 George
Shilling reviews:
Mackie
1604-VLZ 16 Channel Microphone/Line Mixer
Without
doubt, Mackie mixers have empowered an army of musicians and DJs to
record their efforts with greater control and flexibility than could
ever be imagined ten years ago. They are by no means the only
company producing such products, but with the power of a well-oiled
marketing machine and copywriters with a good understanding of the
issues, not to mention a great sense of humour, they have captured
the imagination of the semi-professional recording market. The
sound-reinforcement industry has also provided homes for many of
these desks.
Buy a Mackie 1604VLZ3 16 channel mixer in our studio shop.
The
1604-VLZ Pro is the latest incarnation of the original CR1604. The
main benefit of the latest upgrade to the '16/4/2' format Mackie is
the inclusion of superior microphone amplifiers on every channel,
designated XDR (for extended dynamic range). For studio recording,
owners of budget desks often employ a high quality outboard
microphone channel for overdubbing, but when tracking with multiple
microphone sources, one often has little choice but to employ the
mixer's microphone amplifiers. This new design enables Mackie to
boast some remarkable figures, with huge dynamic range of 130dB and
extremely low noise and distortion. On paper, these are as good as
many outboard microphone amplifiers costing more than the price of
this entire mixer.
For
the asking price, the Mackie offers a large array of features. This
desk will typically be used with one of the popular digital 8-track
tape machines, and Mackie have provided for this scenario by
labelling faders 9-16 as tape returns 1-8. Also to this end, direct
outputs appear for channels 1-8. All sixteen channels are otherwise
identical. Below the Gain pot, they each feature six Aux Sends, the
first two of which boast individual pre/post switches and master
level controls. Sends 5 and 6 share the controls for 3 and 4 by the
flip of a switch on each channel. The three-band EQ on each channel
features a sweepable mid and a high-pass filter at 75Hz and is okay
for basic EQing, but fairly unrefined as one might expect at this
price bracket. The only way to bypass the EQ is to line up the gain
pots with their subtle centre détentes. A Panpot is located next to
a large channel Mute switch, whilst the fader is accompanied by
routing switches to busses 1 & 2, 3 & 4, and L-R mix, along
with a solo button. An ingenious dual LED system shows signal
present and overload (clip), which is very useful when you do not
have a meter bridge. The 'signal present' LED glows brighter to
indicate Solo mode, and the overload light doubles as a mute
indicator.
I
found all the pots and faders stiffer than I remember from the last
time I used a Mackie, but perhaps they loosen with use. Legending on
the surface is remarkably good, considering how tightly crammed the
controls are. However, I found myself constantly eyeing up the
control surface from a low angle to make sure none of the shallow
buttons were inadvertently depressed, and additional vertical travel
for these would certainly be helpful.
The
right hand section includes Aux Returns' level controls, solo mode
and level, monitoring controls, which even include an external
stereo input. The effects returns and send masters include some neat
little routing features to get you round tricky situations,
especially when setting up musicians' monitoring.
The
four Group Masters feature useful routing buttons to L and R mix,
and there is a socket for headphone output conveniently located near
the main fader.
The
whole mixer is quite weighty, (the power supply is internal), but
packs in a lot for its compact size. The rear panel is described as
the patchbay, which is not exaggerating the case at all, as there
are nearly all the connections you could want taking up the whole
surface of the panel. Non-latching Neutrik XLR inputs are provided
for the microphone inputs, along with a global phantom power switch.
Balanced jack line inputs and unbalanced TRS Insert sockets are also
provided. . Rack ears for the desk are included, the width of the
1604 being a convenient standard 19" width. One notable feature
is the ability to rotate the patchbay pod to different positions to
make it more easily accessible for any given situation. However, an
optional piece of hardware must be obtained to enable location of
the connections to the same plane as the control surface.
Jeff
Gilbert's manual, just like the advertising, is chatty, good-humoured
and boastful. Lots of clear diagrams and plenty of sensible advice
are included.
In
use, there is little to grumble about, even for a user familiar with
large-scale high-end desks. Outputs are all at +4dB, operation is
very intuitive, and a number of neat little features help out in
awkward situations. As for the new microphone amplifiers, they sound
excellent. On vocals, they were noticeably more open sounding than a
competitor's older design, and absolutely as clean and quiet as the
figures suggest, certainly comparing favourably with other solid
state units.
All
in all, Mackie have struck upon a great formula with a good balance
of features and performance for a bargain price.
Buy a Mackie 1604VLZ3 16 channel mixer in our studio shop.
Reproduced
with kind permission from www.George.Shilling.Com. Copyright ©1997
Visit
George's website to find more great reviews. |
