Mackie LM-3204 Owner's Manual
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Mackie LM-3204 Owner's Manual

32-input 2+2 bus line level sound mixer
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LM-3204 OWNER'S MANUAL

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Summary of Contents for Mackie LM-3204

  • Page 1 LM-3204 OWNER’S MANUAL...

  • Page 2: Safety Instructions

    4. Follow Instructions — Follow all operating and other instructions. 5. Water and Moisture — Do not use the LM-3204 Console near water - for example, near a bathtub, washbowl, kitchen sink, laundry tub, in a wet basement, near a swimming pool, swamp or salivating St.

  • Page 3: Table Of Contents

    3. It will impress your friends who have no lives when they see it in your basement. 2. It’s the ecologically sound thing to do. 1. It’s the Mackie sound thing to do. Top Ten Reasons for not saving your shipping box: 10.

  • Page 4: Introduction

    (and very affordable) rack-mounted unit — it makes the ideal center- piece of a MIDI project suite. The LM-3204 is equally suited for use as a synthesizer/sampler/effects submixer for stage, sound reinforcement and studio applications. The LM-3204 is also perfect for audio-visual...

  • Page 5: Sensitivity Adjustments

    IMPORTANT SENSITIVITY ADJUSTMENT PROCEDURE! So important we put it first, before anything else. To fully achieve the LM-3204 Mixer’s impressive headroom and specs, you should always “tune” the input sensitivity for each channel. FOLLOW THIS PROCEDURE FOR EACH CHANNEL IN USE 1.

  • Page 6: Panel Layout & Function

    Gain control and Left/Right master gain controls set at “U,” a –10dBV signal at the input jacks of the LM-3204 is still –10 at the output jacks. Likewise, a +4dBu signal comes in at +4 and goes out at +4.
  • Page 7 To make matters even easier, the crack Mackie Detent Crew have put a little mechanical “pot- hole” or detent at the Unity Gain point on every rotary control. Adding detents is a precise, tedious and largely thankless job, so think of those guys every now and then as you’re going about your...
  • Page 8 Note: It is possible to use a channel strip on the LM-3204 as a mono input by plugging a cord only into the Left (MONO) input. In this case, the mono signal is applied equally to both of the stereo signal paths.

  • Page 9: Master Output Section

    “Unity” detents, that section is effectively out of the circuit. AUX SENDS The LM-3204 offers 4 separate sets of auxil- iary sends from each input module. Two sets of sends per module can be selected at any one time. The Shift switch choose either sends 1 and 2, or sends 3 and 4 on any channel strip.
  • Page 10 0dBu (.775 volts rms) at the rear output jacks. The LM-3204’s main outputs are 0dBu=0dB Meter whether you are using balanced or unbalanced cables. The meters are switched by the same circuits that switch the Control Room and Phones moni- tors.
  • Page 11 ® The Long Arm Exercise revisited The mic Trim knob will add from +10dB to +50dB of sensitivity to an LM-3204 input. For proper level setting, put all the controls in your signal path at the “U” detent and solo the input module you are using for a mic input.

  • Page 12: Rear Panel

    REAR-PANEL CONNECTIONS With the exception of the handy Phones out- put jack, all of the connections to the LM-3204 are made on the rear panel of the unit, back in your equipment rack where all the cabling is lurking. LINE INPUTS There are 32 line inputs in the LM-3204, a left- right pair for each of the 16 input modules.
  • Page 13 LM-3204. The sleeve is the common ground connection. See the Insert Jack diagram at left. The same diagram is on the back panel of the LM-3204 for your wiring convenience. Bring your own flashlight. MAIN/TAPE OUTPUTS The Left and Right Main Outputs are each electronically balanced, line level outputs, ca- pable of driving line levels of –10dBV or +4dBu...
  • Page 14 Sends 2 and 4 have one mono, unbalanced " TS phone jack each. STEREO AUX RETURNS The LM-3204 has four sets of stereo AUX returns Each input is a line level, unbalanced Just like the channel inputs, using the STEREO AUX RETURNS...
  • Page 15 The Mic In connectors are standard fe- male XLR3-type microphone connectors, wired to a pair of classic Mackie balanced mic pream- plifiers with more headroom than a Kenworth cab and less noise than a mortuary at midnight. Pin 2 is wired high, pin 3 is low and pin 1 is grounded, per AES standards.

  • Page 16: General Information

    Unity Gain On a Mackie mixer, the easy way to do this is to set all the level controls in your path to the “U” marks screened onto the panels. Set the Balance control to the center and press the channel Solo button.
  • Page 17 “a conductor serving as a common connector for three or more circuits.” The Mackie LM-3204 has 12 buses. The four suggested in the name (the main Left and Right buses and the Alt 3–4 buses) are important, but there are also Auxiliary buses (two stereo and two mono = six) and a pair of solo buses.
  • Page 18 Effects Send/Return connector TIP (RETURN) TIP (SEND) CONNECTORS If you’ve used a Mackie MicroSeries 1202, a CR-1604 or a Mackie 8-Bus Series, you’re famil- iar with the various kinds of connectors used with or mixers. If you’re new to the whole thing, review the drawings below.

  • Page 19: Using The Lm-3204

    They spend a fair amount of their time “solving” new Mackie Mixer users’ noise and headroom “problems” by directing neophyte owners to the IMPORTANT SENSITIVITY ADJUSTMENT PROCEDURE.

  • Page 20: Instrument Submixer, Studio

    So, we designed the LM-3204 to be 19" wide and a mere 5 rack units high. To fit in your rack. The LM-3204 will let you submix all your in-...

  • Page 21: Other Applications

    LM-3204 line input jacks. The Mackie LM-3204 does not have internal phono preamplifiers. Sorry. MULTI-IMAGE/MULTIMEDIA MIXER With its 16 stereo inputs, the LM-3204 is per- fect for combining the multiple VCR/CD player/ DAT machine/cassette player/reel-to-reel/laser- disc/computer audio/you-name-it sources found in a corporate boardroom, a focus-group cubicle or a sales convention exhibit.
  • Page 22 Digital Delay (MONO) Stereo R in L in Reverb R out L out STEREO Studio Monitors Stereo Digital Delay CD Player STEREO AUX RETURNS (MONO) AUX SENDS MONO STEREO EXPANDER IN USE ONLY WITH LM-3204E EXPANDERS. Power Amplifier Sound Module Sound Module Cassette Deck CONTROL ROOM...
  • Page 23 Sound Module Keyboard, or other line level input Sound Module Sound Module Sound Module STEREO BALANCED OR UNBALANCED LINE INPUTS TAPE INPUTS MIC PREAMP GAIN PHANTOM POWER +48V MIC PREAMP MIC IN OUTPUT Keyboard, or other line level input CHANNEL INSERTS L in L out Stereo...
  • Page 24 (MONO) Stereo R in L in Reverb R out L out STEREO Digital Delay STEREO AUX RETURNS (MONO) AUX SENDS MONO STEREO EXPANDER IN USE ONLY WITH LM-3204E EXPANDERS. Cassette Deck (For checking playback on the ’ol headphones.) CD Player CONTROL ROOM MAIN/TAPE OUTPUTS OUTPUTS...
  • Page 25 Guitar Pre-amp Sound Module Sound Module Sound Module Drum Machine STEREO BALANCED OR UNBALANCED LINE INPUTS TAPE INPUTS MIC PREAMP GAIN PHANTOM POWER +48V MIC PREAMP MIC IN OUTPUT Keyboard, or other line level input Keyboard, or other line level input CHANNEL INSERTS NIGHTCLUB ACT w/2trk RECORDING Bass Guitar...
  • Page 26 Digital Delay (MONO) R in Stereo L in Reverb L out R out STEREO Stereo Digital Delay STEREO AUX RETURNS (MONO) AUX SENDS MONO STEREO EXPANDER IN USE ONLY WITH LM-3204E EXPANDERS. Cassette Deck CD Player CONTROL ROOM MAIN/TAPE OUTPUTS OUTPUTS ALT 3/4 MAIN INSERTS...
  • Page 27 Sound Module Keyboard, or other line level input Sound Module Sound Module Sound Module STEREO BALANCED OR UNBALANCED LINE INPUTS TAPE INPUTS MIC PREAMP GAIN PHANTOM POWER +48V MIC PREAMP MIC IN OUTPUT Keyboard, or other line level input CHANNEL INSERTS L in L out Stereo...
  • Page 28 Stereo Digital Delay (MONO) R in Stereo L in Reverb R out L out STEREO Reverb 2 STEREO AUX RETURNS (MONO) AUX SENDS MONO STEREO EXPANDER IN USE ONLY WITH LM-3204E EXPANDERS. Power Amplifier Studio Monitors Digital 8-track CONTROL ROOM MAIN/TAPE OUTPUTS OUTPUTS ALT 3/4...
  • Page 29 NOTE: Tascam DA-88 owners: go buy a bunch of “y” cords! Sound Module Sound Module Sound Module STEREO BALANCED OR UNBALANCED LINE INPUTS TAPE INPUTS MIC PREAMP GAIN PHANTOM POWER +48V MIC PREAMP MIC IN OUTPUT Keyboard, or other line level input Keyboard, or other line level input CHANNEL INSERTS L in...

  • Page 30: Appendix A: Connections

    APPENDIX A: Connections “XLR” CONNECTORS Mackie mixers use 3-pin female “XLR” con- nectors on all microphone inputs, with pin 1 wired to the grounded (earthed) shield, pin 2 wired to the “high” (”hot” or positive polarity) side of the audio signal and pin 3 wired to the “low”...
  • Page 31 These switches may open an insert loop in a cir- cuit, change the input routing of the signal or serve other functions. The Mackie LM-3204 uses switches in the channel insert and bus insert jacks, input jacks, AUX sends and AUX returns la- beled “(MONO) Left.”...
  • Page 32 TRS Send/Receive Insert Jacks The insert jacks on both the LM-3204 input channels 1-4 and on the left and right main buses are the three-conductor, TRS type phone. They are unbalanced, but have both the mixer output (send) and the mixer input (re- turn) signals in one connector (See Figure B).

  • Page 33: Options, Add-Ons And Extra Stuff

    16 stereo line inputs are finally too few, you, a proud Mackie LM-3204 owner, don’t even need to think about a new mixer. For less than the price of another LM-3204, you can get an LE-3204E Stereo Line Expander and add another 16 stereo line inputs to your system.

  • Page 34: Specifications, Tech Stuff

    Channel gain down, channels 2–16 at Unity –73dBu Channel muted, channels 2–16 at Unity Frequency Response 20Hz to 50KHz 20Hz to 100KHz LM-3204 Gain Path Diagram — all levels in dBu +14 max in -10 trim dn MIC INPUT -50 trim up...
  • Page 35 LM-3204 LINE MIXER Dimensions also apply to LM-3204E Expander. 7/94 ©1994 MACKIE DESIGNS INC. 17.50" 19.00" 9.66" LM-3204 WEIGHT 21 lbs. APPENDIX 5 rack spaces (5U)
  • Page 36 BALANCE LEVEL INSERT (CH’s 1-4) • LO MID • • CLIP LED SOLO -20 LED CONTROL • • • • MACKIE MIC PREAMPS • • • • • 48 V • • MUTE/ ALT 3-4 • • • • SHIFT •...

  • Page 37: Block Diagram

    LM-3204 BLOCK DIAGRAM Rev. 3.3 - 8/15/94 ©1994 Mackie Designs L MAIN INSERT • • R MAIN INSERT • • METER CLIP • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •...

  • Page 38: Appendix D: Service

    Check patching and switch positions. The LM-3204 is not a Boeing 777 (the Glass Cockpit pride of the Northwest) but it is possible to have a switch in the wrong position and not notice it.
  • Page 39 U.S.A. A FREE T-SHIRT OFFER We love to hear what folks have created using our mixers. If you use your LM-3204 to track or mix (or track and mix) a CD or cas- sette that is commercially released, we’ll trade you a copy for a genuine Mackie T-shirt.
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