The MPL 1204 provides two options for soloing input signals in headphones connected to the front panel headphone jack— Pre Fade Listen (PFL) and After-Fade Listen (AFL). The Solo switch in the main section (#8 on page 7) allows you to choose between these two modes of operation. Although they may at first glance appear similar (and although both are non-mix-destructive), there is in fact a significant difference between the two.
The main function of PFL is to allow you to check that a signal is actually arriving at a particular input. When the MPL 1204 is in PFL mode and a channel Solo switch is pressed in, the pre-fader (but post-eq) signal of that channel alone is routed to the headphone output. The Bus outputs, Main outputs, and Control Room outputs are not interrupted during a PFL solo, so you can press any channel Solo switch even during recording or live performance without affecting the main signal flow. This also makes it possible for you to correctly cue up a tape or CD before bringing it into the main mix (tape or CD players connected to the MPL 1204’s rear panel Tape/CD input jacks can be routed to channels
11 and 12 by pressing in the main section “Tape” switch).
The main drawback to using PFL mode, however, is that it does not allow you to hear a signal in context. Because the PFL soloed signal is monitored pre-fader, it may sound considerably louder or softer than it actually is in the overall mix, depending upon the current position of the channel Level control.
Therefore, you may in some circumstances prefer to use AFL mode, which provides post-fade (and post-eq) soloing. When the MPL 1204 is in AFL mode and a channel Solo switch is pressed in, the post-fader, post-EQ signal of that channel alone is routed to the headphone output. Like PFL, AFL is non-destructive to your mix— the Bus outputs, Main outputs, and Control Room outputs are not interrupted during an AFL solo. However, over the headphones, you’ll hear the AFL soloed signal at its current level.
LEDs in the meter section allow you to see at a glance which mode the
MPL 1204 is in. The leftmost LED (labeled “PFL”) lights steadily red when the mixer is in PFL mode, while the center left LED (labeled “AFL”) lights steadily red when the mixer is in AFL mode. In both PFL and AFL modes, you’ll hear the soloed channel with its EQ settings and all effects being applied and returned via the channel insert. Note that headphone monitoring in the MPL 1204 is mono only (channel Pan controls have no effect) and that, since Aux returns cannot be soloed, they cannot be monitored over headphones.
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