27
(
MAIN MIX TO SUBS
switch up) and you did a
drum fade-out using subgroup faders
1
and
2
,
the “dry” signals would fade out, but the “wet”
signals would keep on singing. All you would
hear is the drum reverb (the “wet”), and none of
the original drum signals (the “dry”). That’s be-
cause the reverb is being fed by the channel’s
AUX
sends, and they have no idea that you’ve
pulled down the subgroup faders. That’s why we
threw in these switches.
C-R/PHNS ONLY (AUX RET 4)
Once again, the default for all the
STEREO
AUX RETURNS
is to feed them directly into
the
MAIN MIX
. You’ve just learned about the
optional exceptions involving
AUX RETURN 3
.
AUX RETURN 4
also has an optional excep-
tion: By engaging the
C-R/PHNS
switch, you
will remove
AUX RETURN 4
’s stereo signal
from the
MAIN MIX
and send it directly to the
CTL ROOM/PHONES SOURCE
matrix
. It
matters not if any of the
SOURCE
matrix
switches are assigned, but it will be inter-
rupted, as usual, if a
SOLO
switch is engaged.
Let’s pretend you’re doing a live mix to a
2-track deck, a house PA, or both, and you
want to play along to a click track. You could
run the click track directly into the
MAIN MIX
,
but you don’t want the mixdown deck and/or
audience to hear it. By gum, this is the switch
for you. Similarly, it can be used for voice-over
tracks, narration, anything you want heard by
the engineer and players but not by the audi-
ence and mixdown deck.
RETURNS SOLO
This switch operates just like the channel
SOLO
switches — engaging it sends signals to
the
C-R OUTS
,
PHONES
output and meter dis-
play and interrupts whatever happened to be
there before you soloed. It follows the
MODE
switch
setting as well. The only difference is
that when you engage the
RETURNS SOLO
switch, it sends all four
STEREO AUX RETURNS
signals to the
SOLO
circuit.
Assume you want to solo the snare drum.
Hit that channel’s
SOLO
switch, and you get
the “dry” (no effects) snare only. That helps,
but you want to hear it with the reverb you
have patched into an
AUX RETURN
. Leaving
that channel’s
SOLO
switch engaged, also en-
gage the
RETURNS SOLO
switch, and now
you’ll get the dry snare
and
its reverb.
Since it is a global feature, you’ll also get
the signals from all the other
AUX RETURNS
,
so there may be some sounds that you didn’t
want to hear. If they offend your sensibilities,
simply turn down the levels of the
STEREO
AUX RETURNS
you don’t want to hear, or
MUTE
the channels feeding the unwanted sig-
nal to the effects device you
do
want to hear.
Congratulations!
You’ve just read about all
the features of your 1604-VLZ
PRO. You’re prob-
ably ready for a cold one. Go ahead. The rest of
the manual can wait.
MODIFICATIONS
For most folks, the 1604-VLZ PRO works just
fine the way it is. But for special applications,
there are two signal routing changes that can be
performed easily on the 1604-VLZ PRO. Easy for
someone with soldering experience, that is. If
you don’t know how to solder, find a technician
that can. This is NOT a good place to learn!
• Modification A changes AUX SEND 1 and 2,
with the pre switch engaged, to be
post-EQ
instead of
pre-EQ
.
• Mod B changes the SOURCE matrix’s
MAIN MIX selection to tap the stereo
signal before the MAIN MIX level control
(
pre
) instead of after (
post
).
Instructions for performing these modifications
can be found on our website at www.mackie.com
(click on Support). Or you can call Tech Support
at 1-800-258-6883 for assistance.
STEREO AUX RETURN
3
4
C-R / PHNS
ONLY
RETURNS
SOLO
MAIN MIX
TO SUBS
ASSIGN OPTIONS
1–2
3–4
U
O
O
+20
U
O
O
+20
