The Mackie 1202 Is a Magic Machine
I rarely do sound these days because I hate it and it makes me grumpy, but I do it for friends. For a South by Southwest rehearsal, I did sound this morning. For friends. Happy to do it. A bit complicated: two moderately famous people that were on the show, different singer every song. Oddly, it’s kind of fun to do and is helpful, so for this group of friends I’m always happy to help out.
We've all been at a stage in life where we really overcomplicate things, and I’ve been at a stage in my life where I’m simplifying. I’m definitely in the simplify stage, and the mixer I use for stuff like this now is probably made in the 90s, maybe the 80s, the Mackie 1202, the second generation, made in the USA, beyond rock solid, always sounds good, never crackly.
If you want one, they’re $50-$100 on Craigslist. You can find them kind of unused. I bought this one for like $80 at Guitar Center. I was actually looking for an original 1202, but I found this one, and then quickly after that I found the original, so I’ve got three (one’s the big one). All USA-made, very easy to work, uncomplicated.
Every musician should learn how to use one of these. There’s probably al least two or three on Marketplace/ CL in your area right now. If there’s not a clean one, wait two weeks, something will pop up. They are the most utilitarian, they sound great, you can overdrive them, you can underdrive them, and everyone’s happy with the sound.
Today we had three mics and a keyboard, and the rest, guitar amps and everything like that, were ambient. I had somebody come up to me to ask me what I was using. How is this possible?
They are honestly, if I need something bigger, I’ll just jump my other one into it so I do have all the channels I need. That hasn’t really come up, so I don’t worry about it. I can throw it in the case with the rest of my cords. It’s got a standard ICE power cable. I can always be powered--awesome.
Again, it’s like super easy to understand. You can tell somebody hey, twist that knob, blah blah, blah blah blah. No faders, which is always good when there’s a lot of people around. I prefer knobs to twist as opposed to faders too. I don’t know, you can sneeze and send everybody to the hospital for hearing aids.
So just an ode to these little workhorses today, and since no one reads blogs on Sunday, as you shouldn’t. (You shouldn’t be around reading blogs on Sunday!) The 1202 is a magic machine. Almost every major consumer mixer seems to be kind of based on it.
Y’all make life easy on yourself out there. Get yourself a 1202.