Greetings from Austin, TX USA. Great video! You sound great and your solos are very, very good. Question: When you were doing the outside gig (sitting on the hay bale), I noticed a mixing board in back of you. Was this board plugged into channels 3/4 and if so, does this bypass the built in mixer on the Flex?
Thank you, glad you like my playing! I had to look back on this video as it was a while ago.....I'm not actually using the Flex with the desk in that clip, although I have. Channels 3 and 4 don't have mic preamps so they do work better out of a desk.
I don't think it's loud enough for a band....check out my review of the JBL PRX One.....it is significantly louder.....still don't think it's enough for a band with live drums on it's own except maybe for vocals only.
Sounds good but i wish it had a better eq. I have had a Makie 808S for about 20 years and still use it for practice and gigs. Makie makes very good equiptment. I might have to buy this one for small gigs. Thanks for the video.
Great little bit of info on the Mackie SRM Flex. I just got mine last week and did a 4 hour gig this past Saturday. Outdoor with almost 180 degree seating. It performed flawlessly. I wasn't sure and took backup but after sound check I realized it had what it takes. I was truly afraid it wouldn't disperse a wide enough sound envelope. I was wrong, it did just fine. I like your acoustic. What model is it?
That's really good to know, especially outdoors as the sound can really get lost easily. My acoustic is a Takamine www.takamine.com/TF360SBG they don't make it any more. It used to have a cool tube preamp but it although it sounded good it was a pain powering it so I replaced it with the non-tube preamp that fits in the same slot. I bought it to play live, but it sounds amazing acoustically, certainly holds its own compared to my Martin HD28!!
That little Mackie is pretty neat. Loud enough for busking outdoors or for a small indoor stage with a drummer? Never mind, saw your feedback later in the video.
I prefer wedges. But I'm sure with more practice/experience I will get the in-ear sound good. For vocals the IEMs are so much better....so it's a compromise at the moment for me. If I'm doing a lot of singing I much prefer IEMs.
Hello, I would like to thank you for your generosity in sharing your opinion about the Srm Flex Mackie. I have a duo with mine. singer. also. It is. I've been using this Mackie SRM Flex equipment for about 3 years now. I'd like to know if you've noticed that when you play in places where you need more volume, it starts to stop the sound and cut the sound. It has an internal gate and maybe that's it. which closes the volume of the sound. I would like to know if you noticed this, especially when there is a stronger attack on the guitar together with the voice that is connected to a different channel. This sound cut-off occurs even when connecting to the other inputs.
It sounds to me like you're overloading the system and the built in protection is cutting in to prevent damage. The Mackie sounds great but I found it not really loud enough. I think for bigger venues using another small powered speaker from the mix output would work well.
a tip, since i have 2 pieces from the mackie and they are always very well received and the sound is really impressive, i always remove the column parts from the middle, then it's easier.
Hi Franck! I can see that you have been using the 2 pieces of Mackie SRM Flex for almost one year and you say the sound is really impressive. How do you plug them in to play? For my part, I’ve just bought a pair that I connect with a Yamaha MG12XU mixer. The user’s manual and a technician from Mackie (whom I contacted via Facebook) advised me to connect my mixer with XLR/TRS cables (XLR from the mixer to TRS into channel 1 or 2 of the Mackies). The sound is very good but extremely weak. The gain of my instruments (two guitars, two voices and a drum machine) being set perfectly, I have to push the volumes of the Yamaha mixer to its maximum and the volume of the Mackies to three-quarters before having a correct sound and strong enough for a rehearsal but which will certainly not be sufficient to send the necessary volume during a small concert because we would not have any room for manoeuvre... So, I made a short test and tried by directly plugging in a cable xlr/xlr from the mixer to input 1 of the Mackie and there the difference in volume is just huge. I immediately got loud volume and a clear sound (there is no distortion). Do you think it could damage the Mackies if we play like this for several hours during a concert? Have you ever had the occasion to use this kind of configuration? Thank you in advance for your response.
Hi. I play in a rock / pop covers band. Do you think 2 of these together would be enough for a social club / large pub if it was just for vocals and a bit of acoustic guitar. All the other instruments use amps. We do get quite loud
I've used it in a large pub for vocals on its own over a large band.....but I used it solo in a big crowded noisy pub and it was on the limit. I'm not sure I'd buy 2 of them though....I think I'd get a a good 12 or 15" powered speaker that you could slave, otherwise you've got 2 mixing desks!
Do you still use this mate ? I’m currently using a Yamaha Stagepas 600bt , but looking to fully upgrade my set. I was looking at Mackie; either the powered 215xts or the flex line array. Is it something that you’ve been able to get used to ? I like the portability element of line arrays, but don’t wish to sacrifice quality of sound. Most of the venues I play, I go into in-house systems, however, the idea is to do more corporate and wedding events.
I’ve just bought a JBL PRX one, see my latest video. The Mackie sound good but it’s not that loud, and only has a couple of usable inputs. The jbl is much louder with multiple inputs so much better for me….but more expensive.
Would you say that I could use this with backing tracks from a laptop and the bass would still sound good. Oh by the way, you should have asked the guy at the end to come and sing himself...lol. There is always one hence why I much prefer working men's clubs than pub gigs. After a few pints you are expected to know everyone's favourite song. You are a great musician by the way.
Thank you! Yes it will work with backing tracks, it's a good full range sound, just not really powerful. You can bluetooth to it as well, definitely from a phone and maybe a laptop I guess!
Hi Richard, I have used it for small pub gigs no problem. It's not mega loud, but I've not struggled so far, although it is running almost flat-out. It sounds great. I don't think it would be loud enough for a vocal PA with a band. I've looked at the Bose and JBL systems, they're quite a bit louder.....but also bigger and over twice the price!!
It's a Takamine TF360SBG. They're discontinued but were made in Japan, the Tradesman series!! It has a huge neck. It did have the valve preamp, which is a real pain to power so I swapped it for the non-valve one which sounds good.....same as the one in the Glenn Frey signature model. It's great plugged in, and also gives my Martin HD28 a run for its money acoustically. My Maton is the EGB808TE Tommy Emmanuel model. Lovely guitar too.
My other column system is modular and you can leave parts of the column out....which the bloke at gear for music knew too, so luckily for me he wasn't laughing uncontrollably at my stupidity!!
It does, but I don't think wattage is a good indicator of real world volume (my 7 watt valve guitar amp is much louder than this!).....the Maximum SPL Peak is a better measure and it's 118dB on this. The JBL PRX One for example is 130dB.....decibels aren't a linear scale so that's much louder....the Mackie sounds great but not that loud in use.
