Mackie 1202-VLZ4 Owner's Manual

1202VLZ4

At the risk of stating the obvious, this is where you

plug everything in: microphones, line-level instruments
and effects, headphones, and the ultimate destination
for your sound: PA system, DAW, etc.

See Appendix B for further details and drawings of

the connectors you can use with the 1202VLZ4. Also see
the channel strip description on page 13 for details of
the signal routing from the XLR and line inputs.

This is a female XLR connector that accepts a   

balanced mic or line level input from almost any type  
of source. These Onyx mic preamps feature higher  
fidelity and headroom rivaling any standalone mic  
preamp on the market today. These circuits are
excellent at rejecting hum and noise.

The XLR inputs are wired as follows: 

Pin 1 = Shield or ground 

Pin 2 = Positive (+ or hot) 

Pin 3 = Negative (– or cold)

Professional ribbon, dynamic, and condenser mics all

sound excellent through these inputs. The mic/line
inputs will handle any kind of level you can toss at
them, without overloading.

Microphone-level signals are passed through the

mixer's splendid microphone preamplifiers to become
line-level signals.

Not every instrument is made to connect directly  

to a mixer. Guitars commonly need a Direct Injection
(DI) box to connect to the mixer's mic inputs. These
boxes convert unbalanced line-level signals from your
guitar, into balanced mic-level outputs, and provide
signal and impedance matching. They also let you send
your gifted guitar renditions over long cables or audio
snakes, with minimum interference and high-frequency
signal loss. Ask your dealer or guitar maker about their
recommendations for a good DI box.

Most modern professional condenser mics are

equipped for phantom power, which lets the mixer
send low-current DC voltage to the mic’s electronics
through the same wires that carry audio. (Semi-pro
condenser mics often have batteries to accomplish the
same thing.) “Phantom” owes its name to an ability to
be “unseen” by dynamic mics (Shure SM57/SM58, for
instance), which don’t need external power and aren’t
affected by it anyway.

The 1202VLZ4’s phantom power is globally controlled

by the phantom [22] switch on the rear panel. (This
means the phantom power for channels 1-4 is turned on
and off together.)

Never plug single-ended (unbalanced)
micro phones or instruments into the mic [1]
input jacks if the phantom power is on.

Do not plug instrument outputs into the mic
input jacks with phantom power on, unless
you know for certain it is safe to do so.

These four line-inputs share circuitry (but not  

phantom power) with the mic preamps, and can be
driven by balanced or unbalanced sources at almost  
any level.

To connect balanced lines to these inputs, use a 1⁄4"

Tip-Ring-Sleeve (TRS) plug, wired as follows: 

Tip = Positive (+ or hot) 

Ring = Negative (– or cold) 

Sleeve = Shield or ground

To connect unbalanced lines to these inputs, use a

1⁄4" mono (TS) phone plug, wired as follows: 

Tip = Positive (+ or hot) 

Sleeve = Shield or ground

The line in inputs 1–4 are a good place to connect

older instruments that need more gain. You can correct
weak levels by adjusting the corresponding channel’s
gain control.