Mackie LM3204E Expander?
Analogeezer
keyboards into my main console. I wound up setting up another keyboard
rig on the other side of the room, currently I am running those
through a Roland M-120 line mixer, then into the main console.
I see the LM3204E Expanders for sale from time to time, they add
another 16 stereo channels to the main mixer, it's pretty much the
same but without the master controls on the regular mixer.
Anybody know what type of cable these things hook together with?
I emailed Mackie about this, first the guy said a parallel computer
cable, then he said a D-sub cable. He said he believed it was a
balanced D-sub connector. He just didn't seem really sure about any of
this. The manual by the way doesn't say squat about this other than
you can add an expander by hooking it to the expander port.
Maybe this was well before Mike showed up and showed them how to write
a proper manual <g>
The issue is that both of these stations are about 25 - 30 feet apart,
so I don't want to hook the expander up to the main mixer if it runs
that far unbalanced, I'd just user another mixer to go into the main
mixer.
I'm not sure how these two units interface, does the expander just
dump 16 stereo channels into the two bus of the main unit? and then
the aux sends too?
I take it a D sub cable could run stereo balanced out of the expander,
and four aux sends on one dsub, there would seem to be enough pins.
Help, my head hurts thinking about this <g>.
Anybody ever use this combo? (LM3204/LM3204E)
Maybe I need fewer synths? (NAHHHHHH)
Analogeezer
Mike Rivers
> I've got a Mackie LM3204 line mixer
> I see the LM3204E Expanders for sale from time to time, they add
> another 16 stereo channels to the main mixer, it's pretty much the
> same but without the master controls on the regular mixer.
> I emailed Mackie about this, first the guy said a parallel computer
> cable, then he said a D-sub cable. He said he believed it was a
> balanced D-sub connector. He just didn't seem really sure about any of
> this. The manual by the way doesn't say squat about this other than
> you can add an expander by hooking it to the expander port.
I'm not surprised that Mackie's tech support doesn't know squat about
it. I looked at the schematics in the service manual and it isn't
shown at all. The Analog Service CD that I have doesn't have any
information on the expander. The only place that the expander is shown
in any of the documentation that I have is in the block diagram, as a
block pointing to the busses. From that, I'd guess that it connects to
a set of unbalanced points in the mixer, basically tying the output
and aux busses of the mixer and expander together. I'm sure it's just
a pin-to-pin cable, and some DB-25 cables are shielded. If that
doesn't work, you can always tie the main outputs of the expander
(assuming it has any connectors other than the multipin) into a pair
of line inputs on the main mixer like what you're doing now.
Can you identify a J number for that expander connector? If you can,
maybe I can find some references to it on the schematic. I'm thinking
it might be J105, but you might have to take the mixer apart and look
at the board where the connector is mounted (or where the connector
goes if it's wired to a circuit board with a ribbon cable).
--
I'm really Mike Rivers - (mri...@d-and-d.com)
WNewitt
--
I'm really Mike Rivers - (mri...@d-and-d.com) >><BR><BR>
BrightBoy
It's just a shor, unshieldedt ribbon cable with a smalle dual-inline header
connector (like an IDE drive connector, only shorter)
I'm not sure I'd be running one 20-30 feet
I believe the 3204 and 3204E were meant to be located directly above/below
each other in a rack....
Jeff
Analogeezer
Yeah this is what I thought all along, funny how the Mackie guy didn't
have either version correct.
As it is I think I'm going to abandon this idea and just get another
mixer, maybe another LM3204. Not much selection in rackmountline
mixers in todays market that is for sure, other than the Alesis and
the Samson crap not much.
yeah I'd look at the Speck or the API but it would be kind of stupid
to have a line mixer that was way more expensive than my regular
console <g>
Analogeezer
Bill Thompson
weren't a friend I probably would not have tackled the project... or
more to the point, he wouldn't have paid what I would have charged<G>...
Anyway, while it is a bit messy, you can replace that horrid little
ribbon cable type connecter with pretty much anything you want... we
used a Elco type connector because he already had the cable and
connectors. The electrical part was tedious but dead simple, unsolder
from PCB, run jumpers (we used this really thin coax that worked quite
well) to the new connector. The metal work was much more difficult!
We tied his expander to an older Soundcraft, I don't recall the exact
model off the top of my head, and we were able to get the solo busses to
talk to eachother so that soloing a channel on either board really
solo'd the channel, which I thought was nice.
We did not tie all the aux busses together, or anything fancy like that.
In this setting the 3204E was sitting in a rack about 15 cable feet from
the console, and there was just the slightest bit (sorry - we didn't
measure it) of extra noise going through the sub mixer vs going direct
to the board. Since the main desk didn't have hundreds of inputs it was
a sacrifice that pretty much had to be made anyway!
Bill
Ivan Schwartz
synths and such.
Here's some more "crap" to look at, that might actually be almost
usable:
http://www.behringer.com/02_products/prodindex.cfm?id=RX1602&lang=eng
Ivan
analo...@aerosolkings.com (Analogeezer) wrote in message news:<bfb37ea9.03060...@posting.google.com>...
Analogeezer
Actually I have a Roland M-120 (great unit, bought it used for $99
from GC). The thing with those little single rack mixers is you need a
pair of tweezers to adjust or see anything.
In the end I wound up buying another LM3204 from a guy that read this
thread and offered to sell me his...since both keyboard rigs are
pretty far apart, trying to hook up a LM expander and the main unit
seemed a bit too much trouble, as it is having two (or three or four
if I use the ALT/MUTE switches) stereo mixes from my keyboard rigs to
the main console is probably not a bad thing.
Whatever you do, stay away from the Samson crap....I bought one of
those a few years back when I lost my mind (16 channel two space
thing) and now two channels are making "sausage grilling" sounds. I'm
letting my keyboard player use it and it just isn't up to gettting
moved around much.
Analogeezer