Mackie SR24.4 LED problem?

[Anonymous067]

Hey!

One of the venues I work at has a small, portable system Mackie SR24.4 mixing console. Typically, we don't need all 24 channels (20 XLRs)...so the bad channel the board has never was of any importance to anybody.

I will be using the board at a neighboring venue (with all proper permissions...), and I have specified on my plots using all 24 channels.

The only problem with the channel is that the "solo" function seems to be bad. When the channel is unmuted, it is constantly "soloed", and it appears at the solo bus. So, audio wise, it works fine. But the solo function makes it a last-resort channel (talkback and such).

Here's my question.... since sending the board in isn't an option...
How would I go about opening up the board and just...disconnecting the solo function all together. Sure...that channel wouldn't have a solo function, but I can still use the channel.

Is this inadvisable or impossible?
If not, how so?

 

[cprted]

You can't really just "disconnect" the solo circuit.

Why not just use it anyway? Sure the blinking light is annoying, but that is why it's called the "rude solo light" after all.

 

[cprted]

Would also like to add, unless you have decent expereince and/or training to back you up, I really can't recommend taking apart someone else's console.

 

[epimetheus]

I haven't opened up an SR series board, but I have worked on my former church's 32 channel 8 bus. The way the circuit boards were setup in the 8 bus, even if you could disable the solo function for that channel, you would have to cut a trace on the circuit board. That's always risky - traces are generally pretty close together, you could cut an adjacent trace, or a trace on another layer of the PCB. I wouldn't attempt it on a board I didn't personally own, and even then I doubt I would. There's a reason repais are expensive and take time.

 

[avkid]

Get a submixer and forget opening the desk.
They are famous for being a PITA when it comes time to "pop the hood".

Sooner or later the whole solo bus is going to go crazy.

 

[epimetheus]

Get a submixer and forget opening the desk.
They are famous for being a PITA when it comes time to "pop the hood".

Sooner or later the whole solo bus is going to go crazy.

QFT - Been there done that. The special events department at my college had a Mackie board that was making the motor boat sound. It's a problem I've ran across multiple times with the Mackie SR and 8-Bus series.

 

[3dB]

Looking at the schematic, and the way the solo bus ties in with the mute and logic systems it doesn't look pretty. If you still want to pursue it, Mackie's tech dept is pretty good about advising with respect to user modification.

Hmmm... how would that wacky Greg Mackie address this problem in the troubleshooting section of a manual...

"Cover solo lights liberally with shoe polish - black for formal affairs - cordovan brown for more casual gatherings..."

OR

"If you bypass the solo circuit - how will you know when someone is playing a solo?"

OR... ... ...

 

[Anonymous067]

I hate submixers.

 

[avkid]

I hate submixers.

I'll take a slightly diminished console with a submixer over a dead console any day of the week.

 

[airkarol]

Get a submixer and forget opening the desk.
They are famous for being a PITA when it comes time to "pop the hood".

Sooner or later the whole solo bus is going to go crazy.

+1. Bring it in for a factory refurb, if that's your problem, chances are you need something like that. We had a bunch of problems at French Woods with the Mackies. We brought a 32ch. in to DBM Pro Audio, in NYC, for repair, they basically did a refurb. I highly reccommend them.

 

[Eboy87]

And why can't you use use the board now and just have the channel soloed all the time? I mean, if it still passes audio...

 

[Anonymous067]

The only problem with using the channel, seeing that it does pass audio just fine, is that if you wanna solo another channel, you either mute the bad channel or get a two-channel solo.

considering I won't be soloing things much, I guess I'm gonna have to work with it.