I was trying to hook up our 1604 vlz3 at our church and was wondering how the best way to do this?

http://www.mackie.com/pdf/archive/cr1604_om.pdf

There is no easy answer to this. It will depend on the mic, the speakers and the singer and genre amongst many other things. It will also probably be room dependent too although the overall eq should be able to take this out of the equation to a large extent.
Your best bet is to get someone to sweep the frequency on the mid range with a bit of positive and then a bit of negative eq to find where most affects your vocals then fine tune to your liking. Are you using a bit of reverb/chorus/echo as his can often, when used sparingly, enhance even a good singer. The biggest difference you'll probably find is from using different mics. The ubiquitous SM58 does not suit everyone but is robust, warm and forgiving but if you're after a more pure sound there are many more accurate mics you can try.

The problem is that card has only UNBALANCED inputs. You really need balanced or first run the mixer outputs through a DI backwards. Frankly, I would recommend NOT using a card within the PC as there is so much digital noise. Use either a USB or Firewire external convertor and for goodness sakes use balanced lines from teh Mackie... ALL interconnected equipment needs to be powered from the same receptacle or source. M Audio, Roland/Cakewalk and Presonus all make cards as do others.

The best way is to use a two-way crossover between the mixer and the amplifiers. In your case, the low output from teh crossover would go to the powered subs, the highs to the QSC. Use the crossover adjustment to set the frequency crossover point to get the sound quality you require.

Dan

Mackie 1604 ---> Crossover --- Highs ---> QSC --->Speakers
'
-----> Crossover --- Lows ---> Powered Subs.

You can download the manual here: http://www.mackie.com/pdf/archive/cr1604_om.pdf

If you have specific questions please update this and I'll try to get you an answer.

Dan

Decide if you want to use the AUX's or the SUB's for your monitors. (usually use the AUX).

Connect TRS cables from the appropriate AUX sends to thee amplifiers you use for your monitors or your powered monitors whichever you have.

Adjust the level using the AUX level controls for each channel to set your minitor mix.

Normally use the PreFader AUX's so monitor levels are set independent of the slide fader positions.

Here is a big hint for you: Search YouTube.com for "Soundboard" or "Soundboard setup". There are good videos there that might be different than your particular board, but there is enough commonality that you will soon be an expert!

Many of those connections REQUIRE using TRS cables (stereo style) rather than TS cables (mono style). It is possible you have mixed the cables if it worked before.

Any cable plugged into an "insert" should be a TRS (tip-ring-sleeve) cable.

Look up these connections in your 1604 manual.

Hi kielhunt
It sounds like power supply issues.
You may have bad capacitors and/or bad regulators.
If you have a multimeter you can get in there and check the dc voltages for ripple(ac voltage mixed with dc) or over/under voltages along the +/- 15volts lines.
Good luck

If these are the rotary knobs, pull them off and compare the shaft to one htat is tight. Sometimes it is a split shaft and you can GENTLY bend them out the tiniest amount to tighten the knobs.

If the shafts are plastic, try putting a few strands of thin string across the shaft before putting the knob on.

the knobs pull off but take a bit of forcee to do so.

IF IT SEEMS that the shaft itself is looser than others, best leave it alone. Replacing a pot on these takes a lot of work... MANY knobs must be pulled off and the case opened and at least a section of the board with the pots removed to access the pots.

Are you sending the main mix to the monitors or are you giving them their own mix? What about using the sub groups, use 1 for your monitor send.