Mackie VLZ 1642 pro querie

[fury]

Hi, the best way learning to swim is to be thrown in the deep.
So i bought a Mackie VLZ 1642 vlz pro to get me going:
A few questions:
I own a Korg MS 2000, an Access Virus Indigo and a Clavia
Nordrack 3.
I connected them to my mackie using unbalanced audio cables going
from the synth's audio out to the line in jacks of my mackie,
on the first 6 mono line channels(2 cables for each synth).
I've set the correct level to
each channel as subscribed in the manual.
The only channel of 6 that produces sounds is the first, connected
to the output of the Indigo, the other channels are DEAD,though
the appropriate led's on the Mackie flicker. What did i miss?
Another thing, about the channel that does play(line in/mono
channel one):
It plays STEREO, i mean, a mono channel tied to one synth's
audio out! Is this normal?
Why does it still play stereo after the l/r button is activated?
If i use the channel strip it's fader the volume doesn't change. Why?

Thanx in advance!

[Ted]

Fury-

I'm trying to picture how you have things set up. If you have the light flickering ont he channel but no signal coming out, you probably don't have the L/R button engaged. That's what tells the signal to go to the main outputs. The first channel probably does have that button engaged. It's normal for it to play stereo...actually, it's not really playing stereo; it's still playing mono, but it's the same signal coming out of both speakers. You'll probably want to pan channel 1 all the way to the left and channel 2 all the way to the right (or vice versa); same for channels 3/4 and 5/6. That way each keyboard/module will be playing in stereo. Eventually, if you use modules with individual outs or other sound sources, you may want to have the pan knob set somewhere in the middle to place the source somewhere in the stereo field; however, if you're just using the main L/R outs of a module you'll usually want to have them panned hard left and right.

If that doesn't work, make sure no "Solo" buttons are activated.

Let us know how things work out!

-Ted