Mackie Sound Board

1. Mackie Sound Board By Stanley Beck

2. The Mackie 16 Channel Sound Board The Board Contains 16 Channels. It contains an EQ for every channel.

3. The EQ The Hi (Top Knob) Would Control The Higher Pitch Frequencies. The Knob Below It Would Control The Middle Frequencies, And The One Below That Would Control The Low Frequencies. The Fourth Knob Would Control What You Would Hear, Either The High Frequencies Or The Low Ones.

4. Plugging In The back of the sound board is where every instrument is plugged in.

5. Inputs • IEC Power Socket (1)- Where the power cable to turn the board on is plugged in. • Power Switch (2)- Turns the board on and off. • Phantom Power Switch (3)- Power microphones that require extra power in order to function properly. • Tape In/out (6)- Allows one to plug in an MP3 player, CD Player or Tape Deck. • Line Inputs (13)- All the instruments that will be connected by patch chords will be plugged in to these inputs. • Mic Inputs (14)- All Mics will be connected by XLR cables and plugged into these inputs. • Control Room Outs (7)- It's a mini-version of a popular 8 Bus feature that adds major monitoring, mixdown and metering flexibility. • Main Outs (4)- These are for the speakers to be plugged into so one can hear the sounds going through the soundboard. • Main inserts (5)- This is where the effects rack would be plugged into so one could add the effects to their sounds. • Sub Outs (8)- Take a group of channels and sends all of them through the sub outs. • Aux Send (10)- sends the sound to the effects rack. • Aux Return (9)- Sends the sound back to the soundboard. • Direct Out Channels 1-8 (11)- keeps all the tracks separate. If you were recording there would be a separate track for each input.

6. DO THIS BEFORE PLUGGIN IN OR ELSE…BOOOOOM!!!!! • In Order to be sure you don’t clip or ruin your nice new soundboard, (you have to treat it like a woman, You don’t just jump into bed, you take her on a date first to get her in the mood, This is the date for the soundboard) it is important to do the following to each channel: • 1. Turn the Trim, Aux and fader controls fully down. • 2. Be sure that the 1-2, 2-4 and L-R Channel assignment switches are all disengaged. • 3. Set the EQ Knobs at the center detents. • 4. Connect the signal source to the line or mic channel inputs • 5. Engage the channel’s solo switch on the channel • 6. Push in the mode switch in the output, the level set LED light will illuminate. • 7. Play something in the selected channel at real-world levels • 8. Adjust the trim knob so the display on the meter stays at about 0 (only the left meter is active in the Level-setting procedure). • 9. Now is the time to apply EQ if desired, and then return to the previous step. • 10. Disengage the channels solo switch and repeat for the remaining channels.

7. Each Channel Contains… • Preamp- essentially boosts the volume of a low level input up to the desired level; the preamp provides higher current gain to power the loudspeakers. Each channel has it’s own preamp, this will allow for each channel to get the best possible sound quality so each instrument sounds perfect.

8. Clipping (LED) • Clipping- Clipping is when an instruments volume exceeds its limit, and begins to get a certain static noise, that happens to be very unpleasant. (An amplifier is pushed to create a signal with more power than it can support, it will amplify the signal only up to its maximum capacity, at which point the signal will be amplified no further.)

9. Each Channel Contains… • A solo button- lets that instrument only be heard; it mutes the rest of the Channels • The “U” labeled around the knobs means Unity gain, which essentially allows the signal to stay the same. (No volume boost). • The Fader- approx. ¾ of the way up is unity gain. This controls the level of the channels output. When at the top that is about 10dB more then when it’s at the bottom.

10. Each Channel Contains… • The pan knob determines which side is more audible to the listener, when in the middle they are equally heard. • -LED- is a light letting the person mixing know that the channel’s volume is too high and is clipping. • Each channel contains Phantom power. Phantom Power powers a condenser mic, because condenser mics require and external power source, some use batteries however that is rare.

11. Facts • All inputs and outputs on the board are balanced (except the phones jack and the RCA inputs). • Every input and out put will accept unbalanced lines (except The XLR’s)  • Every input is designed to accept virtually any output impedance • All outputs are in phase with all inputs • Never plug any unbalanced, single ended microphones, instrument or electronic device in the mic input with the phantom power on.

12. The Main Mix • The main mix knob- all Aux returns and channels assigned to the main mix that are not muted or turned down all the way will show up on the main mix…turns up the volume as a whole. • Subgroup faders- these control the levels of signals sent to the sub outs, all channels that are assigned the sub outs, that are not turned fully down, or muted will show up at the sub outs.  • The assign to main mix channels lets you fade a drum kit by assigning them to a main mix, just unassigned them from the L-R to say sub group 1-2 and engage set the assign the main mix L to Sub group 1 and main mix R to subgroup 2, thus giving you control to fade the entire drum set with 2 faders, and it would be a stereo mix.

13. Main Mix • The assignments switches for 1-2, 3-4 and L-R- 1,3 and left make up what comes out the left side, and 2,4 and right come out the left side so for panning purposes these let you solo each side so you can hear what is coming out where.