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MIXING CONSOLE
Owner’s Manual
MG16/4
MG12/4
Making the Most Of Your Mixer
Pages 6 to 17
E
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Precautions —For safe operation— WARNING If lightning begins to occur, turn off the power switch of the unit Installation as soon as possible, and unplug the power plug from the electri- cal outlet. Connect this unit’s AC power adaptor only to an AC outlet of the If there is a possibility of lightning, do not touch the power plug type stated in this Owner’s Manual or as marked on the unit. if it is still connected. Doing so may be an electrical shock haz- Failure to do so is a fire and ele
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Precautions —For correct operation — Connector pin assignments Influence on cell phone usage XLR-type connectors are wired as follows: pin 1: ground, pin 2: Using a cell phone (mobile telephone) near this unit may induce hot (+), and pin 3: cold (–). noise. If noise occurs, use the telephone away from the unit. Insert TRS phone jacks are wired as follows: sleeve: ground, tip: send, and ring: return. Replacing abrasive parts The performance of components with moving contacts, such switches
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Introduction Thank you for your purchase of the YAMAHA MG16/4 or MG12/4 mixing console. This mixing console combines ease of operation with support for multiple usage environments, and is ideal for SR setups, installed systems, and many other such applications. Please read through this Owner’s Manual carefully before beginning use, so that you will be able to take full advantage of the mixer’s superlative features and enjoy trouble-free operation for years to come. Features Contents The MG16/4
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Introduction Before Turning on the Mixer Turning the Power On (1) Be sure that the mixer’s power switch is in the STANDBY Press the mixer’s power switch to the ON position. When you are position. ready to turn the power off, press the power switch to the STANDBY position. Use only the PA-20 adaptor included with this mixer. Use of a different adaptor may result in equipment Note that trace current continues to flow while the damage, overheating, or fire. switch is in the STANDBY position. If you
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer An Introduction You’ve got yourself a mixer and now you’re ready to use it. Just plug everything in, twiddle the controls, and away you go … right? Well, if you’ve done this before you won’t have any problems, but if this is the first time you’ve ever used a mixer you might want to read through this little tutorial and pick up a few basics that will help you get better performance and make better mixes. MG16/4, MG12/4 6
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer A Place For Everything and Everything In Its Place 1 1-1. A Plethora Of Connectors—What Goes Where? Questions you’re likely to encounter when setting up a system for the first time might include “Why all these different types of connectors on the back of my mixer?” and “What’s the difference?”. Let’s start by taking a look at the most common connector types. The Venerable RCA Pin Jack This is the “consumer connector,” and the one that has been most commonly used Whi
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer 1-2. Balanced, Unbalanced—What’s the Difference? In a word: “noise.” The whole point of balanced lines is noise rejection, and it’s something they’re very good at. Any length of wire will act as an antenna to pick up the random electromagnetic radiation we’re constantly surrounded by: radio and TV signals as well as spurious electromagnetic noise generated by power lines, motors, electric appliances, computer monitors, and a variety of other sources. The longer the
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer 1-3. Signal Levels—Decibel Do’s and Don’ts From the moment you start dealing with things audio, you’ll have to deal with the term “decibel” and its abbreviation, “dB”. Things can get confusing because decibels are a very versatile unit of measure used to describe acoustic sound pressure levels as well as electronic signal levels. To make matters worse there are a number of variations: dBu, dBV, dBm. Fortunately, you don’t need to be an expert to make things work. He
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer Where Your Signal Goes Once It’s Inside the Box 2 At first glance the block diagram of even a modest mixer can look like a space-station schematic. In reality, block diagrams are a great aid in understanding how the signal flows in any mixer. Here’s a greatly simplified block diagram of a generic mixer to help you become familiar with the way these things work. 2-1. Greatly Simplified Mixer Block Diagram Input Channel Master Section Signals from the mixer’s other inpu
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer The First Steps in Achieving Great Sound 3 Before you even consider EQ and effects, or even the overall mix, it is important to make sure that levels are properly set for each individual source. This can’t be stressed enough—initial level setup is vitally important for achieving optimum performance from your mixer! Here’s why … and how. 3-1. The Head Amplifier “Gain” Control Is the Key! Let’s review our simplified mixer block diagram: Each and every “stage” in the mi
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer 3-2. Level Setup Procedure For Optimum Performance Now that we know what we have to do, how do we do it? If you take another quick look at the mixer block diagram you’ll notice that there’s a peak indicator located right after the head amplifier and EQ stages, and therein lays our answer! Although the exact procedure you use will depend on the type of mixer you use and the application, as well as your personal preferences, here’s a general outline: Start by setting a
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer External Effects, Monitor Mixes, and Groups 4 Pre/Post—What’s the difference? 4-1. AUX Buses For Monitor Sends and Overall Effects pre post There are a number of reasons why you might A “pre-fader” signal is taken A “post-fader” signal is want to “tap” the signal flowing through your from a point before the taken from a point after the channel fader, so the send channel fader, so its level mixer at some point before the main outputs: the level is affected only by t
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer 4-2. Using Groups Group buses and faders can greatly simplify the mixing process—particularly in live situations in which changes have to be made as quickly as possible. If you have a group of channels that need to be adjusted all together while maintaining their relative levels, grouping is the way to go. Simply assign the group to a group bus, and make sure that group is also assigned to the main program bus. Then you can adjust the overall level of the group usin
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer 4-3. Channel Inserts for Channel-specific Processing Another way to get the mixer’s signal outside the box is to use the channel inserts. The channel inserts are almost always located before the channel fader and, when used, actually “break” the mixer’s internal sig- nal path. Unlike the AUX sends and returns, the channel insert only applies to the corresponding chan- nel. Channel inserts are most commonly used for applying a dynamics processor such as a compressor o
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer Making Better Mixes 5 Music First—Then Mix 5-1. Approaching the Mix—Where Do You Start? In any case, the music comes first. Think about the music and let it guide the mix, rather than try- Mixing is easy, right? Just move the faders around ing to do things the other way around. What is the until it sounds right? Well, you can do it that way, music saying and what instrument or technique is but a more systematic approach that is suited to being used to drive the mes
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Making the Most Of Your Mixer One of the biggest problems with too much boost Spread them Out! is that it adds gain to the signal, increasing noise Position your instruments so they have room to and potentially overloading the subsequent cir- “breathe,” and connect in the most musical way cuitry. with other instruments. Sometimes, however, you’ll want to deliberately pan sounds close together, or even right on top of one another, to 5-4. Ambience emphasize their relationship. There are no hard-
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Front & Rear Panels 1 GAIN Control Channel Control Section Adjusts the input signal level. To get the best balance between the S/N ratio and the dynamic range, adjust the level so that the peak indicator (2) comes on only at about maximum input level. The –60 to –16 scale indicates the MIC input adjustment level. Channels Channels The –34 to +10 scale indicates the LINE input adjustment 1 to 8 (MG16/4) 9/10 to 15/16 (MG16/4) level. 1 to 4 (MG12/4) 5/6 to 11/12 (MG12/4) (Monaural) (Stereo) 2 PEA
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Front & Rear Panels 6 PRE Switch Selects whether the pre-fader or the post-fader signal is fed to the AUX1 bus. If you set the switch on ( ), the mixer sends the pre-fader signal (the signal prior to passage though channel fader A) to the AUX1 bus, so that AUX1 output is not affected by the fader. If you set the switch off ( ) the mixer sends the post-fader signal to the AUX1 bus. Note that this switch applies to AUX1 only. The signal to the AUX2 bus always passes through the channel fader first.
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Front & Rear Panels 1 ST Master Fader Master Control Section Adjusts the signal level to the ST OUT jacks. 2 GROUP 1-2 Fader Adjusts the signal level to the GROUP OUT 1 and GROUP OUT 2 jacks. B 6 7 3 TO ST Switch If this switch is on ( ), the mixer sends the signals processed by the GROUP 1-2 fader (2) onto the Stereo bus. The Group 1 signal goes to Stereo L and the Group 2 signal goes to Stereo A R. 4 Master SEND (AUX1 and AUX2 Controls) Adjust the signal level, respectively. These are the sig
