Mackie Onyx 1640

T

takk

New member
I have been recording some solo project work with a Delta 1010lt, Audio Buddy, Sonar setup for a few years now. But I want to take the next step and be able to record an entire rock band live, including muti-tracking a drum kit.

I have been looking into adding another Delta1010lt and an 8-channel preamp, or adding a Firepod, or getting a mixer with lots of XLR inputs and using channel inserts. But I am wondering if I should just forget all that crap, bite the bullet and get a Mackie Onyx 1640.

The Onyx 1640 looks like it has everything I would ever need. It has 16 XLR ins and a firewire interface. It also has buses, headphone output, talkback, etc.

With the Mackie, PC with Sonar, and slew of microphones, it seems like that would be all I need. What is the downside to this configuration. Seems a lot simpler setup than dealing with PCI cards, pre-amps, channel inserts, etc...

Plus it would be pretty mobile, if combined with a laptop. Anyone using this type setup for recording?

Also I see some dealers offer modded Onyx mixers that give you the option to NOT bypass the EQ to the firewire interface. Sounds like it would be nice to be able to put the nice built-in EQ to use in a recording situation, no?

- Takk
 
A mate of mine uses a similar setup, ie Onyx ->PC
although he doesn't have the Firewire option, he just uses an audiophile and takes two of the matrix outs. He gets some decent sounds, although if he got the firewire (or a multi-track input) then he could possibly get a better result.

One thing that I'm not totally sold on yet is the Onyx AD converter. I inted to d oa shootout between my 800r and my RME ADI-DS to see how much difference tehre is, and I'll post the results.
 
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I had an Onyx 1620 with the firwire card. It sounded pretty good. It had one fatal flaw... The brand new EQ associated with the Onyx series, did not work over the firwire. This was a big oops in my book. I returned the board and the card. I ended up with an Allen&Heath MixWizard 16:2 and a MOTU 828mkII. When I can afford it or find a great deal on a A/D converter that is cleaner than the MOTU I am all over that!! The Allen & Heath board is stellar!!

In my opinion there are better options than the Mackie 1640. They may cost more though.
 
Hi guys,
here is a great thread from Gearslutz where a guy has actually made a test
between Mackie, RME, Motu and Tascam. He tests A/D Conversion, DA conversion, and Micamp quality. He seems very positive about Mackie A/D and preamps but negative to the D/A.

http://gearslutz.com/board/showthread.php3?t=46748&highlight=fireface+motu+onyx

It's so weird that you cannot choose whether or not to bypass the EQ:s with the firewire option on the unit. After all- the new Perkins EQ:s are part of what is attractive with this machine. Hope they will change this in later versions. Where did you find the mod's?

I don't know if you have seen this unit in reality or just on pictures. I was surprised when i saw the 1202 in the music store, it's actually quite big and heavy, nothing you would like to pack in your rucksack. And the 16 channel version is still bigger! But if you have a car there should be no problems...

/wtk
 
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