Mackie 402 VLZ4

I use small mixers a lot. I am a solo act, acoustic guitar and me. Was gonna get this model with effects, but there is NO pedal socket to switch the FX, maybe "the doubler" for choruses in songs, but no.


I have been using a small Alesis Muluimix 4 USB, it has USB for very easy laptop/I phone recording as I perform. This "old friend" Alesis has worked with me for one year and done really well. Knowing how to setup a mixer is very important & the Alesis gave me a nice warm sound, coupled to my JBL Eon 515 (maybe 2 sometimes).

The Mackie has a much cleaner tone on the microphone, the "guitar button" on the 2 main channels sounds better than the "guitar button" on my Alesis,

My EQ never gets more than 1/4 turn up or down, although the Mackie has a massive amount more EQ, for me it is wasted.

But no USB, so I will record "wav" into my laptop & keep saving every 1/4 hour (3 or 4 numbers) to save hard drive space & the inevitable "crash" when memory is full.

The Mackie power supply wires are much more durable than the Alesis, but I never had any problems with the Alesis power supply & wires.

Main item for me is a mounting bracket on the back, so I can hang this on the side handles of my active speakers, its eye level & very easy to adjust while performing The Mackie has exactly the same mounting holes for a bracket as the Alesis, so I can swap the bracket easy enough.

For almost twice the cost and "no" USB. I will use it for a year & make up my mind whether it is good or not (of course its good). AS we cannot tell how good or bad until we use them for a while, but first impressions are very good.

we carry one of these mixers to almost every job.
its the perfect size to keep handy as a backup for our larger main mixers.
it is also enough on its own for very small jobs such as a conference where a presenter wishes to use a microphone or two and perhaps connect audio from a laptop presentation.
the guitar setting is also a neat button to have, with this you can connect an instrument directly, alongside a microphone. it really is a versatile little mixer.
Several of our Dj's now carry these as well - connecting their controller into the stereo feed, their microphone into a channel and then having a backup music source such as iPod/MP3 connected. This allows the controller and their laptop to be rebooted whilst the music continues.

i got this for use in my home studio. as is typical of Mackie products, it's a solid, well made piece of kit that does what i need it to without any fuss. my only criticism is that not all the knobs have the 'half-way' notch; which in low lighting/an awkward location would help to make it even easier to use. i don't feel that's something should be held against it though, it works great, and doesn't seem to have any problems with unwanted noise. even though it only has four channels, it's certainly flexible enough for use either in a small live setup, or (as i have it) to help with routing my different sound sources to my home studio amp.
really happy with this!

I've been using the four channel Mackie 402 VLZ4 as a recording mixer and on guitar meets DJ gigs, and it has performed exceptionally on both situations. The chassis is made of thick steel, connectors feel solid, knobs turn smoothly and everything is logically laid out. Good build quality all around.

Channels 1 and 2 are for microphone or line level input and have a high impedance switch, a low-cut switch and a two band EQ. You can configure these as a stereo pair with the pan button. Global switchable 48-volt phantom power is only fed to the XLR connectors, not the 6.3 mm jacks. The preamps sound lovely - tons of gain and very clear. Channels 3 and 4 are for stereo or mono line input. They get hard panned if both are connected. There are also tape in / outs that can be used for connecting to an audio interface. Tape in can optionally be routed to main out, which essentially makes it channels 5 and 6. Nice!

There is only one pair of balanced outputs available, which might be an issue for some. I use headphones for monitoring and mixing, so for me it's been fine. Also there are no variable pan knobs, mute switches or effect sends. Take a look at the eight channel 802 VLZ4 if you think you will miss these features.

This is a really good no-frills small format mixer. It's simple, well built and sounds great!