Mackie 802-vlz03

any of you heads use this?

i'm sort of a gear noob, so i wanted to run it down on the forums.

1. i was planning on connecting my 8 outs from my mpc2500 into the mackie. my question was, how do i exactly hook these two pieces up? the channel (1-8) coming out of mpc2500 should go into where?

2. why does the 802-vlz03 only have 5 Eq/gain channels? shouldn't it have 8 if it is a 8 track mixer? it seems like 3-4, 5-6,7-8 share a same gain and eq while 1,2 have their own solo eq/ gains.

yeah often mixers are like that... I have a 10 channel mixer where only the first 6 have XLR (mic) inputs.. only the first 6 have 3 band EQ.. and then the last 4 tracks are paired.. so 7/8 and 9/10 with one fader each, no XLR input, and only a 2 band EQ with no sweeps...

to me that is only a 6 track mixer but they can get away with writing 10 tracks on the box.

you would use 1/4" cables to connect your outputs to the mixer i'm guessing...


these are affordable while you're testing the waters:

yea if you want to use all 8-outs go with the 1202 vlz....which claims to be a '12 channel' mixer, but the last four tracks are actually stereo. this means it works for 8 mono channels.

it will give you 8 channels of eq.

great mixer for the prices they go for used. nice routing options, clean sound, and built like a tank.

yeah i was going to recommend the 12 channel version as well... and if you wanna take it a step further, last year i decided to sell my 12 channel mackie VLZ pro after years of using it to get a mackie onyx 1220i, which is almost the same mackie mixer, but with a built-in firewire port for recording directly into your DAW... so i can now record multiple channels in realtime without having to disconnect any of my cables... i have no complaints about either mixer though... great stuff for the current used price.

crossings wrote:yeah i was going to recommend the 12 channel version as well... and if you wanna take it a step further, last year i decided to sell my 12 channel mackie VLZ pro after years of using it to get a mackie onyx 1220i, which is almost the same mackie mixer, but with a built-in firewire port for recording directly into your DAW... so i can now record multiple channels in realtime without having to disconnect any of my cables... i have no complaints about either mixer though... great stuff for the current used price.

hm, my interface just died right now. maybe i hsould wait it out a little longer and purchase the onyx, sounds like less of a mess when tracking.



i understand with the 1202, i would have 8 mono channels.

1. so i plug my first 1-4 outs of my mpc, into the line 1-4 on the mackie via 1/4". would the 4-8 outs of my mpc go into the 5,7,9,11 which is a left channel, or 6,8,10,12 which is a right channel? what would be the difference

2. if my track 1, has a stereo sample, does that mean that the sample would be squashed to a mono sample when it goes into the mackie since line 1 is a mono line?


thanks for the input fam, im going to be asking a lot more q's. i have all these beats on the mpc, i think its about time to get it tracked on a daw, it's just been a nightmare cause im pretty gear retarded

basically, with the 12 channel mixers the first 4 channels are mono [and they also have mic inputs since microphones are mono]... then the next 8 channels are really just 4 stereo channels... so depending on which tracks on your MPC are mono or stereo, you can route them to the mixer according to your needs... if you do end up getting the onyx mixer, just make sure it's the later 1220i and not just the regular 1220... the "i" version comes with the firewire interface built-in, whereas with the older model you have to buy the firewire interface separately [and it'll cost you between $200-300 used on ebay for just the firewire card... so fvck that]... the newer 1220i also has a smaller footprint and a sleeker design... and it also gives you the much needed option of applying the mixer's EQ settings [or not] with a simple flick of a switch on each channel... i can't recommend this mixer enough for the price. if it only had built-in MIDI as well it would seriously be the ULTIMATE interface, but as-is it's an excellent mixer for the price... i see it as a perfect combination between analog mixer and digital interface for my current needs.

thanks crossings, but im a bit confused.

if i have a stereo sample sequenced on track 1 in my mpc, how can it come out stereo if "assignable mix out #1" is only one 1/4" out, and not two? this was why i was asking if my stereo track 1 comes out of the assignable out #1, it'd be squashed to a mono file?

leonard-lee wrote:if i have a stereo sample sequenced on track 1 in my mpc, how can it come out stereo if "assignable mix out #1" is only one 1/4" out, and not two? this was why i was asking if my stereo track 1 comes out of the assignable out #1, it'd be squashed to a mono file?

im guessing you haven't actually tried this.
first of all, sounds are not assigned to outputs depending on 'tracks'...think about it...youve got 8 outputs and at least 64 tracks...where did you think tracks 9 and above went?

you assign pads to a particular output. and if you try it, you will see that a stereo sample requires two outputs. a stereo sample would require outs 1 and 2.

now, im on an oldschool mpc, but as far as i know, no mpcs automatically 'squash' a stereo sound to mono. the reason is there are many ways to do this (left only, right only, 50% mix of both, 100% mix of both, etc), and which mono-conversion works best depends on the sample.

read the manual, makes a lot more sense. alright, so pads get set to the 1-8 assignable mix outs.

tapedeck, i 1/2way get what you are trying to tell me, but i can't apply what you're saying to my situation quite yet.

if i have my stereo sample, chopped program assigned to "assignable mix out 1," what would be coming out of my monitors when it goes through the mackie line 1? because like i asked earlier, individual mix out is only (1) 1/4" cable which means it would be coming out of my mpc mono?

what i want is for my samples to remain stereo in sync with using the mackie mixer. when i use the stereo out of my mpc, the monitor plays the left side of the sample on the left monitor, and right on the right. i want to use the 8 outs with the mackie mixer to be responsible for levels, panning, eq while having the same effect as using the stereo outs of the mpc, which makes the left of the sample play on the left monitor, right on right.


thanks a lot fam, i know this requires patience, but just trying to get these beats outside of my mpc, through the mixer, and into a daw soon!

leonard-lee wrote:if i have my stereo sample, chopped program assigned to "assignable mix out 1

you will never have that.

i tried to explain...

tapedeck wrote:and if you try it, you will see that a stereo sample requires two outputs. a stereo sample would require outs 1 and 2.

so yer stereo samples will go to two 1/4" outs, and you will need two 1/4" cables, and you will need to plug it into two 1/4" inputs. in the case of these mackie mixers, the last 4 tracks are genrally best suited for stereo as they have stereo inputs on then (or they can be used as mono).

Actually you can, with the 2500 if you have JJos2xl you can assign PGMs or Tracks to assignable mix outs. If you want a stereo sound then you would have to pair, for example outs 1 and 2 per Track, and this can be done. So really with 8 outputs, your only getting 4 stereo. Which is perfect with that mackie 802-vlz3, if you pair off inputs 1 and 2 because they are mono, pan hard left on 1 and hard right on 2. Then its pretty simple 3-4 are already paired off, 5-6, and 7-8. Match the outputs from the mpc to the inputs of the mackie.

You'll probably want to connect the MPC master outs (1&2) to the first Stereo channel on the mixer. The point of the stereo channel is to reduce costs I guess, as you get EQ for both the left and the right combined together. That's generally ok (you can use two mono channels if not). One way to work would be to send your stereo samples to the MPC main out and into the stereo channel on the mixer. Then for each thing you want to mix independently, decide if it's a stereo thing or a mono thing, and route to the correct mixer channels. For example, a bassline is nearly always mono, so you can put that on any of the unused MPC outs, and to the first mono channel on your mixer. The kick might be connected to channel 2 on the mixer, and the snare to 3, and the hihat to 4. Maybe vocals to 5. All your cymbals to another stereo channel, maybe misc percussion or other stuff to other channels. Depends on the type of music you make and the number of outs you have.
Then, when you are mixing, you have a volume slider for the most important parts, EQ on the part, panning control, etc right at your fingertips. You will probably connect a reverb to an Aux bus on the mixer and return it to a stereo channel or an aux return. This lets you turn the Aux knob up a little on your snare, to send more snare to the reverb. Or turn the aux knob up on the vocals a little too, so they also get sent to the reverb.

This is just a suggestion, a lot depends on how you want to work and what kind of music you make. One good tip for buying mixers tho is to get lots of channels, and get lots of aux sends if you have lots of FX and other gear. You will never have enough channels anyway, but you usually run out of aux sends first, so, at least for me, the number of aux sends is very important. If you have other synths and gear, that mixer is probably going to feel very full, immediately.

WTF man I was about to make a thread about the exact same mixer to ask this:
Could I record from my mpc into the mackie mixer and then from the main out to the line in of my computer? And then use something like audacity to record? Or is there a smarter way to record to my computer haha I am a gear noob too.

Just to point out, you could just perform the mixdown in the MPC, and connect the MPC to your computer directly and record the master out. If you want multiple channel audio in your DAW, just solo your track, record it, go back to the start and solo the next track, record that, then the third... eventually you have all tracks seperated as audio and can perform mixing in your DAW. Clumsy, but cheap. A multuchannel audio soundcard would let you record independant outs at the same time into the DAW, where you can mix. Most mixes in the DAW will sound just as good (or better since you can have virtually unlimited reverbs and compressors and fancy multiband processors). The advantages of the mixer are in having some immediate hands on control for mixing, and also very much in how you connect other bits of hardware. So if you have other synths, or effects, then a mixer might be a good idea, but if it's just for recording MPC, then maybe a multichannel audio soundcard is worth looking at too.