How to Service a mixing desk part 4 - Mixer Cleaning
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- Опубліковано 19 жов 2024
- How to service a mixing desk. Mixer Cleaning. Mixing Desk Service. - With everything out of the desk and the chassis spotless, it's time to have a closer look at how to clean the XLR and jack sockets along with the ribbon cables. I've already given the PCBs a good going over so will give you a close up of these little details.
For jack sockets grab a load of cotton buds and some 99.9% Isopropyl alcohol. Pour the alcohol into a pot, dip the cotton buds in and run them in and out of the jack sockets. twist the bud as you do it so that it cleans the surface inside properly. You should probably clean 2 or 3 sockets per cotton bud before discarding it.
To clean XLR sockets, do a similar thing but use wooden tooth picks. The absorb some alcohol when you dip them into the pot then run them in and out of the XLR sockets. For the male sockets, you can spray some Deoxit D5 in there and then run cotton bud around. after that, do the same with the Isopropyl alcohol.
To clean the ribbon cables, spray some dioxin D5 into the female holes and put some Deoxit D5 on the male pins. work the D5 around the male pins with a flux brush. Leave this to dry before putting the ribbon cables back together. Also give the actual plastic ribbon parts of the ribbon cables a clean with some wipes just to remove anything that may have accumulated there.
This is a Mackie 24 8 desk which may look like a large format mixing desk but it isn't. Each group of 8 channels come on 1 PCB and the same goes for the master section so it's a simple and easy desk to take apart.
In case you missed part one, here's the link : • How to service a mixin...
In case you missed part 2 : • How to service a mixin...
Here's a link to part 3 of how to service a mixing desk: • How to service a mixin...
Here's a link to my how to service a mixing desk playlist : • How to service a mixin...
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Wow. Awesome guide. I've just bought an old 2nd-hand 16 track desk that's a bit noisy so I'm about to embark on a big clean. This is a great guide so I hope that my end result is a nice sounding one. Thanks for all the effort putting this together.
I used your videos to service my dated 32x8 with a 24E. That was 56 channels of knobs and switches. Took me a week to service the boards following your instruction. I had some issues with the left channel popping out when it warmed up and a few other issues, not to mention scratchy pot. Now my boards work perfectly and look brand new. Thanks for taking the time to walk us through the process.
Fantastic. Glad it worked. I always worry that people will rush it and power it back up before it’s dried.
You can use the same techniques on microphones and other studio equipment
I now have a Mackie 24:8 that works like new after stripping it all apart and following the instructions in this series of videos to clean it! Thank you 🙏
Fantastic news and thanks for the Instagram message
Thanks for sharing this! I am about to sell my Mackie 24-8 plus the 24 extension board and I am thinking of cleaning it. Probably mainly the surface ;) It is amazing to see how solid these consoles have been built back then. They still sound so good.
I'm going to follow your videos when I clean my Midas Venice 240 tomorrow. Thank you for giving me the knowledge and confidence! Good luck to me! I own a live music venue in Japan. The Midas mixer was given to me last fall from another venue owner who went digital. He believed in me. So far my venue has been successful thanks to my outstanding sound tech. We are both going to be doing this cleaning with a passion!
My son just picked up a Mackie 1604 mixing desk that needs a good cleaning. After watching all 4 parts of your video, we're going to give it a go. Thanks!
Fantastic! Those 16 channel Mackie mixers are a perfect size. I could never track one down.
Make sure when you’re cleaning to take your time and let everything dry before reassembly. Let me know if you have any questions
Will do!
@@PherotoneStudios Just wanted to give you an update on my Mackie 1604 service. After following your steps, we got the mixing desk back together and tested all the channels. Everything works! I was a bit nervous about the ribbon cables as they are rev A versions, but we cleaned all the header contacts and no problems. Thanks again for such a clear process in your videos.
RayK
I’ve only just seen this. So glad it all works. It takes ages to do but it’s worth it
Pherotone Studios Your video was a tremendous help in tacking this job. Thanks!
so, after watching these videos bro, and after hearing a local vintage electronics serviceman turn me down on servicing my Allen & Heath board, I Jumped right in. I did change the order of things Deoxit, alcohol, Deoxit (again)...And I got to share with you something that worked even better for cleaning 1/4" jacks and XLR holes >>> Mascara wands (certain types) I found some that had pipe-cleaner like metal stems and a plumbing like snake brush at the tip worked like a charm.Thanks for demonstrating we can take care our own shit...one thing though, all my pots were fastened to the deck with 1/2" machine nuts...took 16 hours to do the same job on a 20 channel console
Ah man that’s fantastic! I’m a little surprised that they refused to service your desk but I suppose less of these old desks are around now so less people know what to do with them.
As long as you take your time and do a thorough job throughout, nothing can really go wrong.
Mine isn’t a proper large format console so only takes around 8 hours to service. Allen and Heath desks are a better desk all round and I hope it was well worth doing?
Great shout on the mascara wands!
watching this to try to psych myself up to tear open my mackie 32-8, exact same era. big boat of a board but I love the thing. it's got a myriad of little issues but the most annoying is that all of a sudden one day all the LEDs on the meterbridge and board all went out (all at once, it was bizarre). Some local tech told me "the boards are old so no guarantees we can fix it" and I don't feel like being overcharged for them to say "sorry bud couldn't figure it" so time to get DIY.. just quite nervous as I've never done anything like this especially not on such a massive machine. will be coming back to these videos for help haha ..
Sometimes there are deeper issues but this is about as far as you can go in servicing a surface mount PCB desk like these. Just take your time, let everything dry properly and be thorough as it’s not fun doing it twice.
It will probably take 8-10 hours to clean but then leave it open to dry for a couple of days
You explain it so well.. I feel ready now.. .Thank you...
This is great stuff and quite inspiring, thanks for sharing 👍🏼
Thanks mate. Have you got an old mixer that needs a service?
Excellent video
Thanks mate
Thanks very thorough.. I had a pipe overhead drip water on my mixer . The inputs got rusty
Today I picked up a 24x8 with original box, mackie meter bridge with original box, and mackie desk/stand, all in great shape for $400. It is dusty and needs a complete strip down and clean. I see there are many here going through the trouble of doing the deep clean, so while the system is disassembled, I'm curious if anyone has re-capped the boards? Capacitors usually last 15 to 20 years before they degrade and change the circuit for the worse. Thoughts on recapping anyone?
I found a video showing a way to clean the XLR connectors with D5 Detoxit and pipe cleaners.
Did have a question, I am cleaning two ( 2 ) boards 24 x 8 and 32 x 8 and need to know where I can find replacement potentionators for a few that are broken,
Thanks A.Dunn
Pretty amazing job...,I have the 32 channel version of that Mackie.
They are such good desks, extremely versatile. If I had the space I would have kept it but my studio is too small now. Any issues with yours?
Pherotone Studios My Mackie has been in daily service since October 1994....it’s on about every day for 8:hours. It and my whole studio are pretty much overkill at this point...I just do voice over for TV stations all over the U.S. but I used to do a lot of radio production from Westwood One among others...but no real issues with the Mackie at all.....I do take the power supply out and high pressure air clean that. About every two years it gets pretty dusty with that cooling fan sucking dirt in. Lived in Los Angeles for 23 years...now in Las Vegas. I’d send pics but can’t do it hear. Thanks for the great videos though....very interesting...not sure I personally would want to go that far but at least now I know how if need be.
That’s incredible. 25 years! And always better the devil you know so I’d trust your desk over any desk that passed through several hands on eBay.
That sounds like fantastic work and if the desk doesn’t have any issues then there’s no point in changing it. I prefer an analog desk for latency free monitoring.
It is an ordeal cleaning it and you need to leave it to dry properly so it’d be out of use for maybe 24-48 hours. You just don’t want any moisture left inside it
I also have a 32 channel mackie 8 bus desk which i plan on servicing very soon because of channel drop outs and dusty pots and switches. My one also has the additional meter bridge and original power supply as well as two goose neck lights.
Hi, I realise that it could work out expensive, but have you thought of using dental floss brushes for a final IPA clean as well as /instead of toothpicks? Great series.
Good shout actually. They’d need to be quite long though but that could work really well
Hi ... Your video will be very useful for me. My 24/8 is off since 2001. And now ... it has a lot of clicks, hums and hums in the subgroups. My console is from 1996. Made in USA totally. Not assembled in china. And it sounds different from the ones that were assembled in China. I do not know why.
You think I'll clean it and I'll be able to recover. ?? I'm in love with the sound you could get in the 90's and now, with everything digital ... I can not achieve.
Thanks again, bro
Yeah it should be fine. Just take your time and be thorough. Also let everything dry out fully before reassembling it. It’s better to do it once properly than have to take it all apart again.
Also take pictures as you go so you can work out where everything went.
What make console is it?
You can cut the end of the cocktail stick then flare it out like a brush..or use tooth and gum cleaning brushes/picks.
✌️
Tobacco Pipe Cleaners are perfect for XLR connectors.
That’s a really good shout mate. That’s the part of thing that’s good to have a pack of, just in case
Great video, thank you. Just tried this on my mackie 1604, when I plugged it back in it only registers a signal on channels 11-15 (green light blinks) however I am only plugged in to channel one (xlr in) which gets no signal at all. Any idea what may have caused this? I am planning on reopening it and checking the connections again.
It sounds like some of the looms aren’t connected properly. Is there a chance one or some have been connected upside down?
Thanks so much for the reply. Not sure what you mean by looms?
Just did a quick google search re: looms. Seems to be a like a snake of xlr cables? The closest thing resembling these in my board (mackie 1604) would be the ribbon cables or molex connector. Is this perhaps what you mean? I’ve tried connecting the molex connector both ways. One way results in my initial problem (signal from channel 1 registering on 11-15) the other results in all the clipping lights turning on when the board powers up. Neither way gets the board working properly. Any suggestions? I originally opened the board up to clean it and reseat the ribbon cables because I was getting a crackly clipping sound on every channel.
Just a question about using the Mackie desk to front end a DAW using a digital interface. My digital interface is a Focusrite 18i20. I want use the Mackie to record guitar and bass, send to analog effects and add some more analog essence to the signal chain. On my Mackie I have a bank of AUX sends and AUX returns. Would these be appropriate to use for sends/returns from my effects, or should I do the split stereo cable that I've seen in one of your other videos?
I used to have that interface. Loved it. If you’re adding a compressor or eq into the chain then I’d use a split cable and do it via an insert. For other effects such as reverb or delay then I’d do it via an aux send & return. Then the aux knob acts as a way to add more / less.
Pherotone Studios Thanks for the tips!
When you use the alcohol after the Deoxit, you don't neutralize the D5 treatment then?
+Tape Leaks the alcohol is to remove the D5 from the PCB so for that part yes. For the knobs, buttons and other bits the D5 gets worked into them as it gets sprayed directly in there, the alcohol should remove that. The alcohol evaporates really quickly too.
It can’t hurt to be careful though so you could always dip a brush in alcohol to run over the PCB. Obviously not dripping wet but that’d be a good approach.
does anyone have the power unit for this desk...I have a desk but it didn't come with a PSU. Cheers
Outstanding tutorial squire. These desks really do get mucky. Any advice on how to repair the left (main balance) XLR on the ProFX12? Mine just stopped working all of a sudden. I’m now cleaning and can’t see any faults. Any advice would be muchly appreciated.
Thank you. Id give the sockets a good clean in case any gunk is in there and then have a look at the solder joints where the XLR meets the PCB to see if they've broken or anything like that. maybe spray some contact cleaner on the PCB and make sure no dirt has got in.
Worst case scenario would probably be to replace the XLR but that can be extremely difficult on those tightly packed PCBs and if there's too much heat you can end up peeling the metal wiring from inside the PCB off.
Hopefully a good clean will solve it and also clean the ribbon cables where they all clip together as it could be that
I managed to broke few of the ribbon cable connectors because they were glued together but ordered some spare connectors from online so they should be easy to replace.
Does a Mackie 32 8-bus have separate channel boards...?
It has board for each set of 8 channels so it will have 4 board for the 32 channels and another board for the master section and sub groups. 5 boards in total
So i finished cleaning up my 32 8 but on channel 8 the imput light and clip light just stays on. What could have caused this?
I’m not sure. Maybe some dirt got dislodged and is on channel 8’s section of the PCB but could be something in the inputs for that channel. I’d give the XLR and jack inputs another clean for that channel as they’re easily accessible and see if that solves it.
Make sure it’s not plugged in when you clean it though
Got to this piont and the Power distributor blew :(
What do you mean? Was it on while you were servicing it?
Pherotone Studios nope, it was the day after. Put it all back together, using photos. Everything was in the correct place. Plugged the power in and turned it on. There was a loud crackle from the area where the power goes in and the only thing that lit up was the ‘rude solo light’, nothing else is working.
I’m about to recheck everything but it makes sense there’s something wrong with the distributor.
Might just be a case of it being old and taking everything apart pushed it over the edge.
Anyway, the tutorials were a great help. Thanks again. Just need to figure this new problem out now
Oh no. That does sound a bit odd. Could any moisture have been left in there somewhere? Is it a similar desk to the Mackie in the video? I’m not too sure how to track down where the problem is but could a connection have popped off?
Pherotone Studios yeah, going to check the cables when I get in. Could have been moisture but it was at least 15hrs after the last bit of cleaning.
It’s a 24-8 like the one in the vid, but a rev D
15 hours should be more than enough time for any moisture to evaporate.
I honestly can’t think what it could be but, like you said, the distributor would make sense
so yeah reassembled it to exactly the same state as before i disassembled it, all leads and cables back to their original places, plugged it into the power supply and turned it on. about 10 seconds passed before i was greeted with two pops and some smoke, what the fuck have i done?
+ben scargill it sounds like something has shorted due to moisture somewhere. How long did you leave it between last applying anything and turning the power on?
Pherotone Studios it’s fairly likely that there is some lubricant on a pcb somewhere that I’ve missed, could that have done it? If that is the case, what can I do to repair it
it's probably some moisture stuck somewhere where a lot of power flows, like a ball of fluff soaked in something. I'd open it up and find out what started the smoke, leave it open for maybe 24 hours just so all moisture can evaporate and then investigate
Pherotone Studios just tried powering it on again, I don’t dare leave it any longer than a couple of seconds but all that happens is the “Rude Solo light” flashes red, no other lights or anything seem to come on except that one
That is odd. Something must be shorting. Which desk is it and where did the pops and smoke come from? It's quite likely that there may be a ball of dust stuck in there somewhere which has absorbed a lot of moisture from one of the cleaning products and is causing it to short.
It's probably worth taking it apart and spraying some compressed air around to dislodge anything like that. Try and see if there are any black or burnt out areas which would help track down and work out what's happened.
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