Equipment Review
Product Reviewed:
CR-1604-VLZ (Pro)
Made by: Mackie
Cost: $950-1000 USD
Submitted by Slider
Rating: 
Features:
16 channels accepting balanced or unbalanced signals at either the 1/4" or XLR jacks. 16 channel insert jacks. 4 stereo busses, each having a direct mono sub output. 6 mono aux sends, 4 stereo aux returns. 8 direct outputs from channels 1-8. All 16 channels having 15dB EQs at 12KHz and 80Hz, with a sweepable midrange from 100Hz to 8KHz. Ever channel also has a 75Hz high pass filter. RCA inputs/outputs for cassette tapes or other secondary two track/CD player. Phantom power for all XLR lines. Stereo 1/4" output jacks for main mix, and C/R volume, as well as L/R insert jacks for the main mix. 2 rows of output LEDs for main mix. Solo and mute options for each channel. Headphone jack also included.
Technical Specifications:
see above
What I liked:
This is the perfect mixer for an 8-track setup. Use the first 8 channels for tracking and the next 8 for mixing (inputs from the tape machine). It's nice to have phantom power in a mixer this small, which is turned on/off by a seperate switch. This has proven to be a pretty flexible mixer for what I need it to do. Due to the number of channels and RCA inputs, I can leave a bunch of things hooked up (like a CD player) and select what I want to listen to in the master section. It doesnt take up much space and sounds pretty good overall. The manual is very well written. I have also had good technical service from Mackie, both on the net and phone.
What I didn't:
I am not a huge fan of their preamps, but they sound ok. Kind of noisy as you get higher in gain although the VLZ Pro model should be much better since Mackie focused on fixing that problem. No fader values on each channel. There is a little bleed from when you are monitoring the I/Os and have the CD player muted but playing. Faders could move a little smoothe
User Tips:
Try to find a good permenant setup. Use the low cut button on most things but bass, low keys, toms, and kick drum.
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