Mackie402VLZ4, 4-channel Ultra Compact Mixer with High Quality Onyx Preamps

I love this thing! I just got it today, it is sturdy and professional looking and was packaged very well. I have been playing guitar for over 50 years. I still jam now and then, but mostly I play to backing tracks at home. I have an eggnater tweaker with effects processor that i play thru while running backing tracks from my computer thru a stereo amp. Balancing the two volumes is always a pain, and i usually end up too loud once i find the balance. I like to record sometimes, using a tascam recorder with built in microphones. Its not bad, but it picks up room noise and wont register below a certain volume. I bought this mixer hoping to consolidate my devices into some kind of audio system.I have had mixers before and they always have limitations or dont have features i need, so i was skeptical. I set this baby up and plugged my processor into channel 1 and computer into channel 2. I ran the main output thru my 100 watt stereo amp powering a pair of 12" speakers. Turned everything on and both channels came thru loud and clear with no crossover. The volume controls are pretty linear, but it drops off a little on the low end. It was easy to match the two channel volumes. Guitar and backing track sound seamless coming from a single source. I just crank the master volume up and down without losing the mix. The EQ is impressive. I like that there is a knob for bass and a knob for treble (hi and lo). So much easier than trying to adjust your tone with 7 slide pots. Both bass and treble have surprising range and work fine together. They give me an excellent range of tones. The channels have seperate gain controls, which come on smooth and have a lot of punch without making it too distorted. This device otherwise adds nothing to the signal in the form of noise, distortion or carryover that i can tell, all my favorite processor effects sound just the same thru this as they do thru my amp.My room recorder has a line in that i connected to the tape out jacks, but there is no volume for tape out, so i used the headphone out, which does have a volume control and it works perfectly. Now I can record at any volume while playing at any volume, which my family will love. No more blasting just so my recorder will pick it up. All the right features without a bunch of fluff like effects, and it accomodates a mix of stereo and mono inputs and outputs with no special adjustments. I am totally stoked with this thing and highly recommend it to anyone looking for a simple and functional mixer.

This little Mackie 402VLZ4 is a lifesaver for a small home desktop solution when you want to use one pair of studio/near field monitors, so I want to share my setup. My main goal was to have a QUIET pair of PreSonus Eris E5's on each side of my 30" monitor for multiple uses, but the RF interference was unbearable. The Mackie (and GOOD cables) provided the solution and make the whole system really flexible. Here's what I wanted to accomplish:1) Audio from my desktop PC for video editing and simply listening to music2) Audio from my AlienWare 17 R2 laptop which is my main DAW running Studio One 3 Pro3) Audio from my iPad Pro when fooling with Notion, GarageBand and any other audio source4) Ability to plugin my Taylor acoustic to play solo or along with any of the above5) Ability for someone to listen to a finished mix on my studio headphones while I monitor the track through the Eris 5s at a low level so I know what they are hearing at any given pointAnd most of all I needed to eliminate the VERY bad RF interference I was getting from the Eris 5s, because while the sound is TRULY accurate given the price range, the RF shielding is pretty bad, due to the price range. But I got it 99% solved. Here's how:· Connect the Eris 5s to the Mackie with cables such as Mogami 2549 XLR Male to 1/4" TRS Cable with Neutrik Gold Connectors - 6 Feet by ChromaLeaf. Speakers are done.· Connect my desktop editing PC to a Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi HD USB Audio System with Phono Preamp, and from there connect that to the Mackie's Tape In inputs. IMPORTANT: I used cheap RCA cables and a cheap USB cable between the PC, Creative DAC and Mackie, and got horrible RF noise! I then tried, believe it or not, an AmazonBasics USB 2.0 Cable which are very well made, and a pair of Monster RCA cables I already had, and I get NO RF noise from the Eris 5s now. PC is done.· In Channels 3 & 4 I run this Ugreen Gold Plated 3.5mm 1/8" TRS to 6.35mm 1/4" TS Mono Y-Cable Splitter Cord which I can use for iPad (NOT iPhone, more on that in a min) or other device with a 3.5mm headphone jack or line out, or even the headphone jack on the AlienWare DAW in a pinch. For serious mixing with the AW I use a Fiio E17K ALPEN 2 USB DAC Headphone Amplifier, again with a good AmazonBasics USB cable, and then the UGreen Y cable goes into the Fiio. iPad and DAW and other audio devices done.· Channels 1 & 2 are open to accept XLR or line input from my Taylor or mic or preamp or a second device, anything really.With a mixer the headphones being plugged in don't mute the main output, everything has its own level knob, so i can control everything, even those listening to headphone.It's a bit extensive, but this gives me a totally flexible, clear, RF-free environment, all possible by this little Mackie control center of a mixer. I can honestly say I can't think of a thing I don't like about it. It's heavy metal construction and sports a power switch which many mini mixers don't have. And now my Eris 5s sound quiet and amazing, and my range of inputs is totally flexible.One last note regarding RF interference: You still hear that "fax machine" sound faintly when an iPhone is nearby, does it on my wife's PC too, with simple shielded computer speakers. When the iPhone checks for mail for anything else, you hear it. Not horribly but it's there. There is one other Apple product that actually makes noise when you move it about: iTunes for Windows running on my PC! If I scroll a window or something similar, you hear faint RF noice! Other media playing software doesn't so this. WEIRD. Anyway, hope this info helps. If anything, use great cables.

The perfect solution for a working drummer; I use this mixer for an in-ear monitor feed at gigs as well as a click unit. I bring in the the ear feed from the club in on the first channel and my Tama Rhythm Watch on the 2nd, with the instrument-level button engaged. I get phenomenal levels on both channels. You never know if things might get loud when you'll need that extra headroom, and the Mackie has no shortage of noise-less GAIN, a pleasure to use, especially when you're plugging in-ears right into your gord...Here's a comparison: a week earlier, I'd purchased a Behringer Xenyx 1002 for the same purpose: It's similar in configuration. I noticed immediately that there was NO consistency of gain amount when comparing that unit's first and second channels. They were completely different when testing with the same signal!! I could NEVER get the click quite loud enough no matter how I tried, and without the extra headroom needed to do so, the Behringer was quickly found to be useless. Also, for any sort of louder gain on the Behringer, it had a TON of white noise and distortion, which just simply CAN'T happen when the point of the unit will be in-ear monitor use. That huge amount of noise just competes with what you're trying to accomplish. This line of Mackie mixers are simply the only pro choice when it just has to work consistently perfect.Also I love using a RCA-to-3.5mm cable with the Mackie to practice music off my iPhone. Loud and clear.Don't waste time like I did, get a Mackie.