My old Yamaha HS8s went down far enough, too. The Genelecs’ sensitivity control has a decent range, but not enough for me. I don’t like things too loud. Not for creating and mixing anyway!
I’ve tried several from the older VLZ lines, and I’d choose them over a Soundcraft EPM.
But I’d go with an A&H ZED over a Mackie VLZ.
In terms of size, yeah I think that the 1202 is smaller than the other 2 brands smallest with 2 sends. So if that’s important I’d go with that one.
I’ve just gone from an A&H ZED 14 to a Mackie 1642 VLZ4 and I much prefer the Mackie due to its superior routing and a few quality of life features (marked unity gain/settings on knobs, stereo Aux returns, all inputs/outputs except Tape using TS/TRS etc). Though the build quality on the A&H is better and 100mm faders is always nice.
Sound wise, I also prefer the Mackie, which goes against common knowledge as the A&H is supposed to sound better (its EQs do to my ears), but the Mackie just sounds more open to my ears.
2 Likes
Interesting I always thought my Mackie 1202 was sounding crap
Haha I just went from a Mackie SR24.4.2 VLZ to a ZED14 
Main Reason being that I wanted a much more compact mixer but with 4 sends for fx.
First I tried an EPM8. Not very much headroom and changed the sound too significantly for me. Nice that it can overdrive in a useable way. Great, but nothing amazing.
The sends were also short of 2 for my use. And all pots felt cheap and were a little too close to eachother. They are a little on the ZED as well, but not as annoyingly.
I really like the clear color coding of faders and pots on both EPM and ZED though. On the VLZ and other Mackies all faders are white and the colors on the pots are a little too earthy, plus they cover a smaller area. Which is a great thing about the pots. A good size and just exactly not too close to eachother.
In terms of sound the non-Onyx VLZ’s I’ve owned had a very neutral sound. Realised that when a/b’ing against the EPM.
Haven’t had the oppotunity with the ZED, since I had (finally) sold the other one at the time.
But it does have significantly higher headroom. Really have to push those gains far to clip, depending on the input of course. But judging by how far down I need the headphone gain and what the master meter shows, the overall signal shouldn’t be lower. But haven’t really had the oppotunity to test.
In terms of EQ, I agree that the VLZ brings out more frequencies. Means that you can’t push it as much, which might be a good thing. The HF on all 3 is set to 12k. So the curves must be different. On EPM it has a more airy sound and you can push it more. On ZED it seems more neutral in contrast to what I’ve heard in demos.
I’m fine with that 
Overall the 4 sends, narrow width, 4 stereo tracks, color coding, nicer feeling pots, smoother and better quality faders and the knowing of it being more easy to repair if a channel blows due to how it’s build is all things that makes it my favorite mixer atm.
But I would choose Mackies if it shouldn’t be an A&H. They have the most options in terms of routing. But I really do like that you can choose to have 2 of the extra stereo ins send to a channel. This saves me some space. I have my 2 reverbs send to one channel for instance. They both have their own tone control for the highs, so I just take off the same lows on both
The current Onyx VLZ’s might sound better than the ZED’s, I don’t know 
1 Like
Just reviving this thread as I just ordered a Mackie 1202 VLZ4 and there’s a ton of great info in here. I am hoping to use the AUX sends to feed my iPad Pro and use AUM as an effects Rack to bring back into the Mackie on the Stereo Returns.
I also plan to use the Alt 3/4 Outs on the Mackie to feed samples to my SP 404Mk2.
Right now I’m looking for a nice 4-In / 4-Out Audio Interface to be hosted by the iPad to receive the Aux sends and feed back to the Board via AUM. Right now I am looking at the following interfaces:
UA Volt 476
Steinberg UR44c
Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6 Mk2
I’m trying to keep the budget to around $300-$350, and would love to know your thoughts.
Can’t wait for this board. I previously had the Soundcraft 12MTK mixer, but it was a piece of junk that failed on me after 1.5 years of light use. The Mackie sounds like a solid work horse for my needs.
MOTU M4. Hard to get, but the converters are very good.
2 Likes
It arrived…right now I’m just using the SP 404mk2 to pass audio from the iPad to the Mackie…going to experiment with using the Headphones (3/4) on the SP to send effects to the board *:
Now where is that 1/8 to Stereo 1/4 cable again?
*Nope…3/4 is just mirrored of 1/2 for now…need to figure out how to do CUE send from the SP…it might work.
Is anyone using the RCA tape in jacks to receive computer audio from their interface? How do they sound in comprising to the line ins? It would be nice not to tie up a stereo input with the computer audio.
Although I guess you also cannot route this to the Alt 3+4 bus.
I’m running my turntable into the RCA Tape In on my 402VLZ4. I have not compared with the 1/4" ins, I’m not sure I have a long enough RCA to 1/4" cable pair.
1 Like
I have an 802 on the way. I sold my 1202 because it was too big, but missed it. The 802 has one less stereo line in, and one less fx send and return, but adds a dedicated headphone level knob, and Hi-Z for guitars. So it seems perfect.
I just wish they had built-in USB I/O
1 Like
Had to double check this on my 1202 cause I almost didn’t believe it, but it’s actually true, interesting choice.
Otherwise, I really love my 1202. Smallest mixer for this amount of channels and two aux sends. So much routing options. I think it sounds great, and I actually kinda like pots for volume.
2 Likes
Picked up a cheap 1202 which unfortunately has a dead channel (9-10)
Anyone with experience in repairs suggest any troubleshooting?
I have the same, and does serve me very well for al lot of years now. Perfect balance between size, channels and routing options. Also in combination with an OT (alt 3/4 route as others mentioned).
I have an 802 and think it’s pretty great.
There was a great deal on a 1202 posted locally and I was thinking to up-size but the lack of an headphone level knob has given me pause. I prefer using Control Room for my monitors which means I’d need to have a separate monitor control unit to listen only on headphones without turning my speakers all the way off.
I saw on a mod someone did on Gearspace where the control source of the Main Mix is pre-fader/knob (of the main mix). I’d personally loooove this. Similarily an Alt 3-4 fader (that is after control source) would open up a lot.
I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate the Ext Ins on the AR to incorporate bus compression (which unfortunately the AR has no volume/mute control over). My current iteration is to have the Main Mix feed the AR Ext Ins, then the AR is returned to the Tape Ins, and everything can be monitored appropriately via CR.
Just dropping thoughts would love to hear anyone else’s experiences/workarounds.This thread has been helpful to read through
1 Like
I like this little mixer so much that I impulsively made it a Mixingtable-style hardwood stand with wrist rest
20 Likes
Hey maybe an odd question but I’m looking at secondhand 1202 vlz4’s and I’m wondering - do they use their own bespoke power cables, or could I use any old desktop computer power cable I have lying around?
Aux 2 should still work like any fx send and I’m pretty sure it’s post-fader. This is how my old VLZ mixer worked which did not have the additional Aux 1 control section.
1202 VLZ4 use the standard power cable like you use for a PC. Note that the 802 VLZ4 has a bespoke supply (which for me makes the size difference less interesting, the 802 incl the bespoke supply is basically just as heavy as the 1202:)
6 Likes
Excellent, thank you!
2 Likes