MIXING CONSOLE Owner’s Manual MG16/4 MG12/4 Making the Most Of Your Mixer Pages 6 to 17 E
Precautions —For safe operation— WARNING ● Installation ● ● ● ● Connect this unit’s AC power adaptor only to an AC outlet of the type stated in this Owner’s Manual or as marked on the unit. Failure to do so is a fire and electrical shock hazard. Do not allow water to enter this unit or allow the unit to become wet. Fire or electrical shock may result. Do not place a container with liquid or small metal objects on top of this unit.
Precautions —For correct operation — Connector pin assignments ● ● XLR-type connectors are wired as follows: pin 1: ground, pin 2: hot (+), and pin 3: cold (–). Insert TRS phone jacks are wired as follows: sleeve: ground, tip: send, and ring: return. Influence on cell phone usage ● Using a cell phone (mobile telephone) near this unit may induce noise. If noise occurs, use the telephone away from the unit.
Introduction Thank you for your purchase of the YAMAHA MG16/4 or MG12/4 mixing console. This mixing console combines ease of operation with support for multiple usage environments, and is ideal for SR setups, installed systems, and many other such applications. Please read through this Owner’s Manual carefully before beginning use, so that you will be able to take full advantage of the mixer’s superlative features and enjoy trouble-free operation for years to come. Features Contents Introduction .........
Introduction Before Turning on the Mixer (1) Be sure that the mixer’s power switch is in the STANDBY position. Use only the PA-20 adaptor included with this mixer. Use of a different adaptor may result in equipment damage, overheating, or fire. (2) Connect the power adaptor to the AC ADAPTOR IN connector ( 1) on the rear of the mixer, and then turn the fastening ring clockwise ( 2) to secure the connection. Turning the Power On Press the mixer’s power switch to the ON position.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer An Introduction You’ve got yourself a mixer and now you’re ready to use it. Just plug everything in, twiddle the controls, and away you go … right? Well, if you’ve done this before you won’t have any problems, but if this is the first time you’ve ever used a mixer you might want to read through this little tutorial and pick up a few basics that will help you get better performance and make better mixes.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 1 A Place For Everything and Everything In Its Place 1-1. A Plethora Of Connectors—What Goes Where? Questions you’re likely to encounter when setting up a system for the first time might include “Why all these different types of connectors on the back of my mixer?” and “What’s the difference?”. Let’s start by taking a look at the most common connector types.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 1-2. Balanced, Unbalanced—What’s the Difference? In a word: “noise.” The whole point of balanced lines is noise rejection, and it’s something they’re very good at. Any length of wire will act as an antenna to pick up the random electromagnetic radiation we’re constantly surrounded by: radio and TV signals as well as spurious electromagnetic noise generated by power lines, motors, electric appliances, computer monitors, and a variety of other sources.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 1-3. Signal Levels—Decibel Do’s and Don’ts From the moment you start dealing with things audio, you’ll have to deal with the term “decibel” and its abbreviation, “dB”. Things can get confusing because decibels are a very versatile unit of measure used to describe acoustic sound pressure levels as well as electronic signal levels. To make matters worse there are a number of variations: dBu, dBV, dBm. Fortunately, you don’t need to be an expert to make things work.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 2 Where Your Signal Goes Once It’s Inside the Box At first glance the block diagram of even a modest mixer can look like a space-station schematic. In reality, block diagrams are a great aid in understanding how the signal flows in any mixer. Here’s a greatly simplified block diagram of a generic mixer to help you become familiar with the way these things work. 2-1.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 3 The First Steps in Achieving Great Sound Before you even consider EQ and effects, or even the overall mix, it is important to make sure that levels are properly set for each individual source. This can’t be stressed enough—initial level setup is vitally important for achieving optimum performance from your mixer! Here’s why … and how. 3-1.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 3-2.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 4 External Effects, Monitor Mixes, and Groups 4-1. AUX Buses For Monitor Sends and Overall Effects There are a number of reasons why you might want to “tap” the signal flowing through your mixer at some point before the main outputs: the two most common being 1) to create a monitor mix that is separate from the main mix, and 2) to process the signal via an external effect unit and then bring it back into the mix.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 4-2. Using Groups Group buses and faders can greatly simplify the mixing process—particularly in live situations in which changes have to be made as quickly as possible. If you have a group of channels that need to be adjusted all together while maintaining their relative levels, grouping is the way to go. Simply assign the group to a group bus, and make sure that group is also assigned to the main program bus.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 4-3. Channel Inserts for Channel-specific Processing Another way to get the mixer’s signal outside the box is to use the channel inserts. The channel inserts are almost always located before the channel fader and, when used, actually “break” the mixer’s internal signal path. Unlike the AUX sends and returns, the channel insert only applies to the corresponding channel.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer 5 Making Better Mixes 5-1. Approaching the Mix—Where Do You Start? Mixing is easy, right? Just move the faders around until it sounds right? Well, you can do it that way, but a more systematic approach that is suited to the material you’re mixing will produce much better results, and faster. There are no rules, and you’ll probably end up developing a system that works best for you. But the key is to develop a system rather than working haphazardly.
Making the Most Of Your Mixer Spread them Out! Position your instruments so they have room to “breathe,” and connect in the most musical way with other instruments. Sometimes, however, you’ll want to deliberately pan sounds close together, or even right on top of one another, to emphasize their relationship. There are no hardand-fast rules. Normally (but this is not a rule), bass and lead vocals will be panned to center, as will the kick drum if the drums are in stereo. 5-3.
Front & Rear Panels 1 GAIN Control Channel Control Section Channels 1 to 8 (MG16/4) 1 to 4 (MG12/4) (Monaural) Adjusts the input signal level. To get the best balance between the S/N ratio and the dynamic range, adjust the level so that the peak indicator (2) comes on only at about maximum input level. Channels 9/10 to 15/16 (MG16/4) 5/6 to 11/12 (MG12/4) (Stereo) The –60 to –16 scale indicates the MIC input adjustment level. The –34 to +10 scale indicates the LINE input adjustment level.
Front & Rear Panels 6 PRE Switch Selects whether the pre-fader or the post-fader signal is fed to the AUX1 bus. If you set the switch on ( ), the mixer sends the pre-fader signal (the signal prior to passage though channel fader A) to the AUX1 bus, so that AUX1 output is not affected by the fader. If you set the switch off ( post-fader signal to the AUX1 bus. ) the mixer sends the Note that this switch applies to AUX1 only. The signal to the AUX2 bus always passes through the channel fader first.
Front & Rear Panels 1 ST Master Fader Master Control Section Adjusts the signal level to the ST OUT jacks. 2 GROUP 1-2 Fader B 6 7 Adjusts the signal level to the GROUP OUT 1 and GROUP OUT 2 jacks. 3 TO ST Switch A If this switch is on ( ), the mixer sends the signals processed by the GROUP 1-2 fader (2) onto the Stereo bus. The Group 1 signal goes to Stereo L and the Group 2 signal goes to Stereo R. 4 Master SEND (AUX1 and AUX2 Controls) Adjust the signal level, respectively.
Front & Rear Panels 8 Level-Meter Signal Switches (ST-GROUP Toggle Switch and 2TR IN Switch) These level-meter switches, together with the channel PFL switches, select the signal that is sent through the C-R/PHONES control to the C-R OUT jacks, the PHONES jack, and the level meter. The following illustration shows how the switch settings correspond to the signal selection.
Front & Rear Panels Rear Input/Output Section 6 A B 7 8 90 5 3 2 4 1 1 Channel Input jacks 3 Channel Input jacks • MIC jacks (MG16/4: CHs 1 to 8, 9/10, 11/12. MG12/4: CHs 1 to 4, 5/6, 7/8) These are balanced XLR-type microphone input jacks (1:Ground; 2:Hot; 3:Cold). • LINE jacks (MG16/4: CHs 1 to 8. MG12/4: CHs 1 to 4) These are balanced TRS phone-type line input jacks (T: Hot; R: Cold; S: Ground). These are unbalanced stereo line input jacks.
Front & Rear Panels 8 RETURN L (MONO), R Jacks 0 2TR IN Jacks These are unbalanced phone-type line input jacks. The signal received by these jacks is sent to the Stereo bus and the AUX1 and AUX2 buses. These jacks are typically used to receive a return signal from an external effector (reverb, delay, etc.). NOTE These jacks can also be used as an auxiliary stereo input.
Setting Up Setup Procedure (1) Before connecting to microphones and instruments, be sure that all devices are turned off. Also be sure that all of the mixer’s channel faders and master control faders are set all the way down. (2) For each connection, connect one end of the cable to the relevant microphone or instrument and connect the other end to the appropriate LINE or MIC jack on the mixer. (LINE jacks on MG16/4: CHs 1 to 8; on MG12/4: 1 to 4.
Setting Up ■ Sound Reinforcement for Live Performance Monitor Speakers (Internal) Drums Power Amp Effector Microphones CD, Cassette, or DAT Recorder DI Synthesizer Bass ( ) CD Player Effector DI Guitar Microphones Power Amp Headphones Guitar Main Speakers (External) Example of Speaker Arrangement Stage (Internal) AUX 1 (PRE ) ST Audience (External) ST MG16/4, MG12/4 25
Setting Up Rack Mounting ■ Mounting the MG16/4 ■ Mounting the MG12/4 (1) Two metal rack-mount supports are screwed onto the unit. Use a screwdriver to remove these supports. (1) Two metal rack-mount supports are screwed onto the unit. Use a screwdriver to remove these supports. (2) Turn the supports over, and fasten them into place again using the same screws. (2) Turn the supports over, and fasten them into place again using the same screws. (3) Mount the unit into the rack, and fasten it into place.
Appendix Specifications ■ General Specifications Frequency Characteristics Total Harmonic Distortion Hum and Noise1 Maximum Voltage Gain2 Monaural/Stereo Input Gain Control Monaural/Stereo High Pass Filter Crosstalk (1 kHz) Monaural/Stereo Input Channel Equalization: Max. Variation3 Monaural/Stereo Input Peak Indicator Level Meters Phantom +48 VDC Power (Balanced input) Included Accessory Power Supply Power Consumption Max.
Appendix ■ Input Specifications Rated Level Max. Before Clipping –80 dBu (0.078 mV) –60 dBu (0.775 mV) –40 dBu (7.75 mV) –16 –36 dBu (12.3 mV) –16 dBu (123 mV) +4 dBu (1.23 V) –34 –54 dBu (1.55 mV) –34 dBu (15.5 mV) –14 dBu (155 mV) +10 –10 dBu (245 mV) +10 dBu (2.45 V) +30 dBu (24.5 V) ST CH MIC INPUT (MG16/4: CH9/CH10, CH11/CH12) (MG12/4: CH5/CH6, CH7/CH8) –60 –80 dBu (0.078 mV) –60 dBu (0.775 mV) –40 dBu (7.75 mV) –16 –36 dBu (12.
Appendix Dimensional Diagrams ■ MG16/4 27.5 H 108 101.3 393 428 W 423 480 3 D 416.6 309.6 31.5 When mounted on rack ■ MG12/4 H 108 102.6 2 322 317.4 480 D 416.6 325.
Appendix Block Diagram and Level Diagram 30 MG16/4, MG12/4
For details of products, please contact your nearest Yamaha or the authorized distributor listed below. Pour plus de détails sur les produits, veuillez-vous adresser à Yamaha ou au distributeur le plus proche de vous figurant dans la liste suivante. NORTH AMERICA CANADA Yamaha Canada Music Ltd. 135 Milner Avenue, Scarborough, Ontario, M1S 3R1, Canada Tel: 416-298-1311 U.S.A. Yamaha Corporation of America 6600 Orangethorpe Ave., Buena Park, Calif. 90620, U.S.A.
Yamaha Manual Library http://www2.yamaha.co.jp/manual/english/ M.D.G., Pro Audio & Digital Musical Instrument Division, Yamaha Corporation © 2002 Yamaha Corporation V981800 210CRCR5.
