Heinz Grothaus
Erwitte, Nord Rhein Westfalen Germany
Mixer Mixer
Beeing an active musician since 1970, mixers in those days were bulky and expensive. If you were blessed to have access to such technological dainties you could count yourself as a truly privileged individual.
Necessity is the mother of invention. In the early 80’s living in a foreign land, beeing involved in missionary work and a music group a friend and co-musician even went to the lenghts of building a simple 6 channel mixer which we used then extensively. As much of the sound equipment available in those days was only high impedance ,so was this. It worked reasonably well.
Later on and for many years expensive rentals were usual, as 2000.- $US for a used mixer was just not part of the budget . This was Argentina, during the 80’s .
What a thrill when I first saw a very compact Mackie 1202 mixer in the early 90’s in Argentina in a musicstore. It was very compact, even had 4 low impedance Mike inputs , two send and returns and worked very quietly. No noise nuisense.
Again, I thought, such equipment would only be for the highly professional.
Professional it was , but also affordable.
I was able to buy a brand new Mackie 1202 for 490.-$US plus other needed sound equipment at the time for our voluntary work with the elderly and orphans.
I hate to disappoint anyone who would have expected this story to be about a with drinks and falls abused mixer. Instead I have tried to take care of it as good as I could , and after 15 years of rugged use, wear and tear it still works as good and quietly as it did when brand-new. Congratulations.
Heinz Grothaus , Germany.
