Mixer used for monitoring weirdness

[Pathfinder]

So I have used mackie 12 channel compact mixers for decades with Cakewalk, Sonar and now CWbyBL. They have no recording function. Just playback of what I need to hear. As stated previously I tore down my little home studio and redid things. The mixer sits on a rolling rack and never was moved. I did disconnect all cabling. It remained unplugged for 4 or 5 weeks.

so got things going again but step by step. Only the mains to my studio monitors and playback from CWBL are wired up so far. Low and behold I only have one channel. I have switched cables 4X, swapped inputs, etc to determine monitors were ok. Onee channel sound like a distant "reverby" weirdness, very low volume. At first I thought it might be the echo Layla 3G due to the piggyback pci to pci express adapter. Nope. I played media player with mp3's thru the mixer\echo\monitors and the same thing happens. Also the mackie has xlr outs on back, trs out on top. A control room(monitor) outs and and alt out. They all exhibit the same thing.Left channel. no fx send or returns are hooked up. I cannot believe that just sitting there the mackie lost a channel. The 4 busses are supposedly separate but they all exhibit this. Truly strange. oh, almost forgot. My beyer 770 pros do the exact same thing when plugged in the headphone jack of the mackie. 

There is ONE common denominator only - the main mix voulume pot. Of course, it's sealed so I cannot try and clean it. It is common to all the busses.

Just figured I would post this just to see if it rings a bell with anyone. 

Thanks

[Pathfinder]

So, 40 views but no replies. In all honesty I understand. Kind of like you need to be here (my studio) to troubleshoot it-I guess.

Oh well, it was a long shot cry for help. No biggie.

 

[Lombardi]

I have a mackie mixer performing the pretty much the same function for part of my studio so I am trying to understand your situation.  Are you taking the stereo output of your audio interface and bringing it into the Mackie in 2 of it's xlr or line channels or into the rca tape inputs?  If using the xlr's or line level inputs, are you seeing signal into those channels (led's blinking)?  If so, are the left/right buttons engaged to send it to the main outs?  Also what happens if you were to take the send insert out of each channel and send it to your monitors?  I realize that eliminates volume control, but it would help isolate the problem further and give you something to use till you get another solution.

[Pathfinder]

Hello Lombardi

I appreciate the reply. I have found the issue and it is quite, dumb, but also I do not understand it.I use a midiverb 3 for FX(monitoring only) so when I record a vocal I can hear it as dry or wet as I like.

I made a little trs snake with 2 3ft cables. Did that ages ago. I do NOT use the Aux 2 buss for anything, never have. So when I put it all together again I plugged in both sends of both aux busses 1&2. and then to the returns of the midiverb. Never had Aux 2 returns on the board plugged in.

So I just took the cable for buss 2 out of the midverb and out of the mackie send 2 (nothing ever was in returns 2. Just aux send 2. 

That was the issue? That is why one channel was super quiet, distorted somewhat and sounded like pure reverb. 

So what I do not understand is "why"? The midiverb is just ins and out of the fx loop on the mackie. Why the heck would aux 2 send plugged into the midiverb channel 2 make this happen. Unless using both inputs on the midiverb makes it Stereo? Weird. I have used these mackie boards for a long time as stated. Guess before I made the trs snake but realized(duh) that the send 2 plugged in screwed things up. The studio had been setup i the spare bedroom for 10 years up until me tearing it down  5 weeks ago. Maybe I knew more about tha mackie back then and just plain forgot. I am old as dirt. 

I do havce to read up again because I have the mains connected to my studio monitors (Mackie HR624 mkII') which I love. Even a a new spare in case. I run the xlr outs or control room outs to my 2 Yamaha DXR10's when I want to go nuts in the small room.

Need to tweak my setup for a better split. I use midi for everything except all guitars and all vocals. I have tons of VSTS.

Thanks again. I would be curious how you have things setup. I can control the volume thru the monitors of the guitars and vocals but the main 11&12 (main playback) have everything going thru them? The Echo Layla has plenty of ins and outs so I need to revisit that also.

Edited January 3, 2020 by Pathfinder

[RBH]

It maybe worth cleaning all connectors and switches on the mackie and your outboard gear as well.  I've had some pieces of gear for over 30 years and they can oxidize  and contaminate over time. I've bought and fixed supposed " broken " gear on more than a few occasions just by cleaning contacts and re-seating ribbon connectors.

[Pathfinder]

Good idea. Thanks RBH

[Lombardi]

Glad you got it figured out!  I just went through a somewhat similar thing after making some changes in my studio.  At first I had no output from audio interface (MOTU 828 MK2).  The day before we had a weather related power outage which caused the AC to turn off and on a couple of times quickly while the interface was on.  Evidently it caused the interface to somehow reset the output volume of the main outs to 0.  Took me about 4 hours to figure that one out, only to find that I only had the left side, which turned out to be a bad cable (which worked perfectly the day before and was untouched). 

My mixer setup is a bit different in that I have a 16 channel mackie for monitoring.  I bring in the main outs of the interface to channels 1&2.   From there it is routed to the main outs and the control room outs to 2 different sets of studio monitors ( one large and one smaller ).  I use the other inputs to monitor other things including monitor mixes from the MOTU.  Other than that, I pretty much use the MOTU inputs to take whatever hardware keys, tone generators, mics etc. so they can be directly recorded in Cakewalk.  Using a bunch of VSTi's as well.