Mackie CR1604 Part 2 — THE MAIN OUTPUT SECTION, 7CHANNEL FADER, 10AUX RETURN MONO, 11AUX RETURN SOLO, 9AUX RETURN BALANCE, 8STEREO AUX RETURNS LEVEL, NOTE:

AUX

00+15

MON

00+15 U

00+15

5/6

SHIFT

–15 +15

MID

–12 +12

–15 +15

PAN

SOLO

MUTE

ALT 3/4

+20

Basically, the OL lights should never blink. If they do, you’re courting the potential of audible distortion.

•If you adjust the channel’s input SENSI- TIVITY too high and compensate by pulling the faders down, the OL light will still flash

— even though you’re seeing conservative levels on the meters.

•If you set SENSITIVITY properly but add a LOT of EQ while mixing, you might also trigger the OL indicator. In this case, lowering the channel’s SENSITIVITY trim pot will keep from over driving the EQ, which may be clipping.

7CHANNEL FADER

Controls the overall output of the channel. All of the AUX SENDS with the exception of AUX 1/MON in Monitor mode are affected by this control (AUX 1/MON in Monitor mode is not affected because it is placed upstream of the Fader and EQ, remember?)

Most mixer channel faders are labeled with arbitrary and confusing ranges of digits (such as 1 thru 10) that don’t correspond to any- thing. This often leads to mis-adjustment, as well as distortion, noise or all of the above.

On the CR-1604, proper gain settings are facilitated by the click-detent Unity Setting half way up the slider. When the channel’s input control has been adjusted properly, Unity represents NO LOSS OR GAIN when panned left or right.

This means you have a known setting which is easily repeatable, even in the dark. Because levels can be set properly from this reference point, you can achieve very high headroom and low noise at the same time.

And, unlike any other mixer, you have 20dB MORE gain above Unity.

Part 2 — THE MAIN OUTPUT SECTION

Now that you have become more familiar with the CR-1604’s channel strips, let’s move our guided tour on to the Master control center.

We will start at the top of the section with the Stereo Aux Returns.

8STEREO AUX RETURNS LEVEL

Located at the upper left of the Master Section, these four controls set the overall level for signals received via the four stereo Aux Returns from whatever effects you’ve connected from the Aux Sends.

As with the sends, these controls are designed to handle a very wide range of signal levels (which is a good thing considering the wildly varying output levels of many outboard signal processors). Remember how the gain was divided on the Aux Send controls? The same approach is used on these controls. The first half of the knob’s rotation operates from off to Unity Gain (0dB) center position. The second half of the rotation provides gain from 0dB up to 20dB gain which can be very useful for bringing the level of some low output effects up to professional operating levels.

9AUX RETURN BALANCE

The four Aux Return Balance controls are used to control the left/right balance of each return’s signal (just like on your stereo) within the main mix.

10AUX RETURN MONO

These four buttons are used to combine left and right Stereo Aux Return signals into a monaural signal, which is then sent on in equal proportions to the left and right Master Mix Buses.

NOTE: If all four Stereo Aux Returns are set to mono, a total of 8 separate mono feeds can be routed to the main mix.

If you are connecting an effects device which only has a mono out, pressing the AUX RETURN MONO button will route the effect to both the Left and Right main buses.

11AUX RETURN SOLO

This button is used to solo the four Aux Returns for more detailed scrutiny. This function is the same as that of the Solo control on the individual channel strips, except that it solos all four AUX returns at the same time.