Bad board

Austinro

Member
Hello,
At the high school I attend, I mix on an old Mackie SR32.4. I have no idea how old it is, although I have a feeling it is at least ten years old. I have been having problems with the consistency of the inputs, more specifically with the premps and a little bit with the EQ's. Is it possible that the board has gone bad after all these years? The board was not very well taken care of before I got there.
 
I think it is entirely possible. We have a 40 channel board here at my school that is really on it's last legs. Solder dries out, aluminum inpuritities can 'grow' across chip leads, moisture gets in, dust falls across contacts, all kinda stuff can happen. Similarly, there are many reasons that are fixable. A good place to start would be a good cleaning and see if that improves anything. Use light bursts of compressed air to be safe and I'm sure other people can jump in and suggest other things too. If it's not a cleaning issue... maybe you can narrow it down to a specific few channels or a specific settings or something and just know what not to use to keep things working... the only way you are going to do that is lots of trial and error.
 
This Mackie version has if I recall a problematic ribbon cable, and connectors. It is possible to carefully reseat this cable. Mackie still does do factory refuburb on these I believe.
Sharyn
 
We have a brand new Yamaha board with bad solder joints in it that we need fixed under warranty! Specifically one mains channel dropped out.

S**t happens!
 
I've been mixing on a Mackie for nine years and been having trouble with it for six or seven. Do your school a favor... drop a fly weight on it and recommend they buy an Allen & Heath to replace it.
 
I don't agree so much.

Like sharynf said, mackies are notorious for unseated ribbon cables. Many a "trash it" board has come right back to life after fixing that problem.

If you want a real casual cleaning, there isn't rrrreally such a thing beyond some de-ox-it or whatever on your 1/4" contacts.

A real good cleaning is going to require dismantling the board and really cleaning all the faders, touching up solder points yada yada. don't try cleaning pots from the outside because the dirt will only fall deeper into them. You're going to have to dismantle to get to the ribbon cable anyway, so it can't hurt.

I suggest taking it to a professional simply because there are some methods of cleaning that are pretty specific and I just don't remember them.
 
This Mackie version has if I recall a problematic ribbon cable, and connectors. It is possible to carefully reseat this cable. Mackie still does do factory refuburb on these I believe.
Sharyn

I use the same type of Mackie board, and they will do repairs on it. some theater supply shops that have professionals might be able to do it as well.
I am thinking of getting ours sent in to get it looked at, cleaned, and fixed. Chose a time during a off-period to take it in, not knowing on how long it acually will take. If you have a smaller board switch it out and send in the Mackie when you don't use a lot of mics.

But, i have liked the board, it gets the job done, but i would rather have a newer, better and more reliable board, and maybe a digital feature.
 
ya deffintly drop the fly weght on it, but buy a sound craft
 
I know you're kidding, but that really doesn't contribute very much to the conversation nor to the original poster's problem.

There's the ideal and then there's what you've got which is no more true than in high school. Being professional is in no way related to the quality of gear you can buy or suggest, but how you use what you have.

I happen to think Mackie is a solid enough board for the price you pay. They last a decent amount of time if you treat them right.

A mixer is not a mechanically complicated piece of equipment and there are very few things that will really ruin one. Most problems you'll encounter are easily fixable, so i really don't think it's just gone bad.

Sending it out to get cleaned and refurbished is a good option. Go with someone reputable, though, which should go without saying, but I picked up a board from a repair shop for a club that had just hired me and they really did an awful job.

If it is not just a cleaning and ribbon reseating it needs, but more work like soldering and replaced capacitors or what have you, you just need to weigh the benefit of repairing it over replacing it. Replacing it might be the best option in that scenario.
 
If I were going to attempt to convince the powers that be that we need a new board, is the ONYX 32.4 a good choice? I was looking at the GL series Allen and Heath, and I have a feeling that will be too complicated for the person that takes over after me. The situation we are in requires a high quality yet inherently simple board. The ONYX 32.4 would work fine, but how is the quality? And how well does that built in compressor actually work?
 
I'll pass on this knowledge that my dad gave me. when dealing with a board or directors or schoolboard, ask for something that is about twice as much in cost as what you want, and if and when they turn you down present them with the list that you were originally hoping for, it will make them more likely to spend the money because they are human and they would feel bad about turning down your last proposal.

this is not guaranteed to work, but it does increase your chances of getting some new technology. Also this won't work if you have unnessacary stuff on the list, like 100 mac 850s. I think that they would have common sense to know that that amount is, as i said before, unnessacary. This strategy works if your total is around the $2000 range.
 
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The "Powers that be" are actually good at giving us money, if you tell them exactly what you are getting. We don't have a budget, so when we need something, we ask for it. If I need $50 worth of cables, I just buy them and give the director the receipt.
 
I have not worked with the ONYX, the buzz on it seems to be pretty good, people like the firewire feature for recording, there are discussions re eq etc, generally on the analog side people still favor the AH GL.

In general I worry about a view of, the next person is not going to be a capable as I am, so we need a simpler system. Usually leads to a bad decision. People rise to the occasion, and can learn. Remember you were not born with the knowledge you have acquired ;-) From my other posts you can see I am more firmly in the digital camp, but thats another discussion.

For the 400 dollar difference, I would say go with the A&H I think they have better service, I don't like the all on one pc board that Mackie uses.

Sharyn
 
I don't like the all on one pc board that Mackie uses.
Sharyn

I believe that is one of the nice new things with the Onyx...all of the channels are seperate.
 
Do you have a link for this? I have not found anything that says this, typically it is not how Greg Mackie likes to do designs (he typically believes all on one board reduces noise issues). Possible, but I have not seen anything that suggests this.
Sharyn
 

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