Rehearsal: Mic and Speakers Setup Rehearsal: Mic and Speakers Setup
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Rehearsal: Mic and Speakers Setup

Getting your mic, mixer, and speakers working

Setup and troubleshooting for our Rehearsal rooms

This guide will help you set up the mics, mixer, and speakers in our Rehearsal rooms, and troubleshoot any issues along the way.

This applies to all our Rehearsal mixers. Some have faders, others have knobs for gain and channel volume, but they all work the same way and have their features in the same spots.

🎛️ Setting up the mics and mixer

1. Switch on the mixer and check the blue power light is lit. The power cable should be properly plugged in.

2. Switch on the speakers and check the power light is on. The power cable should be plugged in and the speakers switched on at the wall — they should be set to Line (not Mic) level.

3. Plug the mic (or instrument) into Channel 1. The mute button on the channel should be off, the switch on the mic should be on, and if there's a headphones button on the channel, that should be unpressed too.

4. If you're using a ZED 6FX mixer, also make sure the instrument button (guitar icon) at the top and the mute button (headphones icon) are both unpressed.

ZED 6FX instrument and mute buttons

5. Slowly turn up the Gain knob on the channel you're using to about 12 o'clock — it's the knob at the top of the channel.

Gain knob on channel
Gain knob on ZED 10FX channel

6. The Volume slider/knob at the bottom of Channel 1 should be pushed up to about ¾ of the way. As you speak into the mic, the LED lights on the channel should flash green.

Channel volume slider

7. Turn up the Main Mix slider/knob, the last one on the right, to a reasonable level (about ¾ of the way up), and make sure its mute button is off.

Main Mix slider
Main Mix knob on ZED 10FX

You should now have audio through the speakers.

🎙️ Troubleshooting a broken mic or XLR cable

If a mic or XLR cable isn't working, check the following:

Mute buttons: every channel and the MAIN output have mute buttons, shown by a small red light when engaged. Disengage all of them.

Main output slider: this should be turned up. When output is being sent from the mixer, the LED lights on the right side will flash green.

Mics and cables: test each mic and cable to pinpoint if one is faulty.

Channels: try plugging into a different channel on the mixer.

🔇 No sound from speakers

If you have output lights on the mixer but still no sound from the speakers, check the following:

Power lights: the speakers should have power lights on. If not, switch them on at the wall and on the back of the speakers themselves.

Output cables: two speaker output cables should be connected to the "main out" ports on the back of the mixer.

Line switch: the switches on the back of the speakers should be set to LINE, not MIC.

🔈 One speaker isn't working

If just one speaker is working and the other isn't, check the following:

Power light: the speaker should have a power light on. If not, switch it on at the wall and on the back of the speaker itself, or try the power cable from the working speaker.

Output cables: both speaker output cables should be connected to the "main out" ports on the back of the mixer.

Line switch: the switch on the back of the speaker should be set to LINE, not MIC.

Panning: check the mixer to make sure your channel isn't panned over to one side only.

📢 One or both speakers sound blown or distorted

Line switch: the switches on the back of the speakers should be set to LINE, not MIC — if set to MIC, you may get distorted, poor-quality sound.

Cables: remove and reinsert the speaker cables from the back of the speakers and mixer.

Effects: check the settings on the mixer to make sure you don't have any unwanted effects engaged.

⚡ Quick checks

  • Power: if there's no power to the unit, try a different mains socket.
  • Speakers: check the power to the speakers.
  • Cables: check the speaker cables are connected to the main outputs from the mixer.
Mixer and speaker cable connection overview

Still stuck? Don't worry — our team's on live chat and WhatsApp 24/7, and we're always happy to help.

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