Mixing It Up: A Mackie 402-VLZ3 Review

Are you a solo musician?  Podcaster?  Ever wanted to just make a simple recording at home?  Sometimes expensive interfaces and large mixing boards don't really make things easier.  Enter Mackie's 402-VLZ3 micro mixer.

There are quite a few direct-to-USB mic adapters and USB Podcast kits available if you just need one mic. But what if you want to record in stereo?  Or just need a simple, but high quality mixer for a couple of mics during a live gig?  And maybe have an iPod as a backing track?  A lot of micro mixers just come with one microphone input...and a whole lot of line-in/stereo ins.

Mackie has offered a very different solution.  A micro mixer with 2 high quality XDR pre-amps, and 2 (if you count the Rec-In) pairs of stereo inputs.

This is great for home studio recordings, live solo gigs, or basic podcasting needs.

The 402 is part of Mackie's VLZ line which means that it comes with their higher-end XDR preamps.  These sound fuller and quieter than the ones found on their CFX boards.

It doesn't have pan-controls for the mics however, they're either center/mono, or a full left-right split.  Depending on your needs, this may or may not be a deal-breaker.  There are no mid-eq controls either, but the mic ins do come with a high-pass (lo-cut) filter, as well as built-in DI switches on both mic inputs for instrument connectivity.

It's a great little mixer, and you'd be hard pressed to find anything that can match it in terms of flexibility, price, quality, durability, and size.  It would be a great addition to any music production setup, whether it be as an on-stage monitor control, home studio mixer, or just to add 2 more preamps to an existing board.  If only they could've made it battery powered like the Peavey RQ200... this would've been a killer mobile rig as well.

**Hallo, ich lerne Deutsch und ich kann ein paar Fragen zu beantworten.

Je parle un peu français aussi. Je peux répondre à des questions sur mes messages.**

Goodbye iChat... Hello FaceTime!

Today's Tech Gospel is about the FaceTime for Mac Beta.  Finally.  I think everyone found it odd that the iPhone 4's FaceTime app couldn't make video calls to Apple's iChat Video system.

Thankfully Apple reacted quickly and has released a crude FaceTime Beta for Mac.

Now, understand that this is still in Beta, so a lot of features are still a bit buggy, and there is a known security flaw.  Not a big deal unless you frequently allow other people to use your computer.

This, however, is a Snow Leopard only program.  If you haven't upgraded yet, now would be a good time to do so.

For those with Mac Minis, or a Mac Pros, you can use Apple's LCD monitors w/ the built-in camera, iSight camera, or any Firewire video camera lying around.  If you want to buy a webcam, make sure it's the newer UVC compliant webcams.  But I prefer using a proper Firewire video camera w/ a boom mic to eliminate room echo and much better audio quality.

My FaceTime rig is my old Canon DV cam w/ a Rode shotgun mic connected to my Mac Mini.

Pre-blog: Speak Into The Mic Please!

I originally purchased a pair of Shure KSM109s... which BOTH turned out to be defective... since there were no more KSM109s in stock, I opted to try out an Audio Technica AT3032. Slightly more expensive than the Shure's I originally purchased, but more than worth it!

Transient response is much better as is frequency response! The KSMs had a slight bass roll-off, the ATs don't. ATs also capture highs much better than the 109s did (when they weren't crackling)

I do wish I had a chance to try the KSMs in their full working glory... but I'm glad I gave the Audio Technicas a chance.