Mackie mixer issue: pan on a CFX 24

[JohnCovach]

I have an older Mackie CFX 24 and normally don't do much with the pan controls on the channel strip. But we've started using it for headphone practice in our studio and so I was hoping to use the stereo field to separate out the guitar from the keyboards to make things easier to hear generally.

So I assigned these channels to subs 1 and 2 and began working with the pan knob. To my surprise, the knob does only hard left, center, and hard right, with no other blending between the left and right--you can move the knob from hard left to hard right but it makes no difference, it's all center until you get to the other side. All of the other channels work exactly the same way. I've checked and double checked the signal routing, used the main outs and the headphone out--always the same result.

Is this a faulty component in the output section or do all of these mixers do this? I have another Mackie mixer and the pan pots on it are fine, though it is not in the CFX series.

[loudboy]

Time for a trip to Sound Source!

[okie]

I've got an older CFX16 and mine also does exactly what you described. I don't think the pan knobs work to actually pan the channels and only works hard left or right to assign to the subgroups, kinda bogus if you ask me. Just one of the reasons it's now regulated to back up duty.

[JohnCovach]

That's kinda what I suspect too. For most live situations, you don't need more than hard left, hard right, and center. I have access to another one. I'll pick it up today and test it to see if the same thing happens.