Mackie 1402-VLZ3 CONSTANT LOUDNESS, 3-BANDEQ, 26. PAN, 27. LOW EQ, 28. MID EQ

Low EQ with Low Cut

VLZ3-	Another way to do the same thing is assign the chan-
	nels to the ALT 3–4 mix, then patch out of the ALT
	OUTPUT L and R back into an unused stereo channel
	(7–8, 9–10, 11–12, 13–14). If that’s your choice, don’t
1402	ever engage the MUTE/ALT 3–4 switch on that stereo
	channel, or you’ll have every dog in the neighborhood
	howling at your feedback loop.
	Another benefit of the ALT 3–4 feature is that it
	can act as a “AFL” (After-Fader-Listen): just engage a
	channel's MUTE/ALT 3–4 switch and the ALT 3–4 switch
	in the SOURCE matrix and you’ll get that channel, all by
	itself, in the control room and phones.
	MUTE/ALT 3–4 is one of those controls that can bewil-
	der newcomers, so take your time and play around with
	it. Once you’ve got it down, you’ll probably think of a
	hundred spiffy uses for it!

CONSTANT LOUDNESS ! ! !

The 1402-VLZ3’s PAN controls employ a design called “Constant Loudness.” It has nothing to do with living next to a freeway. As you turn the PAN knob from left to right (thereby causing the sound to move from the left to the center to the right), the sound will appear to remain at the same volume (or loudness).

If you have a channel panned hard left (or right) and reading 0 dB, it must dip down about 4 dB on the left (or right) when panned center. To do otherwise (the way Brand X compact mixers do) would make the sound appear much louder when panned center.

3-BAND EQ

The 1402-VLZ3 has 3-band equalization at carefully selected points — LOW shelving at 80 Hz, MID peaking at 2.5 kHz, and HI shelving at 12 kHz. “Shelving” means

UAUX

31

OO	+15
	U
30
OO	+15

26. PAN

PAN adjusts the amount of channel signal sent to the left versus the right outputs. On mono channels (ch. 1–6 or 7–14 with connections to the left input only) these controls act as pan pots. On stereo channels (7–14) with stereo connections to

that the circuitry boosts or cuts all frequencies past the ­specified frequency. For example, rotating the LOW EQ knob 15 dB to the right boosts bass starting at 80 Hz and continuing down to the lowest note you never heard. “Peaking” means that certain frequencies form a “hill” around the center frequency — 2.5 kHz in the case of the MID EQ.

29	U	EQ
		HI
		12kHz

-15 +15

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28 MID 2.5kHz

-15 +15

U

27 LOW 80Hz

-15 +15

L and R inputs, the PAN knob works like the balance control on your home stereo.

PAN determines the fate of the main mix and ALT 3–4 mix. With the PAN knob hard left, the signal will feed either MAIN OUT L (bus

1) or ALT OUTPUT L (bus 3),

depending on the position of the

27. LOW EQ

This control gives you up to 15 dB boost or cut below 80 Hz. The circuit is flat (no boost or cut) at the center detent position. This frequency represents the punch in bass drums, bass guitar, fat synth patches,

+15

+10

+5

0

–5

–10
–15
20Hz	100Hz	1kHz	10kHz 20kHz
Low EQ

26

PAN

ALT 3–4 [25] switch. With the knob

hard right, the signal feeds MAIN

and some really serious male singers.

+15

+10

L R

1

MUTE

ALT 3–4

dB

OUT R (bus 2) or ALT OUTPUT R

(bus 4).

Used in conjunction with the LOW CUT [3] switch, you can boost the LOW EQ without injecting a ton of

+5
0
–5
–10
–15
20Hz	100Hz	1kHz	10kHz 20kHz

10

5

SOLO

subsonic debris into the mix.

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5

10

20

30

40

50

60

14 1402-VLZ3

28. MID EQ

Short for “midrange,”	+15
	+10
this knob provides 15 dB
	+5
of boost or cut, centered at
	0
2.5 kHz, also flat at the cen-	–5
ter detent. Midrange EQ	–10
is often thought of as the	–15
most dynamic, because the	20Hz	100Hz	1kHz	10kHz 20kHz

frequencies that define any Mid EQ

particular sound are almost always found in this range. You can create many interesting and useful EQ changes by turning this knob down as well as up.