 2 track out and we record that way. the master control volume on the right helps us set the overall level (in conjunction with the record level on the CDR recorder)

I have two goals, better understand the mixer and come up with a way to run vocal mics (hopefully 3) into the mixer for recording and hopefully back out into the PA. (The issue here is that the vocals are much clearer through the mixer for the recording but we cannot hear them live very well) The quality of the vocals through the PA is less than desirable on the recording. Can we plug the mics into the mixer for the recording and then pump it back out to the PA to hear it while playing live?

If so, how?

the mixer also has stereo lines 9/10, 11/12, 13/14 & 15/16. I am unclear how to utilize these. They do not have a gain? If I put a mic into the left or the right, it comes through but the mix lever does not seem to affect the volume of it in the mix.

other questions: What is the difference between 2 track out (which we use now into the receiver and CDR recorder) and Control Room out or Main Mix out? Main mix out into the CDR does not seem to work?

What are the levers called alt 3/4
What are the inputs for aux send and return and the knobs on the lower right that associate with them?
Also there are black buttons for main mix, alt 3/4 and 2 Tk

this is very frustrating and I look forward and appreciate your replies.

thanks,
J

I can send links to mp3 examples of what we are dealing with for sound if helpful

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Comments

vttom Mon, 03/04/2013 - 10:21

I count a total of 10 mics described above, but your mixer only has 8 mic inputs. So, you can't put everything through this mixer using just mics as you describe.

However, if you switch from mic'ing the bass and guitar amps to DI'ing (direct-inserting) them on 2 of the stereo channels (which behave as mono channels if you only plug into the L input), then you will have just enough inputs for your needs. You may even find that your bass and/or guitar amps have a pre-amp (aka line-level) out, or a headphone out, which you can use for this purpose. Or, if your guitar or bass player uses an all-in-one effects pedal (my wife uses a Boss ME-25, for example), those often have a line-level or headphone out which could also be used for this purpose.

To send just the vocal mics to the PA from this mixer, then use the AUX1 knobs on the vocal mic channels (turn the AUX knobs on all others channels all the way down), then patch the AUX1 SEND output to a line-level input on your PA. The "PRE" button determines whether or not the channel's signal sent to AUX1 is also affected by the channel's main volume slider.

Consider the MUTE/ALT3-4 button to be just a MUTE button. (what it really does it rather than outright MUTE the channel, it re-routes the output to the ALT3-4 bus, which you can selectively listen to with headphones - a special-purpose function you probably won't ever use)

Lastly, you'll want to keep using the Tape Outs for your CDR. They carry the same signal as the Main Outs, except the Main Outs are meant to go to a power amp to drive PA speakers, and they actually put out a lower-level signal than the Tape Outs (which may explain why you thought you weren't getting anything when you tried those into your CDR).

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