Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro Compact Mixer Review

(Mackie | Posted 2001-07-26)

Over the past year we have conversed with many of you, and whether through e-mail or our forums the feedback has always been enlightening. One of most interesting things about our readers we have come to realize is that the majority of you are either actively pursuing home recording or are in the process of acquiring gear for a project studio setup. This is no surprise, but nevertheless requires a little shift in focus on our part. To provide you with the content you need, Music Gear Review is committed to more reviews of gear that you can utilize in this environment.

So when asked by our friends at Mackie a month or so ago what we'd most like to check out from a review product standpoint, we responded with a few answers. One of the products we jumped on was the 1202 VLZ-Pro Compact Mixer. The 1202 is a sweet little 12x2x1 ( 12 line inputs, 4 mono - 4 stereo ) mixer featuring 4 XLR microphone channels with Mackie's awesome dynamic mic pre-amps. The 1202 is the perfect beginner mixer for the home or project studio enthusiast. It's also a great asset to any experienced studio hobbyist or engineer. You never know how many uses there are for these units, and as you read on, you'll find out why.

First off, the microphone pre-amps deserve a paragraph all their own. Mackie calls these XDR pre-amps which stand for 'Xtended Dynamic Range". These pre-amps have a 0-60db gain range which means they will take some serious "signal". Additionally, the 1202 boasts a 130dB dynamic range for 24-bit, 192kHz sampling rate inputs. These are high end pipes, folks, and this little compact mixer is built to take whatever you can run through it. Let's not forget a distortion rating under 0.0007%! Not only can these pre-amps take a super dynamic signal, they'll keep it clean too!

But I won't bore you with specs. After all, only the most technical folks will be able to translate that garbley-gook. If specs are what you want, check out the Mackie product information page for this unit right here: http://www.mackie.com/Products/VLZ_PRO_Series/1202VLZPRO.asp

As far as flexibility and sound quality go, though, we put the 1202 VLZ-Pro through its paces during its stay at the Music Gear Review crib. The majority of the time we were running the mixer as a front end to our DAW ( digital audio workstation ), but we also ran it straight into an amp and utilized it as a small PA mixer as well. You won't find these units to be cheap by any means, but value should always be gauged by quality - and there are oodles of that to go around.

Recording with the unit was a breeze. We don't really have to worry about miking drums here, so if that's a need of yours you'll want to check out some of the other models with more XLR inputs such as the 1604 or 1642. For our purposes, though, the mic inputs were either used for vocals, miking our amps with Shure SM57s - or both. For one such recording session, we plugged our Alesis SR16 drum machine into one of the stereo lines and the bass and electric guitars went though their PODs into the other stereo lines as well. There are actually 4 sets of stereo line-ins on this mixer in addition to the 4 XDR XLR jacks! In these sessions, we had just about everything but keyboards. Keep in mind, though, you'll still have 1 more available stereo channel to run those into as well.

The simple truth is that the sound quality of this mixer is excellent. The signals are clean, there's plenty of dynamic headroom and there is enough flexibility that this unit would be an asset in just about any environment. Recordings made with this unit in Cakewalk Pro Audio 9 were stellar - but don't limit yourself or your uses for the 1202. I've even heard of guitarists who use extensive effects rigs using Mackie compact mixers in live performances to patch everything in and out. We can't say enough about this unit, especially for those of you who are putting together a new home or project studio. You need to start out with a high quality cornerstone unit when you engage this type of project, and the 1202-VLZ Pro is a great unit to begin with.

Bottom Line:

The 1202-VLZ Pro carries an MSRP of around $450 and can be found on the street for close to $380 in some places. In our opinion, what you get is a professional quality compact mixer with the best sounding microphone pre-amps in this price range. Sure, you can pay less for a compact mixer from other manufacturers, but you know the old saying..

Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro Compact Mixer Review

$310

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