ZED60 How to change Mute setting to Global?

Other A&H Products
1

I recently purchased the ZED60 for live shows. When changing batteries on a wireless mic during a show I was shocked by a full volume static hiss. Very embarrassing. I looked at the board and the channel was muted. All I could do was shut down the mains until I figured it out. Not a great moment for me professionally.

On break I found out that the Mute button does not mute the Aux Send. I went online and sure enough, Allen & Heath states that the mixers mute is not Global by default and allows sound to continue to pass through the Aux. I am not sure why A&H would choose this as the mixers default state, kinda defeats the purpose of a mute, in my opinion.

I don’t want to have to turn down the pots on every channel I mute as I work hard before a show to get the monitor mix dialed. I cannot find a button anywhere to change the mute buttons back to global. Does anyone know how to do this? Without global mutes, this mixer is unusable in live applications.

Thanks in advance.

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PS. I tried to update after I posted but was unsuccessful. After pulling down the mains the hiss continued so I then turned down the Aux Send Pot (which sends to stage monitors) and this worked. On break I found that Mutes do not affect any of the Aux Sends.

Also, I bought this mixer in October 2024 for a show in November. I reached out to Allen & Heath after the show through the website support ticket system. I never heard from A&H. I started another support ticket in December. Still nothing from A&H. I have since sent 3 emails to support@Allen-Heath.com and nothing… I tested my email client and it is working as it should.

3

If I were you, I would also be “a little” surprised - especially by the default setting of this option.
If you look at the block diagram (picture 1), you can see that there must be jumpers in each mono channel to switch to the “normal” function (“Mute means mute!”).
However, this is not even possible for the 2 stereo channels (red) and the PLAYBACK. (
I hope for your sake that the switch can be made easily after opening the console and without removing the individual circuit boards.
On the ZED14 consoles, the function of the mute button is as it should be, but there are jumper for Aux Pre-Post-Fader (see picture 2), which is located as a solder link in the middle of the circuit board.

Of course, your experience with contacting support should also not be the norm - even if your questions might be a little uncomfortable for A&H.

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With the mods and jumper options addressed.

What is the make and model your wireless system?

It sounds like maybe a couple things need to be checked.
The frequency it’s operating on may need to be changed and or
the squelch setting needs to be raised.

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Thanks SQuser, Checking out the wiring schematic does look like it is not even possible to mute playback or the stereo channels at all. And why Allen & Heath would leave this board without working mutes on all channels is a mystery. I expect that if I open it up and find jumpers at those intersections, easy enough. If they are solder points, that’s some work. And either way, if I open it up I will void my 2 year warranty.

I just heard about a fella who sent his mixer back to the factory, they did the mods on the mutes and this did not void the warranty. But they charged him to do make the mixer “right.”

I DO WISH ALLEN AND HEATH WOULD ADDRESS THIS ISSUE. I don’t know if this is a one-off or if they are making all these boards like this, but customers need to know.

As for Mike C. I am running Sennheiser Evolution G4 systems. They always hiss if on and the receiver loses connection to the transmitter. This does not matter what frequency we are set at. Are you suggesting I can eliminate this with the squelch knob?

Thanks Again

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I hope for you that these are pluggable jumpers that are accessible after opening, so that you do not lose any warranty claims.

And yes, squelch has been built into your wireless systems to prevent exactly such noises - in cooperation with the “pilot tone”.

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The squelch setting is in the menu setting on the Sennheiser G series.

When you say “hiss” do you mean like the sound you get like tuning a radio
to where there is no channel being broadcast, that is usually a blast of full on
static noise.

If the “hiss” is a background small air leak kind of sound that has more to do with the gain staging between the wireless receiver and the input on the mixer.

Also as mentioned check the pilot tone option is turned on on both the receiver and transmitter.

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Hi Christopher,
Sorry to hear that you’ve had difficulties contacting us in Support - I can see that we did actually respond to each of your tickets so it seems like the replies were getting stopped somewhere on the way back to you. I’ve just reached out to you via email, so please do reply and I’ll be happy to assist.

I can’t speak to why it was designed this way, but the jumpers to change the aux mute from pre to post require soldering and so strictly speaking this would be an operation that would require a service centre to do it.

9

I do not see an email from you directly. I would like to speak with you about this Mute situation as the mixer is really not usable in a live setting without global mutes. The email sent to my inbox from the Forum said I could reply to it directly, but when I did it did not go through.

My direct email is:

Events@UltimateAV.net

I am wondering why the email is not getting to me from A&H. Additionally, you can add my bands email as well to be sure I get correspondence: Events@LivingDevotion.org

Thanks,

Mr. Love

UltimateAV

Events@UltimateAV.net

10

Howdy Fellas,

So I thought to write the conclusion to this saga and want to thank fellow audiophiles for ringing in here to help.

I was never successful in getting A&H to reach out directly to me but my pro audio rep was able to get them to respond and he forwarded me the directions and diagrams. The diagrams had highlighted areas, not unlike the ones Esskuh posted on this thread (thanks Esskuh). Like MarkF, the email said I should not attempt this work myself. I called some shops and none could do the work before our next event so I proceeded with the modifications.

FYI, this mixer is beautiful inside, with each channel on an individual circuit board, which means it was hand assembled (creds to A&H).

The directions I received were straight up incorrect and so the first attempt landed me with a channel with the Aux Send permanently muted. I do not know if this is due to A&H or my Audio Rep interpreting. Of course I only modified one channel and then checked it for results, so at this point I decided to follow the circuits on the board to determine what made sense. As it turns out, the mod is only a 2 step process whereas the instructions I was sent outlined 3.

If anyone reading this wants to change the Mute Switches on their Zed 60 to Global, Here is how it is achieved:

Step One: Locate the JS1 connection and sever it by removing the R23 Resistor. This resistor is not really being used as a resistor, it is 0 impedance and so is really just a wire being used as a jumper. So remove it to sever the connection.

Step Two: Solder across the JS2 connection.

Your done! That’s it. Very simple if you know how to solder circuit boards. I learned soldering by building Radio Shack transistor radios back in the 70’s when I was like 10.

Making this mod to 8 channels took a quarter of the time it took to take the mixer apart and reassemble it. All total for this project was 2 hours start to finish, but without having to figure it out by following misleading directions first, I expect you could shave 20 minutes off that.

What is disappointing on the part of A&H is that they could have easily put jumpers at JS1 and JS2 and the user could then switch back and forth from local to global mute as desired by just moving the jumpers, no soldering necessary! Would be so easy and cost what, a few extra pennies? I do appreciate that MarkF, from A&H, chimed in on this thread, but unfortunately I never found an email from him.

At the end of it all, why A&H would chose the Mute Switches to not affect the Aux Sends by Default is a mystery. Every tech I have spoken with in the pro audio world has agreed with me that Global Mute by default would be preferred. I hope A&H fixes this for future units, it would be so easy. Had I not done this mod myself, I expect a shop would have charged around $450, which is more than half the cost of this mixer new.

In closing…
Analog sound rocks (but so does digital) just keep it live and keep it real.

11

Hi Christopher,

Sorry that we didn’t manage to connect - I sent several emails from our Support Desk and a few DMs here, so it seems like you possibly have an issue on your email side stopping things from coming through from us. Perhaps you could whitelist our domain?
Either way, I can only apologise that you weren’t able to access the support you needed but I’m happy that you managed to get things sorted out.

As always, please ask if you need support - we can try and get the messages through somehow!