SoundCraft MPM 20/2 manual

1 USER GUIDE[...]

2 © Harman Inter national Industries Ltd. 2006 All rights reser ved P arts of the design of this product ma y be protected by w or ld wide patents. P art No. ZM0342-01 Soundcraft is a trading division of Har man International Industries Ltd. Infor- mation in this manual is subject to change without notice and does not repre- sent a commitment on t[...]

3 Contents IMPORT ANT SAFETY INSTR UCTIONS 4 SAFETY SYMBOL GUIDE 6 INTRODUCTION 7 WIRING UP 8 BLOCK DIAGRAM 12 MONO INPUT CHANNEL 13 STEREO INPUT CHANNELS 16 MASTER SECTION 18 USING Y OUR MPM CONSOLE 22 FITTING OPTIONAL RA CK-MOUNT BRACKETS (MPM12/2) 24 DIMENSIONS 24 APPLICA TIONS 25 TYPICAL CONNECTING LEADS 28 MARK-UP SHEETS 30 TYPICAL SPECIFICA T[...]

4 IMPORT ANT SAFETY INSTR UCTIONS Read these instr uctions. Keep these instructions. Heed all war nings. Follow all instructions. Do not use this apparatus near water . Clean only with a dr y cloth. Do not block an y ventilation openings. Install in accordance with the manufacturer’ s instr uctions. Do not install near an y heat sources such as r[...]

5 with liquids, such as vases, on the apparatus. No naked flame sources, such as lighted candles, should be placed on the apparatus. V entilation should not be impeded b y covering the v entilation openings with items such as newspapers, table cloths, cur tains etc. THIS APP ARA TUS MUST BE EARTHED . Under no circumstances should the safety ear th [...]

6 For your own safety and to a void inv alidation of the w a rr anty please read this section carefully . SAFETY SYMB OL GUIDE For y our own safety and to a v oid in validation of the warranty all text marked with these symbols should be read carefully . WARNINGS The lightning flash with ar rowhead symbol, is intended to aler t the user to the pres[...]

7 INTRODUCTION Thank y ou for purchasing a Soundcraft MPM mixer . The MPM rang e is our most cost- effective mixing solution, bringing y ou all the features and perfor mance that y ou expect from a Soundcraft product, at an extraordinarily low price. The packaging , w hich y our MPM ar rived in, for ms part of the product and must be retained for f[...]

8 WIRING UP Mic Input The MIC input accepts XLR-type connectors and is designed to suit a wide rang e of BALANCED or UNBALANCED lo w-lev el signals, whether from deli- cate vocals requiring the best lo w-noise perfor mance, or dr um kits needing maximum headroom. Professional dynamic, condenser or ribbon mics are best because these will be LO W IMP[...]

9 A ‘Y’ lead ma y be required to connect to equipment with separate send and retur n jacks as sho wn below: Stereo Inputs STEREO 1/2 These accept 3-pole 6.35mm (1/4") jacks, or 2-pole mono jacks which will automatically ground the ‘cold’ input. Use these inputs for sources such as ke yboards, dr um machines, synths, tape machines or as[...]

10 Polarity (Phase) Y ou will probably be familiar with the concept of polarity in electrical signals and this is of par ticular importance to balanced audio signals. Just as a balanced signal is highly effective at cancelling out unwanted interference, so two microphones picking up the same signal can cancel out, or cause serious degradation of th[...]

11 PROBLEM SOL VING Basic problem solving is within the scope of an y user if a few basic r ules are follo wed. • Get to know the Block Diag ram of y our console (see pag e 12). • Get to know w hat all controls and/or connections in the system are supposed to do. • Learn where to look for common trouble spots. The Block Diagram is a represent[...]

12 BLOCK DIA GRAM[...]

13 MONO INPUT CHANNEL 1 Mic Input The MIC input accepts XLR-type connectors and is designed to suit a wide rang e of B ALANCED or UNBALANCED signals. Professional dynamic, condenser or ribbon mics are best because these will be LO W IMPEDANCE. Y ou can use low-cost HIGH IMPED ANCE mics, but the lev el of background noise will be higher . If y ou tu[...]

14 The Send ma y also be tapped off as an alter native pre-fade, pre-EQ direct output if required, using a lead with tip and ring shor ted tog ether so that the signal path is not interr upted (see below). 5 Gain This knob sets how much of the source signal is sent to the rest of the mixer . T oo high, and the signal will distor t as it o verloads [...]

15 POST -F ADE), but for Foldback or Monitor feeds it is impor tant for the send to be independent of the fader (this is called PRE-F ADE). A UX SENDS 1 and 2 are both globally switchable betw een pre and post-fade (see master section on pag e 21). Aux 3 is alwa ys post-fade. 8 P AN This control sets the amount of the channel signal feeding the Lef[...]

16 STEREO INPUT CHANNELS 1 INPUTS STEREO 1/2 These inputs accept 3-pole 6.35mm (1/4") jacks. Use these inputs for sources such as ke yboards, dr um machines, synths, tape machines or processing units. The inputs are BALANCED for lo w noise and top quality from professional equipment, but y ou can use UNBALANCED sources b y wiring up the jacks [...]

17 7 F ADER The 60mm F ADER gives y ou smooth control of the o verall signal le vel in the channel strip, allowing precise balancing of the v arious source signals being mixed to the Master Section. It is important that the input lev el is set cor rectly to giv e maximum tra vel on the fader w hich should nor mally be used at around the “0” mar[...]

18 MASTER SECTION[...]

19 1 POWER INDICA T OR This LED lights to show w hen pow er is connected to the console. 2 PHANT OM POWER Man y professional condenser mics need PHANTOM PO WER, which is a method of sending a po wering voltag e down the same wires as the mic signal. Press the switch to enable the +48V pow er to all of the MIC inputs. The adjacent LED illuminates wh[...]

20 12 HEADPHONES SOCKET The PHONES output is a 3-pole 6.35mm (1/4") jack, wired as a stereo output, ideally for headphones of 200 Ω or g reater. 8 Ω headphones are not recommended. 13 METERS & AFL/PFL ACTIVE LED The three-colour peak reading BARGRAPH METERS normally show the le vel of the signal(s) selected b y the monitor source-selec[...]

21 AUX 22 AUX MASTERS These three controls set the output lev els of the three Aux Outputs. 23 AFL These After F ade Listen switches route their respective aux output signal to the monitor/headphones out- puts. 24 PRE/POST SWITCHES These two s witches globally switch the A UX 1 and AUX 2 feeds, respectiv ely , on all the input modules to be either [...]

22 USING Y OUR MPM CONSOLE The final output from y our sound system can only ev er be as good as the w eakest link in the chain, and especially important is the quality of the source signal because this is the star ting point of the chain. Just as y ou need to become familiar with the control functions of y our mixer , so y ou must recognise the im[...]

23 • Repeat this procedure on other channels as required. As more channels are added to the mix, the meters ma y mov e into the red section. Adjust the o verall lev el using the Master Faders if necessar y . • Listen carefully for the characteristic sound of “feedback”. If y ou cannot achiev e satisfactor y input le v el setting without fee[...]

24 FITTING OPTIONAL RA CK-MOUNT BRACKETS (MPM12/2) The rack-mount kit part number is RW5753 DIMENSIONS[...]

25 APPLICA TIONS APPLICA TION 1 - LIVE SOUND REINFORCEMENT APPLICA TION 2 - MULTISPEAKER APPLICA TIONS This configuration demonstrates how multiple speak er configurations can be driven b y the EPM.[...]

26 APPLICA TION 3 - PLACES OF W ORSHIP This configuration uses the A ux 3 output to driv e an induction loop for the hard of hearing . A ux 1 output is used to g enerate foldback monitoring for the speaker/sing er (A ux 2 could also be used for foldback but has been omitted for clarity). The main outputs are used to driv e the main speaker system. [...]

27 APPLICA TION 4 - RECORDING The inser t points on channels 1-8 ma y be used to feed a multitrack recorder as shown (link the send and retur n signals). The Mix outputs are used for a preliminar y stereo mix on a D A T recorder .[...]

28 TYPICAL CONNECTING LEADS[...]

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30 MARK-UP SHEETS Y ou ma y freely copy these pag es, and use them to record the settings used for par ticular applications/gigs.[...]

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32 WARRANTY 1 Soundcraft is a trading division of Har man International Industries Ltd . End User means the person who first puts the equipment into regular operation. Dealer means the person other than Soundcraft (if an y) from whom the End User purchased the Equipment, provided such a person is authorised for this purpose b y Soundcraft or its ac[...]