Mackie CR 1604 Mixer Preamps good for recording?

RecordingMaster

RecordingMaster

A Sarcastic Statement
Hi there,
I saw a Mackie CR 1604 mixer for sale online for $150. In hopes that I could get it for $100-$125, and that it is in good working condition, I was wondering if it would serve me well to use the pres on this instead of my stock digital pres (which I'm not a fan of) on my Tascam US-1800 interface.

Reason I ask is, soon enough I'll be replacing My Tascam US-1800 interface with an Echo AudioFire 12. The echo has no pres, just A/D basically so I'd be feeding a few outboard pres I have into the Echo. I'd have about 8 left over inputs on the Echo and I want a good 8 channel set of pre's to feed into it. Because normally, on my Tascam, after taking up the line in jacks with my outboard pre's, I'd use the rest of the digital pres for larger tracking sessions like drums.

I'm wondering, do you think the pre's on that somewhat older (90's?) Mackie board would be of a considerable good quality for tracking? I don't think its any of the newer VLZ versions. Just the original. Here's the pic the seller posted. mackie.JPG

Lemme know what you think! Thanks!
 
Don't have much opinion re the pres other than they've pretty much been good clean pres in live board duties all along and perfectly servicable in some live band tracking I've done. There's also been a few diff versions, might want to nail that down.
I will warn that there's been a lot of intermittent' ribbon connector issues with these mixers to be aware of. (and to a lessor degree assign switches' but my experience has been that those can be worked out just by exercising them)
The ribbon thing can be fixed as well.
 
mixsit said:
Don't have much opinion re the pres other than they've pretty much been good clean pres in live board duties all along and perfectly servicable in some live band tracking I've done. There's also been a few diff versions, might want to nail that down.
I will warn that there's been a lot of intermittent' ribbon connector issues with these mixers to be aware of. (and to a lessor degree assign switches' but my experience has been that those can be worked out just by exercising them)
The ribbon thing can be fixed as well.
Click to expand...

I think it's the original version, before they came out with any other revisions. Just plain old 1604. Not VLZ or VLZ 3 or anything...
 
I had one of the originals that I used for years (Live duty). Sold it about eight years ago and they use it with out fault to this day!
 
Thanks for the replies! Yeah...it's the original. Did some more research on those and the thing is just too old school. I don't trust it, especially how the direct outs are accessed by only going in one click on the insert jacks. Call me ignorant, but that just feels too "jacked" to work that way. :p

I need a regular mixer with real direct outs. (well I don't NEED anything)
 
RecordingMaster said:
Thanks for the replies! Yeah...it's the original. Did some more research on those and the thing is just too old school. I don't trust it, especially how the direct outs are accessed by only going in one click on the insert jacks. Call me ignorant, but that just feels too "jacked" to work that way. :p

I need a regular mixer with real direct outs. (well I don't NEED anything)
Click to expand...

+1 for the A-H recommendation but, considering the longevity of the MixWiz line out there, good luck trying to get one at the price-point you mentioned above.

Using the right cable with INSERT I/O could soothe your fears. The A-H boards generally have separate Insert I/O and Direct Outs (and, both are internally reconfigurable). There actually are major differences between the operation/utility of each.

In any event, recording separate tracks from the dry Insert I/O generally levels the playing field between many mixers. For example, I don't hear that much difference between Behri, Yamaha and Mackie mixers recorded near -10dB from their insert I/O. Where differences become obvious is in the realm of headroom (not an issue at -10dB) and after the signal passes through the channel strip, aux buss, and the master section.

Paj
8^)
 
Don't know if your still looking for a mixer or not or, even if your still looking at that "old school" Mackie. I actually owned that board as well as the VLZ 3 updated version of it. The thing about the direct out being taken from the first click on the insert works fine. If it makes you more comfortable there is a cable you can buy (go to zZounds and look in the insert cable section) that will let you plug all the way into it and use a mono cable. It's very handy. The updated versions addressed this issue and have 8 dedicated direct outs. Which is why I upgraded mine. It allowed me to still use the inserts for compressors if I was recording a live show.

As far as it's preamps and all that go, they are clean and for anybody who doesn't want to spend pro studio money but, wants to get clean clear useable results you could do way worse then a Mackie. The eq is very musical. It's not the most complex eq or anything but for basic sound shaping it's very serviceable. I used my Mackie's with a Fostex X-28H 4 track cassette studio back in the day. Wrote a lot of songs on that setup. Wasted even more tape.
 
I ended up skipping that original cr 1604. However I found a CR1694 VLZ and it has direct outs. Was for a fair price so I will try the pre's and see how I like em! Some people I have spoken to actually mentioned that the highs on the newer onyx mackie's can get pretty crispy and sound overly baked. Haven't tried myself so i can't speak on behalf of that.
 
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