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MG16-6FX.book Page 1 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM
MIXING CONSOLE
Owner’s Manual
Making the Most Of Your Mixer
Pages 6 to 18
E
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MG16-6FX.book Page 2 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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
Summary of the content on the page No. 3
MG16-6FX.book Page 3 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM Precautions —For correct operation — Connector pin assignments Interference from Cell Phones XLR-type connectors are wired as follows Use of a mobile phone near this unit may induce noise. If noise Pin 1: ground; Pin 2: hot (+); Pin 3: cold (–). occurs, move the phone further from the unit. INSERT TRS phone jacks are wired as follows Sleeve: ground; Tip: send; Ring: return. Replacement of Consumable Parts
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MG16-6FX.book Page 4 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM Introduction Thank you for your purchase of the YAMAHA MG16/6FX 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 this mixer’s superlative featur
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MG16-6FX.book Page 5 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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-30 adaptor included with this mixer. Use of a different adaptor may result in equipment Note that trace current continues to flow w
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MG16-6FX.book Page 6 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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
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MG16-6FX.book Page 7 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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 i
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MG16-6FX.book Page 8 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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 app
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MG16-6FX.book Page 9 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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
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MG16-6FX.book Page 10 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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 Simpli
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MG16-6FX.book Page 11 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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 revi
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MG16-6FX.book Page 12 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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 perso
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MG16-6FX.book Page 13 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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 p
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MG16-6FX.book Page 14 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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
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MG16-6FX.book Page 15 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM 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
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MG16-6FX.book Page 16 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM Making the Most Of Your Mixer Making Better Mixes 5 Example2: 5-1. Approaching the Mix—Where Do Funky R&B Groove You Start? The approach will be totally different if you’re mixing a funky R&B number that centers on the Mixing is easy, right? Just move the faders around groove. In this case most engineers will start with until it sounds right? Well, you can do it that way, the drums, and then add the bass. The relation- but a more s
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MG16-6FX.book Page 17 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM Making the Most Of Your Mixer 5-2. Panning For Cleaner Mixes 5-3. To EQ Or Not To EQ Not only does the way you pan your individual In general: less is better. There are many situations channels determine where the instruments appear in which you’ll need to cut certain frequency in the stereo sound field, but it is also vital to give ranges, but use boost sparingly, and with caution. each instrument it’s own “space” so that it doesn’t Pr
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MG16-6FX.book Page 18 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM Making the Most Of Your Mixer 5-4. Ambience 5-5. Built-in Effects & EQ Judicious application of reverb and/or delay via Your MG mixer features a high-performance inter- the mixer’s AUX busses can really polish a mix, nal effect system and graphic equalizer that offers but too much can “wash out” the mix and reduce extraordinary sound-processing power and versa- overall clarity. The way you set up your reverb tility without the need for
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MG16-6FX.fm Page 19 Friday, June 27, 2003 4:08 PM 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. Channels Channels Channels The –60 to –16 scale indicates the MIC-input adjustment level. 1 to 8 9/10 and 11/12 13/14 and 15/16 (Monaural) (Stereo) (Stereo) The –34 to +1
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MG16-6FX.book Page 20 Saturday, January 25, 2003 10:13 AM Front & Rear Panels 5 AUX1 and AUX2 Controls 0 PFL (Pre-Fader Listen) Switch The AUX1 knob controls the signal level that the channel sends This switch lets you monitor the channel’s pre-fader signal. To to the AUX1 bus; the AUX2 knob controls the signal level to set the switch on, press it in ( ) so that it lights up. When the the AUX2 bus. These knobs should generally be set close to the switch is on, the mixer outputs the channel’s
