I have an older Mackie 1642 VLZ Pro. I run the Control Room out to my amp and on to my speakers. The main out I run directly into my sound card for recording. Just recently the Control Room volume knob has started to act funny. When turned all the way down there is still plenty of sound bleeding through, and at certain low level volumes some of the signal drops out (sounds a bit like its being filtered). Once i get to about 9 o’clock on the dial it seems to sort itself out and sounds good.
One other clue is that the output meter is lighting up two ticks like it is registering a low level signal, but no audible signal or noise can be heard even at max volume.
Any thoughts on what might be happening and what to do to fix it?
You may have a clump of dust around the knob. I had a similar problem when I owned the Mackie 32x8 console. You can try buying a can of compressed air and spraying the pot. You may have to open the mixer shell. Also if you find that the inside of it’s pc board is very dusty make sure it’s fully unplgged from the power cord and you wear a pair of rubber gloves. You don’t want to touch it with your bare hands due to static electric. The gloves will protect it’s internal parts. You want to get a box of Q tips and a container of Isopropyl rubbing alcohol. Dip a clean Qtip into the container of alcohol so it’s moist not dripping wet and proceed to remove the dust from it’s internal pc board, knobs & sliders until it looks very clean. It’s a pain in the neck but for analog mixers it can do wonders even to synths. Good luck
I’ve had a few Mackie boards over the years. My tech told me they have power supply issues when they get older. My old 24 8 buss had a similar issue where the 8 busses had their LEDS show a very low input but nothing was going into the board. Tech said it was the power supply and wasnt worth the cost of the repair.
Hi, sorry to hear about your Ma kie’s power problem. I used to own a 32x8 & 24 sidecar. This goeas back to 2003. I love those boards. I had a slight problem with a scratchy sounding fader. I was told that those boards are difficult to repair as well. I sold them both. I still regret it. I would think about finding a great tech to fix your power supply. This year my Ensoniq ASR 10 sampler’s screen was giving me wierd messages on the display when trying to boot up. I was like wtf? I lookes up the code. The (power supply was going dead). I kept looking for a tech to do the repair. I found a guy on Ebay selling a refurbished Ensoniq ASR 10 power supply. He asked me to send him my dead power supply and buy one from him. I had a conversation with him. He used to work for Ensoniq and explained to me that my power supply’s transistors were melted. There are alot of great techs out there. Keep looking for someone to do the repair… you can’t get those consoles anymore. They’re dope. If you get your power supply fixed you will be so happy. My repair guy from Ensoniq sold me a fully refurbeished power supply for like $100.00 I was going to throw it out but didn’t give up. It works great now. You should do the same. I hope you find the honest and fair tech you deserve for your repair. Give Armen’s a call in N.Y.C. he buys sells and repairs vintage gear. Get a price quote. Also try Rogue Music in N.Y.C. they also do repairs. You can also look for a working rackmount power supply on Ebay. Good luck! P.S. almost any tech can repair a power supply. Sincerely, Mike