Well, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth we had our first gig with the DL. I'm happy to report that everything went well. Mostly...
Setup was easy and sound check went as well as it could (Still can't get the singers to give me an accurate level). We managed volume successfully and the bar owner was happy. We attracted a decent crowd and kept them there all night. Our sub drummer was great as expected. The owner said he wants us back. Other than malfunctioning mic (Anyone know how to fix a sm57 that is muffled and unintelligible?), the performance was as good as we get.
Everything went well until the very end. We'd finished our last set and I was mixing in a break track and WHAM! Massive white noise at full volume! The crowd went from happy to screaming and covering their ears. I killed it in a second or two, but the impression we left was definitely impacted. It happened in the switch between iTunes and master fader. I've tried to repeat the event but can't make it happen consistently.
Again, my queries with Mackie have yielded only non-committal noises but no useful response... The budget is tight and I'm going to have to live with this thing for a while so if anyone has figured out how to prevent this I'd appreciate the insight.
Thanks!