On a philosophical level - if you have this positive attitude and approach to electronics and existence in general, life is so much easier. Being far more prone to sulking and taking a more negative stance I really envy you. And I second everyone who comments that you spread light and laughter. Thank you sir, keep repairing different electronic devices and post your work and your loveable personality here!
I legitimately dreamed of doing what he does for my entire childhood, but alas I was born in Canada; most of our electronics are disposable. Making a living out here doing this sort of work is nigh impossible. That said, I live vicariously through Mark and his cheerfulness, unflappable positivity, and absolutely fascinating content is the highlight of my day. Carry on good sir!
I agree - negativity begets negativity. I've been and remain a pretty cynical person but I've at least managed to lose much of my negativity towards adversity. By dealing with one problem at a time and keeping a more positive outlook, it's improved my life and relationships. No doubt an obvious thing, but it has also helped to trim away negative inputs like ragebait material that is so pervasive online..
Hi Mark, I love your videos. I'm an audio professional and the label they added for "monitor out" is for floor wedge monitors so the musicians can hear themselves. It's a separate signal from what goes to the front of house (FOH). If you look under the label, it's from the aux sends. This is a rebroadcast of the signal going through each mixer channel which can then be sent by turning up the aux sends on each channel. If the singer wants more volume in their monitor, you just turn up the send on the corresponding mic channel and that will be independent from what goes to the FOH. Cheers!
Writing from Germany. Besides your knowledge and your pristine equipment, its heartwarming to watch your humor and your always positive approach. That´s real fun to watch. Great!
I worked on one of those (Behringer version, nearly identical). Uhg. 12 channels. SOOO many knobs. Main and phantom power caps replaced, easy ... but the testing/cleaning of all those pots was slow going. Faders were especially cranky - one needed to be replaced. It had collected years of dirt and then been left in the rain. I had not oscilloscope so I just did it with ears: good enough for a garage band rehearsal desk. And, yes, the Dr. Seuss like refrains reverberating in my head: "knobs and knobs and knobs and knobs!" But to the point: THANK YOU for that cheeky bit re: the troubleshooting the no output on the inputs. LOL I laughed so hard! All I can say is: "I'm glad I'm not the only one." Thanks for the channel.
I am not sure at what point in the video you are talking about, but the mixer does have stereo outputs on it. Just because it has a jack does not make it an input jack.
@@neutrodyne No duh a mixer would have output jacks! How else would you use it? That's seriously what you took away from that particular comment? The one with several likes already on it indicating others knew what I was talking about? WTF?! Actually watch the video. He was looking for an output signal on a set of inputs for a few moments and was very confused. It was good cause for a chuckle during an otherwise very clean repair. ...Or maybe you didn't understand what you were seeing as you watched the video? I've been collecting pro and home audio gear most of my life but thanks for being condescending to someone who could be just as experienced as you if not moreso. I guess I'll just turn to my several shelves and stands full of high-end headphones, speakers, DACs, equalizers, pre-amps, phono-pres, turntables, CD players, headphone amps, and speaker amps and tell them daddy must not know what an output jack is. Being condescended to sucks. Especially when it's by someone who clearly has no idea what's going on. Delete your comment.
@@neutrodyne To put it simply, Mark was confused since the "stereo" were aligned with the "MON OUT" (specifically under AUX1 OUT & FX-BUS OUT). So Mark, like most of us watching, thought that stereo-1 & stereo-2 were a STEREO OUTPUTs only to find out that those were stereo INPUTS and proceeds making a face which was hilarious! It's a label error. Should have labelled "STEREO-1 IN & STEREO-2 IN" to avoid confusion.
Everyone commenting on if this guy is an engineer,you bet he is.This guy could hold his own in any electronic company or environment. He is next level. He choses to work for himself.
Hello, mixing engineer here. Loving your videos, and yeah, analog mixers are a pain in the butt with how many thingies they've got on every channel, that's why a lot of people love digital consoles - way less cluster because you only need one set and just pick which channel you're controlling with that set.
Hello Mark, from South Africa. I am just an amateur electronic "fixer". Admire your skills in re-creating schematics, for me, it is well beyond my abilities... Appreciate your sense of humour!
A punter knocked a full pint of beer on my powered mixing desk (Dynacord Powermate 600) years ago. The sound of fizzling components over the PA was both terrifying and epic at the same time! ;-)
As a sound operator of many, many years, it's easy to forget sometimes that all the knobs, dials and faders don't just intuitively make sense to anyone who walks up to a desk. Also, if you show 6 guys the same board, you'll probably see 8 ways to use it due to differences in preferred workflow. So overall, good job on finding your way through, even if it was a little painful to watch up front! ;)
I do relate to this to a certain level. When I showed my grandparents my surround system for the first time, they were asking me what a speaker was hahaha
HAHAHA. Well I think I figured out 9 ways. I did a open mic coffeehouse, each performer would get two songs and then we would take a break and have a featured artist at the end for the second half. They started with a 12ch =/- peavey that had developed a fault in the digital processor which also took out the main mix momentarily to temporarily. I also worked at another other church which had a 32 channel of the same model which did the same thing that's now sitting in my basement one day I will investigate. They finally (Church property) replaced it with a good old fashion analog new sound craft. Never quite did figure out how the effects worked Foley. it was a similar model mixer and In the end at that location I just stopped using most of the mixers features and only use the preamps to feed into my own mixer an xr18, so much easier and I had a preset for that venue to bring everything up into the default state that I like to start in. After patching cables ( I converted a snake to a insert direct out snake ) all I had to do was check the gain, stereo return and master level, I would then twiddle the gains a little depending on the acts but mostly do the mixing and affects outboard. There was nothing wrong with that mixer other than it occasionally had other users which meant rechecking just about every channel before and of course it was mounted in the most ridiculous of locations. Standing in front of the mixer just slightly off-center of a 20 x 50-75' converted Pavilion staring down the barrel per se with the band right center on the long side and the mixer 8x8 feet from the short side wall corner literally a half wall from the end Center door pathway in this weird Half wall cubicle were things like to get stashed.
How many soundguys does it take to set up a mic stand ??? TEN(10) ... One to set the stand up and the other nine telling him how much better they could of done it and how bad of a job he did . LOL...LOL.
Try taking apart an A&H SL4000 48 channel monster... Admittedly the input channels are in groups of 8 making it a little easier, but the master section was a pig...
Need more patience than there are knobs on that mixer. It's when you put them back together and the fault comes back, that's the killer. Another great video.
Last time I watched someone tackle a mixer it was a cheap brand and it had a problem with bad capacitors, apart from having to pull the mixer apart, he decided to replace every single electrolytic capacitor and there was a lot of them and I decided right there and then that I would refuse to repair a mixer.... You couldn't pay me enough to work on one! You are definitely a better person than me LoL 🤣.... Great work!
Thanks Mark - I have learned a lot from you. (one thing being I need an oscilloscope and a better bench power supply than a scavenged PC PSU). I like your presentation and no frills method. Trying to get a signal out of the stereo inputs could have been edited out, but it shows that everyone makes mistakes and I admire that honesty. As a retired marine engineer and gigging guitarist, I get all the band's faults to fix, from duff cables to fixing and modding amps. I also have a vintage Allen Heath studio mixer that has needed PSU and comms transplant surgery to keep it going. In my workshop waiting room I have a Phillips sound system, the wife's Waterpik and a guitar radio pack with duff batteries. I'll be 70 soon - life is grand. Keep up the good work.
And being a fellow brummy mark is a top bloke and entertained you all the way through the video brilliant. Makes a change for someone pleasant to give such good quality tutorials
Beware of the microphone DIN inputs. Ensure that the phantom power is switched off or you could put 48 vdc into the output of your sig gen ! Later in the video I see you are aware of this but I will leave this here as some may not be aware. So pleased that you got the twelve channel mixer working. A few years back I took on a Behringer Eurodesk SX4882. It only won insofar as time spent repairing it, never again though. In total 27 hours spread over five days and a repair bill of just under £360. Beer & mixing desks do not go well together !
Totally feel for you mate. I have a eurodesk 3282....32 channels with 8 subs. Bought off of fleabay with a noisey output. Turned out to be dry solder joints on the master faders. I'm still flakey on how long it took, but it was bloody ages. Literly a bucket full of pot knobs, screws etc. It's due a service (deep cleaning), so it's time to beg the repair tech gods for some patience....and plenty of mugs of tea and maybe a beer of two aswell 😁
As an audio engineer and DJ, I've learnt to swerve Behringer kit. Items might cost less than many other big brands... but they aren't very robust. And so second-hand items are just a disaster waiting to happen!
They're not DIN. Those are XLRs, sometimes called Cannons (the original manufacturer. How is the phantom power on a microphone input going to end up on an output ? You're not meant to use them as high level inputs (although it can work but risks early clipping). There's a jack input as well which is 20dB less sensitive.
well, this just goes to show how good you really are at your job - it's awesome watching you work these things out - a definite *You Tube Hidden Gem* of a site!
Currently working on a behringer xenyx x1204usb Mixer that I bought really cheap with issues on a couple of channels. Hopefully I will be able to fix it soon. Love the editing, camera angles and the sense of humor. Your channel needs more subs.
I have a Makie 1604 VLZ with an intermittent channel 1. I've had it apart and cleaned push switches, faders, pots etc, re-seated cables, which only solved the issue for a day or two. Never thought of checking the resistor, the layout inside looks almost identical to the Soundcraft board. Will give it another look.... thanks for the idea!
As it's only one channel, I'd put money on it being the Insert jack on that channel. If the insert is bunged up enough, it acts as though a connector is plugged in, effectively muting the channel. Get into the insert with some contact cleaner and a jack plug and give it a really good agitation.
Hey Mark, I do a lot of eurorack diy, and you should get in the habit of using Kapton tape when using hot air. You can use it as a shield to protect plastic parts, like your slider and pots. You can also use the tape and build a wall or sometimes I'll lay the tape out to just leave an IC sized hole to so I can pull an IC without the hot air hitting things around it. And then you can move it around.
Hi Mark, I have 2 Soundcraft EPM mixers, one a 8 channel and the other a 12 channel. They are very similar except without the FX bit. Both, since 2012, have been reliable so far (that’s me tempting fate). The outputs are “electronically balanced” using the resistors to give the same impedance on each of the balanced connections. I used a similar arrangement for balanced inputs on the interconnecting leads to enable the unbalanced insert points of the mixer to connect to a 24 track digital recorder (I’m only used 8 channels/tracks at the time). There are separate record (input) and playback (output) leads so the insert points can be used as both input to record and output to mix down via the mixer (in analogue) or using digital for computer mixing etc. My mixers are used to record everything from soloists, choirs to an orchestra for live broadcast hospital radio programmes. The only problem is that the phantom power is ALL channels or none, therefore two mixers. I now have phantom blockers and transformer isolated splitters too.
Tip for you , If you pre flux what you are de Soldering you it the off amps will come off the board much easer and wont damage other components from the heat
I enjoy your work so much mate! I feels like I am seating by you, ( some times even talking back to you: you better vacuum that metal shavings; or you are placing that upside down!). I would love to take my KX600 Kenwood tape deck to your shop; I know it needs some belt replacement for 24 years now, and you'd find something that could be replaced or touched up. The only problem is that we are in different continents. So... I'll keep watching you repairing a technics deck.
Fantastic video .. Thanks for sharing Mark! Our Church sound board is a Soundcraft EFX22 - and it's main fader (slider) plastic shaft is broken - I was planning to replace it .. but boy I'm afraid it is very time consuming process dismantling the console just to get to the fader ... smh.. I love the idea of using the oscilloscope and frequency generation ... I’d be plugging in microphone and speakers :)
My workshop is BARELY able to work on SMD... so I seek out OLD SCHOOL mixers to fix. I did have a 2001 Yamaha with a bad SMD op amp, and I did fix it, with patience and a magnifier. I'm glad you can keep a cheery attitude while doing it. I'm sure you're hoping for a 6 month break before seeing another of these.
I am a PA sound man FOH / MONITOR over 40 years, AND have "The ear's" so to speak. Some artist i have done more then years of touring. I notes that at 3:28 The AFL/PFL is active, the meter then off for left and right. John - SOUNDFILL ® I use Martin Audio - Crest Audio amp's Allen Heath and the Lexicon is A-Brand. In the past have 2 MPX- 1 in my FX Rack's.
Gotta get me an infrared camera. Great video as usual. I've used an 8 channel version of that desk before. Fortunately never had to repair one. What a pig of a thing to pull apart!
check out the new A & H stuff they are up there giving the big boys a run for their money. Ah the gl3300 been there! blue TAC and TAC scorpions back in the day
Thanks for the vid your method is very good I am going to attempt a clean of my midi studio desk. It’s filthy and crunchy. I have a professional electronics engineer watching over me when I come to test it out. So I don’t fry myself. Thanks for your smiling face and method may you prosper and have fun.
Especially for linear pots heat-gun is killing them. I had to use silver paint to repair them, because they were so specific that I was not able to buy new that will fit PCB. So when using hot-air near pots I recommend kapton tape.
I was using one of these at a gig once. 10 piece band about to go on stage and there was a pop and a load of smoke from the desk. Absolute nightmare evening!
I usually wrap the area with Kapton tape to avoid melting plastic bits and bobs. Added benefit is small neighbouring smds don't wander off under the airflow.
Great work. I think reading between the lines here things are getting broken / dry joints because there’s way too much flex on the circuit board liable to have plugs rammed in sockets at force and buttons punched enthusiastically.
I really appreciate the camerawork and editing in these vids. And just the general problem solving is top-notch. I watched the vid on the linear turntable earlier. I don't want to spoil it, but you went above-and-beyond on that one. I would have given up far more easily. lol As soon as you mentioned opamps in this mixing desk, I KNEW they would all be NJM5532. It's like the go-to opamp when they don't want to spend too much money. lol To be fair, that opamp sounds OK. It's quite a good bang-per-buck, excuse the pun. I'm only half-way through this vid atm. I'm a bit worried that the voltage rails weren't checked before replacing all the opamps. My guess is that somebody plugged in a cable with 48V Phantom Power (from say one of the XLRs) into those channels, which popped the opamps. Or something a bit more scary, involving mains voltages. lol
Wow what a lot of work just getting to the board! It's a good thing you have all the test equipment and extra chips on hand! You must do a lot of work on electronics as a hobby or living!
I've seen repair folk (e.g. Louis Rossman) use Kapton tape to provide heat shielding of nearby smt parts when air soldering. I've started doing this as well.
Nice video, thanks. the symmetrical mix outpit is once again the economy version. Soundcraft loves it. That's not nice. The many buttons and screws are amazing. I once pimped a 24 channel mixer. That was even worse. The potentiometers were still screwed there.
WOW, That’s a lot of Screws & Knobs, I found one of those in a Skip while working around the UK a few years back and it worked fine, It was just missing a couple of the Slider Knobs but managed to Sell it on eBay for a tidy sum! 🙂
This one was a fun, action-packed edition mate! Knobs, nuts, chips n crows flyin round left right & centre! And you discover someone else has been messing with it! Grrr! 🤬! Nevertheless you triumphed in the end. 👍💪💥💯👏 Hey I gotta say mate, your soldering methods are as good as mine, & you're the second person ever to get that recognition!👍 Your photography is such that I see how you leave the soldering iron tip in the solder joint for juuust 1 second after you remove the applied solder from the joint. This gives the flux that short extra second to fully activate & do its job before the heat is removed. I see you doing that Mark. 👍 That's nasa standard mate. I was trying to think of what "naughty" thing someone had done to damage the mixer so extensively, & how power must have be applied to it somehow where it shouldn't have been? Then you mentioned phantom power. D'oh! Of course! That's 48 volts DC, that's supposed to be supplied to the mike via 750 ohm resistors & isolated from the mixer inputs via 47uF capacitors, with 1meg resistors on each of the balanced mike outputs to discharge the capacitors. So yeah, absolutely, a mixup in the wiring to a phantom power mike is exactly the kinda way to get DC power into a mixer where it shouldn't go! So yeah, that about 6 thumbs up you got from me me here; you did well! 👍
You can imagine James Hetfield barking at big Mick to get the mixer working. " But James, I've got a million knobs to pull off". "Hey man what you do in your free time is your business". 😂
Yeah those things have a weird Jack layout. Even I was questioning why there was a label for monitor next to an input and then I realized the label is covering up the microscopic letters that say aux output. Also the headphone jack is a stereo output and that's a mono jack 3:27 fyi shorting one headphone amp output. The monitor output is control room monitor same as headphones but separate volume. I used a similar model mixer and the lexicon has a "memory" (air quoting with my fingers didn't put quotes around word weird) feature which is why the lights blink. In the end at that location I just stopped using most of the mixers features and only use the preamps to feed into my own mixer, so much easier and I had a preset for that venue to bring everything up into the default state that I like to start in. After patching cables all I had to do was check the gain, stereo return and master level, I would then twiddle the gains a little depending on the acts but mostly do the mixing and affects outboard.
I work with these all the time and if this was situated in a certain setting the aux out would be used as monitor. expecially if it was for a band. you could use he aux to give the drummer or lead guitar a different vol level than that of the monitor
a great video, once more Mark! Watching you going around the PCB fixing and mending things, soldering iron on th eone hand and scope probe on the other has really a suspense movie quality to it!! Keep up!!👍👍👍
31:17 Wow I thought Soundcraft were above this bull, I just ordered a new desk for church, a Soundcraft was in my final selections, however I went the other way, after seeing this I'm kind of glad. Also this modern all on one board style is a repair nightmare, our old desk has individual channel boards, I think I'll refurbish it and keep it as a spare. On the old desk the input jacks are starting to fail, so figuring the age and the idea that the pots/sliders are probably not far behind, get a new one, however.....
To be honest that's not a "Soundcraft" mixing desk. I think it was a bad idea to drop their sub brand name "Spirit" and release all those cheaper desks under the same name.
@@ppdan Either way, for SC to release this cheap junk with their name on it was a bad idea. I get it that businesses have to remain competitive, but you can sell anything based on quality over quantity.
Mark, there are tips for the Metcal soldering system that fit on all pins of SO-8 and SO-14 packages. Those can be desoldered with only that tip and some tweezers :)
Wohh ! the amount of screws and nuts put into this mixer,looks like they seriously made it for military touring pr sound usage,lol but soundcraft are considered one of the best mixers in sound quality and reliability for instal and pro sound rental companies. and they're quite expensive too.
Hello Mark, good job you removed the flux because it can cause transmigration of copper between tracks which results in dendrites and ultimately short circuits forming.
I have a Soundcraft Notepad 12FX in the shop that has a dead power supply. The shop claims he cannot find a replacement power supply and he's had it for six months - suggestions ? The device has no power switch so it is on most of time.
Great work. I have a Sound craft Spirit 24 with one channel showing output when nothing is inserted and a PFL light regardless of button state. I ended up using the AUX bus instead of master. Your method gives me some ideas for rerechecking. The Ballache of getting into it makes me want to put it in the skip!
On a philosophical level - if you have this positive attitude and approach to electronics and existence in general, life is so much easier. Being far more prone to sulking and taking a more negative stance I really envy you. And I second everyone who comments that you spread light and laughter. Thank you sir, keep repairing different electronic devices and post your work and your loveable personality here!
Great attitude to his work.
Very modest, affable, and funny chap.
I legitimately dreamed of doing what he does for my entire childhood, but alas I was born in Canada; most of our electronics are disposable. Making a living out here doing this sort of work is nigh impossible. That said, I live vicariously through Mark and his cheerfulness, unflappable positivity, and absolutely fascinating content is the highlight of my day. Carry on good sir!
I just like to watch these in the morning to set my day straight
U dont need to find something you love to do so u wont have to work ever again if u love everything
I agree - negativity begets negativity. I've been and remain a pretty cynical person but I've at least managed to lose much of my negativity towards adversity. By dealing with one problem at a time and keeping a more positive outlook, it's improved my life and relationships. No doubt an obvious thing, but it has also helped to trim away negative inputs like ragebait material that is so pervasive online..
Hi Mark, I love your videos. I'm an audio professional and the label they added for "monitor out" is for floor wedge monitors so the musicians can hear themselves. It's a separate signal from what goes to the front of house (FOH). If you look under the label, it's from the aux sends. This is a rebroadcast of the signal going through each mixer channel which can then be sent by turning up the aux sends on each channel. If the singer wants more volume in their monitor, you just turn up the send on the corresponding mic channel and that will be independent from what goes to the FOH. Cheers!
Writing from Germany. Besides your knowledge and your pristine equipment, its heartwarming to watch your humor and your always positive approach. That´s real fun to watch. Great!
I worked on one of those (Behringer version, nearly identical). Uhg. 12 channels. SOOO many knobs. Main and phantom power caps replaced, easy ... but the testing/cleaning of all those pots was slow going. Faders were especially cranky - one needed to be replaced. It had collected years of dirt and then been left in the rain. I had not oscilloscope so I just did it with ears: good enough for a garage band rehearsal desk. And, yes, the Dr. Seuss like refrains reverberating in my head: "knobs and knobs and knobs and knobs!" But to the point: THANK YOU for that cheeky bit re: the troubleshooting the no output on the inputs. LOL I laughed so hard! All I can say is: "I'm glad I'm not the only one." Thanks for the channel.
"These stereo outputs are actually inputs." Sir we all had a good laugh at that one keep up the great work.
I am not sure at what point in the video you are talking about, but the mixer does have stereo outputs on it. Just because it has a jack does not make it an input jack.
@@neutrodyne No duh a mixer would have output jacks! How else would you use it? That's seriously what you took away from that particular comment? The one with several likes already on it indicating others knew what I was talking about? WTF?!
Actually watch the video. He was looking for an output signal on a set of inputs for a few moments and was very confused. It was good cause for a chuckle during an otherwise very clean repair. ...Or maybe you didn't understand what you were seeing as you watched the video?
I've been collecting pro and home audio gear most of my life but thanks for being condescending to someone who could be just as experienced as you if not moreso. I guess I'll just turn to my several shelves and stands full of high-end headphones, speakers, DACs, equalizers, pre-amps, phono-pres, turntables, CD players, headphone amps, and speaker amps and tell them daddy must not know what an output jack is.
Being condescended to sucks. Especially when it's by someone who clearly has no idea what's going on. Delete your comment.
@@neutrodyne To put it simply, Mark was confused since the "stereo" were aligned with the "MON OUT" (specifically under AUX1 OUT & FX-BUS OUT). So Mark, like most of us watching, thought that stereo-1 & stereo-2 were a STEREO OUTPUTs only to find out that those were stereo INPUTS and proceeds making a face which was hilarious! It's a label error. Should have labelled "STEREO-1 IN & STEREO-2 IN" to avoid confusion.
That's where he's injecting a signal ?
Everyone commenting on if this guy is an engineer,you bet he is.This guy could hold his own in any electronic company or environment. He is next level. He choses to work for himself.
Hello, mixing engineer here. Loving your videos, and yeah, analog mixers are a pain in the butt with how many thingies they've got on every channel, that's why a lot of people love digital consoles - way less cluster because you only need one set and just pick which channel you're controlling with that set.
Similar problem even with large digital console surfaces...
Hello Mark, from South Africa. I am just an amateur electronic "fixer". Admire your skills in re-creating schematics, for me, it is well beyond my abilities... Appreciate your sense of humour!
The good old tried method of pressing and prodding a finger as a diagnostic tool still works a treat....... Nice one
I learned to use a chopstick the hard way.
I haven’t got a clue about any of the things Mark is talking about, but his demeanour is just so captivating!
Keep up the great work!
A punter knocked a full pint of beer on my powered mixing desk (Dynacord Powermate 600) years ago. The sound of fizzling components over the PA was both terrifying and epic at the same time! ;-)
I half expected you to hammer out a few bars of 'Doctor Who' for a minute there! Lovely job! Thanks!
Mark has repaired lots of my kit and is a bloody genius!
Sounds good. What stuff did he fix? What was wrong with the various items of kit?
@@Electrobilia Bose 802 speaker, three amps and, his piece de resistance, an emergency repair to a Yamaha active speaker inside of 4 hours flat!
@@keithclark486 I consider him a mate and he's an outstanding and extremely knowledgeable electronics guru👍
Your patience is unbelievable and your skills even more so 🎉 I aspire to be even a fraction of the troubleshooter you are 👏
Brilliant job Mark - but I am exhausted just watching this mixer repair!
As a sound operator of many, many years, it's easy to forget sometimes that all the knobs, dials and faders don't just intuitively make sense to anyone who walks up to a desk. Also, if you show 6 guys the same board, you'll probably see 8 ways to use it due to differences in preferred workflow. So overall, good job on finding your way through, even if it was a little painful to watch up front! ;)
When are the "drumbeats" going to return? I always enjoyed watching those videos!
I do relate to this to a certain level. When I showed my grandparents my surround system for the first time, they were asking me what a speaker was hahaha
HAHAHA. Well I think I figured out 9 ways. I did a open mic coffeehouse, each performer would get two songs and then we would take a break and have a featured artist at the end for the second half. They started with a 12ch =/- peavey that had developed a fault in the digital processor which also took out the main mix momentarily to temporarily. I also worked at another other church which had a 32 channel of the same model which did the same thing that's now sitting in my basement one day I will investigate. They finally (Church property) replaced it with a good old fashion analog new sound craft. Never quite did figure out how the effects worked Foley. it was a similar model mixer and In the end at that location I just stopped using most of the mixers features and only use the preamps to feed into my own mixer an xr18, so much easier and I had a preset for that venue to bring everything up into the default state that I like to start in. After patching cables ( I converted a snake to a insert direct out snake ) all I had to do was check the gain, stereo return and master level, I would then twiddle the gains a little depending on the acts but mostly do the mixing and affects outboard. There was nothing wrong with that mixer other than it occasionally had other users which meant rechecking just about every channel before and of course it was mounted in the most ridiculous of locations. Standing in front of the mixer just slightly off-center of a 20 x 50-75' converted Pavilion staring down the barrel per se with the band right center on the long side and the mixer 8x8 feet from the short side wall corner literally a half wall from the end Center door pathway in this weird Half wall cubicle were things like to get stashed.
How many soundguys does it take to set up a mic stand ??? TEN(10) ... One to set the stand up and the other nine telling him how much better they could of done it and how bad of a job he did . LOL...LOL.
Try taking apart an A&H SL4000 48 channel monster... Admittedly the input channels are in groups of 8 making it a little easier, but the master section was a pig...
Need more patience than there are knobs on that mixer. It's when you put them back together and the fault comes back, that's the killer. Another great video.
You had me screaming at the screen when you were trying to get an output from the stereo inputs 🤣
😂
I would have been confused as well! They were aligned to them MON OUT (specifically AUX1 OUT & FX-BUS OUT).🤣
Mark,
Love your honesty when you say not sure if there is a fault or I just don't know how to work it.
Last time I watched someone tackle a mixer it was a cheap brand and it had a problem with bad capacitors, apart from having to pull the mixer apart, he decided to replace every single electrolytic capacitor and there was a lot of them and I decided right there and then that I would refuse to repair a mixer.... You couldn't pay me enough to work on one!
You are definitely a better person than me LoL 🤣.... Great work!
As an IT and Audio Technican i appreciate every Video of you Mark
I used a 24 channel one of these for a concert, and it was absolutely great! Apparently it was the best ever
Thanks Mark - I have learned a lot from you. (one thing being I need an oscilloscope and a better bench power supply than a scavenged PC PSU). I like your presentation and no frills method. Trying to get a signal out of the stereo inputs could have been edited out, but it shows that everyone makes mistakes and I admire that honesty. As a retired marine engineer and gigging guitarist, I get all the band's faults to fix, from duff cables to fixing and modding amps. I also have a vintage Allen Heath studio mixer that has needed PSU and comms transplant surgery to keep it going. In my workshop waiting room I have a Phillips sound system, the wife's Waterpik and a guitar radio pack with duff batteries. I'll be 70 soon - life is grand. Keep up the good work.
His genuine smile shows he love his job. ❤
The Pulse Mode Modulation was 347 Deg out, & the Fretzer Valves were set out of phase, We all had a laugh, but keep up the good work Tony.
This has got to be one of the best tutorial videos I have ever seen on RUclips fairplay My Man
And being a fellow brummy mark is a top bloke and entertained you all the way through the video brilliant. Makes a change for someone pleasant to give such good quality tutorials
Beware of the microphone DIN inputs. Ensure that the phantom power is switched off or you could put 48 vdc into the output of your sig gen !
Later in the video I see you are aware of this but I will leave this here as some may not be aware.
So pleased that you got the twelve channel mixer working.
A few years back I took on a Behringer Eurodesk SX4882. It only won insofar as time spent repairing it, never again though.
In total 27 hours spread over five days and a repair bill of just under £360. Beer & mixing desks do not go well together !
Totally feel for you mate. I have a eurodesk 3282....32 channels with 8 subs. Bought off of fleabay with a noisey output. Turned out to be dry solder joints on the master faders.
I'm still flakey on how long it took, but it was bloody ages. Literly a bucket full of pot knobs, screws etc. It's due a service (deep cleaning), so it's time to beg the repair tech gods for some patience....and plenty of mugs of tea and maybe a beer of two aswell 😁
DIN? You must mean XLR (or Cannon if you so will)... DIN belongs in the 70s....
As an audio engineer and DJ, I've learnt to swerve Behringer kit. Items might cost less than many other big brands... but they aren't very robust. And so second-hand items are just a disaster waiting to happen!
They're not DIN. Those are XLRs, sometimes called Cannons (the original manufacturer. How is the phantom power on a microphone input going to end up on an output ? You're not meant to use them as high level inputs (although it can work but risks early clipping). There's a jack input as well which is 20dB less sensitive.
@@pnnielsen DIN sockets are use all around for sending MIDI signals.
One of the best channels of its kind...congratulations
Very nice job meighty. I've fixed a few similar desks but you've showed me a few tricks, so thanks for that.
well, this just goes to show how good you really are at your job - it's awesome watching you work these things out - a definite *You Tube Hidden Gem* of a site!
Hello Mark, thank you for another fantastic video, your skills never fail to show how good you are. Keep it up sir.
Currently working on a behringer xenyx x1204usb Mixer that I bought really cheap with issues on a couple of channels. Hopefully I will be able to fix it soon. Love the editing, camera angles and the sense of humor. Your channel needs more subs.
Appreciate your efforts. N not forgetting that beautiful smile on your face! Love from Goa- India
You wantt to bum his plump arse.
You want to bum him.
I have a Makie 1604 VLZ with an intermittent channel 1. I've had it apart and cleaned push switches, faders, pots etc, re-seated cables, which only solved the issue for a day or two. Never thought of checking the resistor, the layout inside looks almost identical to the Soundcraft board. Will give it another look.... thanks for the idea!
As it's only one channel, I'd put money on it being the Insert jack on that channel. If the insert is bunged up enough, it acts as though a connector is plugged in, effectively muting the channel. Get into the insert with some contact cleaner and a jack plug and give it a really good agitation.
@@AG-cg7lk to add to this information you can also make up a dummy jack which passes tip to ring which aid in diagnosing this fault.
It’s always treat to watch your videos, hats off for your patience. As I always say Craftsmanship at its best.
Hey Mark, I do a lot of eurorack diy, and you should get in the habit of using Kapton tape when using hot air. You can use it as a shield to protect plastic parts, like your slider and pots. You can also use the tape and build a wall or sometimes I'll lay the tape out to just leave an IC sized hole to so I can pull an IC without the hot air hitting things around it. And then you can move it around.
brilliant, Mark! Just catching up on some of your older vids for hints and tips on faders and pots. (I miss the old lab already....) Cheers!
Hi Mark, I have 2 Soundcraft EPM mixers, one a 8 channel and the other a 12 channel. They are very similar except without the FX bit. Both, since 2012, have been reliable so far (that’s me tempting fate). The outputs are “electronically balanced” using the resistors to give the same impedance on each of the balanced connections.
I used a similar arrangement for balanced inputs on the interconnecting leads to enable the unbalanced insert points of the mixer to connect to a 24 track digital recorder (I’m only used 8 channels/tracks at the time). There are separate record (input) and playback (output) leads so the insert points can be used as both input to record and output to mix down via the mixer (in analogue) or using digital for computer mixing etc. My mixers are used to record everything from soloists, choirs to an orchestra for live broadcast hospital radio programmes. The only problem is that the phantom power is ALL channels or none, therefore two mixers. I now have phantom blockers and transformer isolated splitters too.
Looks like it Takes longer to open it and reassemble it than fix it.
I know what to expect now. Thanks Mark.
Tip for you , If you pre flux what you are de Soldering you it the off amps will come off the board much easer and wont damage other components from the heat
Really enjoy when you repair audio production equipment and would love to see synths and old samplers and drum computers etc.
Second that!
Brilliant Mark, thank you. I love to see a notification that you have uploaded content. Better than Friday TV by a long chalk! Keep them coming!
Outro técnico teria dito para o cliente "não tem conserto". Legal é que tu não edita os bugs durante o reparo. Parabéns pela perseverança!
I enjoy your work so much mate! I feels like I am seating by you, ( some times even talking back to you: you better vacuum that metal shavings; or you are placing that upside down!). I would love to take my KX600 Kenwood tape deck to your shop; I know it needs some belt replacement for 24 years now, and you'd find something that could be replaced or touched up. The only problem is that we are in different continents. So... I'll keep watching you repairing a technics deck.
Fantastic video .. Thanks for sharing Mark! Our Church sound board is a Soundcraft EFX22 - and it's main fader (slider) plastic shaft is broken - I was planning to replace it .. but boy I'm afraid it is very time consuming process dismantling the console just to get to the fader ... smh.. I love the idea of using the oscilloscope and frequency generation ... I’d be plugging in microphone and speakers :)
My workshop is BARELY able to work on SMD... so I seek out OLD SCHOOL mixers to fix. I did have a 2001 Yamaha with a bad SMD op amp, and I did fix it, with patience and a magnifier. I'm glad you can keep a cheery attitude while doing it. I'm sure you're hoping for a 6 month break before seeing another of these.
Outstanding electronic work, and your cheerful attitude is very refreshing. Cheers
I am a PA sound man FOH / MONITOR over 40 years, AND have "The ear's" so to speak. Some artist i have done more then years of touring. I notes that at 3:28 The AFL/PFL is active, the meter then off for left and right. John - SOUNDFILL ® I use Martin Audio - Crest Audio amp's Allen Heath and the Lexicon is A-Brand. In the past have 2 MPX- 1 in my FX Rack's.
Mark the Man has done it again!👍👍Miss Potts would be proud!😂😂
I'm just learning to a degree, but I have to say, you're fun to watch, and obviously you know what you are doing!!
Great repair with a lot of patience and calm. I enjoy watching your videos.
Fantastic video Mark and a really great repair job - you certainly know your stuff, love watching this.
Saludos desde Argentina, estoy aprendiendo mucho con tus trabajos. Gracias
Gotta get me an infrared camera. Great video as usual. I've used an 8 channel version of that desk before. Fortunately never had to repair one. What a pig of a thing to pull apart!
Good array of test and soldering equipment plus knowledgeable background Mark.
A SoundCraft board was the first I ever used many years ago. Eventually finished up with a 32-channel Allen & Heath GL3300. Great fun!
check out the new A & H stuff they are up there giving the big boys a run for their money. Ah the gl3300
been there! blue TAC and TAC scorpions back in the day
Thanks for the vid your method is very good I am going to attempt a clean of my midi studio desk. It’s filthy and crunchy. I have a professional electronics engineer watching over me when I come to test it out. So I don’t fry myself. Thanks for your smiling face and method may you prosper and have fun.
Especially for linear pots heat-gun is killing them. I had to use silver paint to repair them, because they were so specific that I was not able to buy new that will fit PCB. So when using hot-air near pots I recommend kapton tape.
Just discovered your channel and I’m glad I did.Mend it Mark !
Disco and Radio equipment, Is great to watch being mended Mark. Nice job on this one, look forward to the next.
I was using one of these at a gig once. 10 piece band about to go on stage and there was a pop and a load of smoke from the desk. Absolute nightmare evening!
Thank you for doing that, it really helps how to serve this type of boards.
I usually wrap the area with Kapton tape to avoid melting plastic bits and bobs. Added benefit is small neighbouring smds don't wander off under the airflow.
I know F all about electronics, but this is very satisfying to watch :)
Great work. I think reading between the lines here things are getting broken / dry joints because there’s way too much flex on the circuit board liable to have plugs rammed in sockets at force and buttons punched enthusiastically.
It's really fascinating to watch genius people at work :)
Thanks for sharing sire.
I really appreciate the camerawork and editing in these vids.
And just the general problem solving is top-notch.
I watched the vid on the linear turntable earlier.
I don't want to spoil it, but you went above-and-beyond on that one. I would have given up far more easily. lol
As soon as you mentioned opamps in this mixing desk, I KNEW they would all be NJM5532.
It's like the go-to opamp when they don't want to spend too much money. lol
To be fair, that opamp sounds OK. It's quite a good bang-per-buck, excuse the pun.
I'm only half-way through this vid atm. I'm a bit worried that the voltage rails weren't checked before replacing all the opamps.
My guess is that somebody plugged in a cable with 48V Phantom Power (from say one of the XLRs) into those channels, which popped the opamps. Or something a bit more scary, involving mains voltages. lol
Wow what a lot of work just getting to the board! It's a good thing you have all the test equipment and extra chips on hand! You must do a lot of work on electronics as a hobby or living!
Nice one Mark, the highlight of my week when you upload another repair video.
I've seen repair folk (e.g. Louis Rossman) use Kapton tape to provide heat shielding of nearby smt parts when air soldering. I've started doing this as well.
Lovely Tek scope right there. They will never get old.
REALLY ENJOY THIS VIDEO. AM NOT EVEN GOING TO ASK HOW MUCH MONEY YOU HAVE INVESTED ON THOSE TOOLS....
30:02 😂😂 hilarious Mark! Another great vid mate!
More animated than Dave Jones, and a better all round engineer. Keep it up Mark, the free oscilloscopes are on their way.. 😁😁😁
without a single clue.., But I'm fascinated and like your man :)
Nice video, thanks. the symmetrical mix outpit is once again the economy version. Soundcraft loves it. That's not nice. The many buttons and screws are amazing. I once pimped a 24 channel mixer. That was even worse. The potentiometers were still screwed there.
Hey Mark, you have the patience of a saint! Good job mate!
Highly skilled and well trained guy....
WOW, That’s a lot of Screws & Knobs, I found one of those in a Skip while working around the UK a few years back and it worked fine, It was just missing a couple of the Slider Knobs but managed to Sell it on eBay for a tidy sum! 🙂
Once again a pleasure to watch, thumbs up..👍
Enjoyed the post, Analog rules!!!! George from Indiana. USA
Hmmm... a bit more complicated than my ancient Series 1 that went to Rock Heaven many years ago! Great video, thanks.
This one was a fun, action-packed edition mate! Knobs, nuts, chips n crows flyin round left right & centre! And you discover someone else has been messing with it! Grrr! 🤬! Nevertheless you triumphed in the end. 👍💪💥💯👏
Hey I gotta say mate, your soldering methods are as good as mine, & you're the second person ever to get that recognition!👍 Your photography is such that I see how you leave the soldering iron tip in the solder joint for juuust 1 second after you remove the applied solder from the joint. This gives the flux that short extra second to fully activate & do its job before the heat is removed. I see you doing that Mark. 👍 That's nasa standard mate.
I was trying to think of what "naughty" thing someone had done to damage the mixer so extensively, & how power must have be applied to it somehow where it shouldn't have been? Then you mentioned phantom power. D'oh! Of course! That's 48 volts DC, that's supposed to be supplied to the mike via 750 ohm resistors & isolated from the mixer inputs via 47uF capacitors, with 1meg resistors on each of the balanced mike outputs to discharge the capacitors.
So yeah, absolutely, a mixup in the wiring to a phantom power mike is exactly the kinda way to get DC power into a mixer where it shouldn't go!
So yeah, that about 6 thumbs up you got from me me here; you did well! 👍
That was amazing! I NEVER watch stuff with attention, but I watched this!
You can imagine James Hetfield barking at big Mick to get the mixer working. " But James, I've got a million knobs to pull off". "Hey man what you do in your free time is your business". 😂
Yeah those things have a weird Jack layout. Even I was questioning why there was a label for monitor next to an input and then I realized the label is covering up the microscopic letters that say aux output. Also the headphone jack is a stereo output and that's a mono jack 3:27 fyi shorting one headphone amp output. The monitor output is control room monitor same as headphones but separate volume. I used a similar model mixer and the lexicon has a "memory" (air quoting with my fingers didn't put quotes around word weird) feature which is why the lights blink. In the end at that location I just stopped using most of the mixers features and only use the preamps to feed into my own mixer, so much easier and I had a preset for that venue to bring everything up into the default state that I like to start in. After patching cables all I had to do was check the gain, stereo return and master level, I would then twiddle the gains a little depending on the acts but mostly do the mixing and affects outboard.
Great repair. Love your channel.👍
I work with these all the time and if this was situated in a certain setting the aux out would be used as monitor. expecially if it was for a band. you could use he aux to give the drummer or lead guitar a different vol level than that of the monitor
very high quality video for amateur beginners !!!!!!!!!!
Brilliant video mate, you really know your stuff
I love soundcraft gear. I used to work on a soundcraft spirit live. I miss it.
a great video, once more Mark! Watching you going around the PCB fixing and mending things, soldering iron on th eone hand and scope probe on the other has really a suspense movie quality to it!! Keep up!!👍👍👍
31:17 Wow I thought Soundcraft were above this bull, I just ordered a new desk for church, a Soundcraft was in my final selections, however I went the other way, after seeing this I'm kind of glad.
Also this modern all on one board style is a repair nightmare, our old desk has individual channel boards, I think I'll refurbish it and keep it as a spare.
On the old desk the input jacks are starting to fail, so figuring the age and the idea that the pots/sliders are probably not far behind, get a new one, however.....
Soundcraft were once known for their quality, but like many other manufacturers they went the cheap way to compete.
To be honest that's not a "Soundcraft" mixing desk.
I think it was a bad idea to drop their sub brand name "Spirit" and release all those cheaper desks under the same name.
@@ppdan Either way, for SC to release this cheap junk with their name on it was a bad idea. I get it that businesses have to remain competitive, but you can sell anything based on quality over quantity.
This channel is awesome. My new favourite.
Outstanding work, Mark. I learnt a lot as usual.
Mark, there are tips for the Metcal soldering system that fit on all pins of SO-8 and SO-14 packages. Those can be desoldered with only that tip and some tweezers :)
Wohh ! the amount of screws and nuts put into this mixer,looks like they seriously made it for military touring pr sound usage,lol but soundcraft are considered one of the best mixers in sound quality and reliability for instal and pro sound rental companies. and they're quite expensive too.
Hello Mark, good job you removed the flux because it can cause transmigration of copper between tracks which results in dendrites and ultimately short circuits forming.
I have a Soundcraft Notepad 12FX in the shop that has a dead power supply. The shop claims he cannot find a replacement power supply and he's had it for six months - suggestions ? The device has no power switch so it is on most of time.
Great work. I have a Sound craft Spirit 24 with one channel showing output when nothing is inserted and a PFL light regardless of button state. I ended up using the AUX bus instead of master.
Your method gives me some ideas for rerechecking.
The Ballache of getting into it makes me want to put it in the skip!
"It's them bloody wires" 😂😂😂