REW question - Can I safely use this mixer with my laptop

[Five9teen]

Hi guys,

I have a Mackie VLZ-1202 mixer and I am wondering if I can safely use it with my HP Pavillion g7 1328dx laptop with "mic-in" input as opposed to "line in" inputs. The owners manual for the mixer states on page 15:
"Engaging the MAIN OUTPUT LEVEL switch pads the balanced xlr main outputs by 30db, so you can feed the microphone input of, say, another mixer." BTW the mixer has phantom power and I have a Dayton EMM-6 RTA mic that I just bought for this purpose and for my DriveRack PX I just purchased second hand.

I really don't want to smoke my sound card, or processor in this case. Any suggestions would be sincerely appreciated.

http://www.mackie.com/pdf/archive/ms1202vlz_om.pdf

[escapemcp]

You certainly won't smoke the processor (coming from an IT engineer)... doubt that you'll smoke the soundcard either... you'd just reduce the gain on the mic in (or deactivate mic boost). Not too sure how 'flat' the mic input would be though, which may introduce a bit or error - BUT probably not enough that RTAing with a mic and REW (or similar) wouldn't still be worthwhile.

[kekani]

If you're taking the signal from the laptop, why don't you just go to the rca jacks?

[Five9teen]

Sorry kekani, I don't quite understand what you mean. Are you referring to the tape outputs? Are you saying to go from one side of the tape output to the mic input of the laptop, then one side of the line out of the laptop to the input of the driverack to feed the power amp? I'm missing something because it seems to me that I can't use the mixer to provide phantom power to the condenser mic and feed the tone generator of the REW (out of the laptop) back into same mixer to feed DRPX and power amp.

[DJPhatman]

DO NOT RUN THE RTA MIC THROUGH A MIXER!

Use the Driverack PXs' RTA Mic in port. Running the RTA mic through a mixer will not give you correct response, as the mixer introduces it's "color" into the signal. This one is the one I use and recommend. USB direct into your laptop, provides the phantom power needed, and it actually works!

[kekani]

Sorry kekani, I don't quite understand what you mean. Are you referring to the tape outputs? Are you saying to go from one side of the tape output to the mic input of the laptop, then one side of the line out of the laptop to the input of the driverack to feed the power amp? I'm missing something because it seems to me that I can't use the mixer to provide phantom power to the condenser mic and feed the tone generator of the REW (out of the laptop) back into same mixer to feed DRPX and power amp.

Actually, it is I that's confused. I should've guessed from the REW in the title, but I wasn't sure what you were going to do with the laptop - I thought you just needed a signal from the laptop into the mixer, like if you were playing music or a sine wave or white noise.

I assumed the RTA mike was for the DRPX.

Now I get it, and so does DJp per his response. Personally, my RTA mic goes into my DRPA+.

[Tom Smit]

DO NOT RUN THE RTA MIC THROUGH A MIXER!

Use the Driverack PXs' RTA Mic in port. Running the RTA mic through a mixer will not give you correct response, as the mixer introduces it's "color" into the signal. This one is the one I use and recommend. USB direct into your laptop, provides the phantom power needed, and it actually works!

I don't understand. HTS recommends, as an alternative, to use a mixer. The Berry Xenyx 802, to be exact. So, going on that, the Mackie should work OK, according to my thinking, as long as the EQ is set flat. To make sure that the EQ is flat, send from the sound card into the RCA of the mixer, then out from the mixer back into your CPU. Check the response in REW from the mixer to make sure that it has not introduced any anomolies. Check out the HTS REW threads to make sure. http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/ ... -read.html

[Five9teen]

I figured that introducing the mixer into the "loop" could possibly color the response. But as long as I use the same equipment for my measurements, establishing a baseline through calibration, wouldn't it be close enough for "ham and egger" reference. I was more concerned with having only a mic input instead of line inputs as recommended. I have read as many references at HTS as I could find, and using a mixer is quite common for providing phantom power. The disadvantage mine has is no USB output therefore my concern about having too hot of a signal coming out of the Mackie. In a perfect world I would purchase all of the recommended toys but at this time I have short arms and deep pockets.