To make matters even easier, the crack Mackie Detent Crew have put a little mechanical “pot- hole” or detent at the Unity Gain point on every rotary control. Adding detents is a precise, tedious and largely thankless job, so think of those guys every now and then as you’re going about your glamorous and exciting lives mixing and recording and performing, while they work late into the night in rainy Woodinville with their little bags of punches and elf-sized ball-peen hammers.

THE LEDs

Above the Gain knob are two LED (light-emitting diode) indicator lights to help you monitor the signal levels within each input module.

–20 LED

The green LED is marked –20. It will light whenever there is a signal level of –20dBu (at 1kHz) or above at the input jacks of that channel strip. In practice, this LED will flicker or light almost constantly when there is activity in that channel, and it basically serves as a convenient indicator for you — a way of figuring out who’s singing now or what’s plugged into where.

Whether it lights rarely or is on all the time is not really important; it’s just a porch light to

show you somebody’s home. We designed it to be ultra-responsive, so, with a little practice, you can probably tell what’s on the channel (or at least the difference between the kick drum channel and a keyboard channel). However, it’s not the way to determine levels. There is a much more accurate way to measure your input strip levels: see the section on Setting Levels in Solo further down the pike here. Note: The –20 LED shows signal activity on the right side of each channel. If you had a stereo source (two cords, two plugs) or a mono source (one plug into the left MONO jack), the –20 LED will reflect that signal. However, if you have a stereo source with no signal happening on the right side, the –20 LED will be as unresponsive as a hybernating hippo on Sominex™.

OL LED

The red LED is marked OL, and that stands for OverLoad. The channel strip OverLoad circuits constantly check at two critical points in the input module: after the line input’s first gain amplifier and after the EQ and gain circuits. If either circuit is driven too hard (into overload),

LAYOUTANDFUNCTION

16

 

U

 

3

1 OO

+15

STEREO

 

 

U

 

4

2 OO

+15

MONO

SHIFT

AUX

UHI

12k

–15 +15

UMID

2.5k

–12 +12

ULO

80

GAIN

–15 +15

EQ

LR

BALANCE

10

U

3

+15 U

4

+15

SHIFT

UHI

12k

 

U

11

 

U

12

 

U

13

 

U

14

 

U

15

 

U

16

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3

 

 

3

 

 

3

 

 

3

 

 

3

 

 

3

1

OO

+15

1

OO

+15

1

OO

+15

1

OO

+15

1

OO

+15

1

OO

+15

STEREO

 

STEREO

 

STEREO

 

STEREO

 

STEREO

 

STEREO

 

 

U

 

 

U

 

 

U

 

 

U

 

 

U

 

 

U

 

 

 

4

 

 

4

 

 

4

 

 

4

 

 

4

 

 

4

2

OO

+15

2

OO

+15

2

OO

+15

2

OO

+15

2

OO

+15

2

OO

+15

MONO

SHIFT

MONO

SHIFT

MONO

SHIFT

MONO

SHIFT

MONO

SHIFT

MONO

SHIFT

 

AUX

 

 

AUX

 

 

AUX

 

 

AUX

 

 

AUX

 

 

AUX

 

 

U

HI

 

U

HI

 

U

HI

 

U

HI

 

U

HI

 

U

HI

 

 

12k

 

 

12k

 

 

12k

 

 

12k

 

 

12k

 

 

12k

 

 

U

 

 

U

 

1

 

 

SOURCE

 

 

3

OO

+20

ALT 3-4

OO

+20

 

 

U

 

 

U

 

2

 

 

AUX RETURN

 

 

4

OO

+20

TO CONTROL

OO

+20

 

LEVEL

ROOM ONLY

LEVEL

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

STEREO AUX RETURNS

 

 

 

 

LM-3204 STEREO LINE MIXER

POWER

 

 

 

 

 

 

U

 

MUTE

ALT 3-4

SOLO

OL

CHANNEL16 -20

U

+15

UMID

2.5k

+12

ULO

80

+15

EQ

R

LANCE

–15

+15

–15

+15

–15

+15

–15

+15

–15

+15

–15

+15

U

MID

U

MID

U

MID

U

MID

U

MID

U

MID

 

2.5k

 

2.5k

 

2.5k

 

2.5k

 

2.5k

 

2.5k

–12

+12

–12

+12

–12

+12

–12

+12

–12

+12

–12

+12

U

LO

U

LO

U

LO

U

LO

U

LO

U

LO

 

80

 

80

 

80

 

80

 

80

 

80

–15

+15

–15

+15

–15

+15

–15

+15

–15

+15

–15

+15

EQ

EQ

EQ

EQ

EQ

EQ

L

R

L

R

L

R

L

R

L

R

L

R

BALANCE

BALANCE

BALANCE

BALANCE

BALANCE

BALANCE

+ 22 CLIP

10

7

4

2

0

2

4

7

10

20

30

– 40

OO +20

SOLO

OO

LEVEL

PHONES

TAPE

MONITOR

OO

+30dB

GAIN

 

MUTE

 

MUTE

 

MUTE

 

MUTE

 

4

ALT 3-4

 

ALT 3-4

 

ALT 3-4

 

ALT 3-4

 

 

SOLO

 

SOLO

 

SOLO

 

SOLO

 

OL

 

OL

 

OL

 

OL

 

OL

NNEL0 -20

CHANNEL11 -20

CHANNEL12 -20

CHANNEL13 -20

CHANNEL14 -20

U

 

U

 

U

 

U

 

U

+30dB

OO

+30dB

OO

+30dB

OO

+30dB

OO

+30dB

GAIN

GAIN

GAIN

GAIN

GAIN

MUTE

ALT 3-4

SOLO

OL

CHANNEL15 -20

U

OO

+30dB

GAIN

MUTE

 

 

dB

dB

ALT 3-4

 

 

 

 

 

10

10

 

 

 

5

5

SOLO

 

 

U

U

 

 

OL

5

5

CHANNEL

-20

10

10

16

 

 

15

15

 

 

 

20

20

U

 

 

30

30

 

 

 

 

 

 

40

40

 

 

 

OO

OO

OO

+30dB

 

 

GAIN

 

LEFT RIGHT

CONTROL RM

7