24 Track mixer recomendations

A

aquanuke

New member
Ive just got a Fostex D2424 LV recorder what mixer would you recommend, Ive seen Mackie 24:8 desks for resonable prices are these any good. About £800 on ebay.

Im willing to spend more, the bumf on the Mackie site is very convincing but then I cant see anyone raving about that mixer here.

Thanks
 
I don't personally have one, but I know for sure BlueBear and KuzinRob either has the 24/8 or the 24/4. One will chime in soon enough.
 
check out this one...it has a meter bridge GS3000 on eBay

you'll find all the downloadable brochure, userguide, block diagram & cue sheet HERE

It's a nice desk for recording. I like the patchable valve pre's
 
That Allen Heath will smoke the Mackie as far as pure sonics goes. Many people actually prefer the GS3 and GS3000 to the Soundcraft Ghost.
 
Samplitude 8

and it does mastering and cd burning, and comes with 2 killer exclusive plug-ins from the designer of blockfish, spitfist, endorphin etc.

and

It'll do as many tracks as your computer can handle

:cool:
 
LemonTree said:
check out this one...it has a meter bridge GS3000 on eBay

you'll find all the downloadable brochure, userguide, block diagram & cue sheet HERE

It's a nice desk for recording. I like the patchable valve pre's
Click to expand...

Cheers, Im pretty sure that ones a scammer. Asked him loads of questions in 3 emails, got one reply back which was whats your highest offer to close the auction.. even though none of my previous emails mentioned money.

Also another ebayer warned me and sent me a link to an identical auction across the pond.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=23785&item=3766390039&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
 
An older Allen & Heath System 8, like I have, smokes the modern A&H mixers by a long shot. Cheap too. I picked up a 24 channel 8 buss for under 1000 bucks.

For some reason they haven't become popular. Maybe because they are a little bit rare.
 
Actually, there are a few reasons. First, lack of aux sends, second, lack of tape returns, third, bad pots. The system 8 consoles really do sound pretty decent, but they didn't have the same preamp that went into the Saber which is a MUCH better Allen Heath console. They definately sound better though than something like a GL2. However, the GS3000 preamps are just as nice, but in differnt ways. The System 8 will never give you that smooth clear high end. Its always a little dull. What was nice about the system 8 is that the low end had some nice thick warmth to it. The GS3000 (which is a different pre than the first GS3's) doesn't quite have that low end richness of the system 8, but the highs are much more detailed and airy. Not quite like a nice outboard pre, but much more so than the system 8.

Also, the system 8's really aren't that rare. In the last few months I have seen quite a few of them for sale. In fact, I may even sell my old one soon (just sitting on a shelf). Personally, the system 8 consoles are certainly not a bad buy. In my opinion though, the GS3000 is worth about three times as much. If nothing else just do to the fact that it's still servicable by Allen Heath, is fully in-line, has more EQ, more auxes, more meters, midi functionality etc... etc...

Either one is going to sound much better than a Mackie or Yamaha or Behringer or little Soundcraft.
 
I know I'm in the minority, but I like my Mackie 24x8. I use it in combination with a Tascam 38 and an Alesis HD24XR. I'll use a nice preamp in front of it for vocals, but the pre's seem fine for going direct in on drums, keys, horns, etc.

I must say for the record, I've worked on sessions where we've tracked to a Soundcraft Ghost, and when it was all said in done, the difference in that engineer and myself was a way bigger factor than the difference in our gear :rolleyes:

I may someday replace the Mackie, but I think about 10 years of recording experience is in order first for me....
 
The Mackie's aren't all that bad as long as you don't count on them for summing, and never touch the EQ. Great stuff can still be done on a Mackie. However, the same mix and engineer working on a better desk will almost always produce a better result. The good news is that nowadays it doesn't cost a whole lot more to get a better desk:D
 
xstatic said:
The good news is that nowadays it doesn't cost a whole lot more to get a better desk:D
Click to expand...

Really? I found my Mackie used for right around $1,000. The Soundcraft Ghost I was also looking for seems to be getting around $3,000 used. That extra 2 grand got me the HD24XR. :)

Of course now my next question, if I do replace the Mackie do I get a small 8 channel analog for my 8-track tape machine and a 24 channel digital desk...or do I replace it with another (better) all analog board. From what I understand the converters on the HD24XR as good as anything I could find on a board.
 
aquanuke said:
Cheers, Im pretty sure that ones a scammer. Asked him loads of questions in 3 emails, got one reply back which was whats your highest offer to close the auction.. even though none of my previous emails mentioned money.

Also another ebayer warned me and sent me a link to an identical auction across the pond.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=23785&item=3766390039&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW
Click to expand...


sory about that if that's the case. It's good you're doing your homework on this stuff.

I own a Saber 24/16/16/2 which I picked up this time last year for £361 with the stand, meterbridge ans PSU.£270 got some bulbous looking capacitors replaced in the PSU and master section and it's been the centre piece of my studio for the last year. I mentioned the GS3000 cause it's the desk I had my eyes on before I bought the saber

Good luck with your search mate. Sorry if that was a duff eBay auction I sent you on. Anything you wanna know about the saber drop me a PM. They usualy turn up around the £800 slot for the 24 channel 16 buss

Alec
 
I think decent stuff can be done on Mackies, and I used them for years, but in general they are thin sounding. As soon as you get experience tracking something like drums on a better console you'll really start to hate the Mackie.
 
Clone, I've tracked drums on a Ghost that sound flimsy compared to my old saber.

Old A&H and a lot of the older soundtracs boards sound a lot better than soundcraft IMHO
 
There are some great deals out there. The old Allen Heaths are very affordable. The old Soundcraft series 200 and 400 actually have a nice fat sound to them. Much better than the Ghost. But the Ghost offers all the features:)

I paid $1500 2 years ago for 2 frames, 2 power supplies, and 50 D&R system 4000 modules. It had two 100mm faders per channel, a 4 band sweepable EQ per channel, and 6 aux sends. It was fully in-line, and had built in talkback mic and a full studio master section. The thing sounded amazing. In my opinion it was even firmly in a class above even the old Allen Heath and cheaper Amek consoles as far as sound quality goes. Strikingly similar to the single cahnnel Avalon's in sound.

The point here is that it makes spending $1000 on a Mackie look like a waste to me. Of course thats only if you find these deals first:) If your Mackie has served your purpose well than it actually wasn't a waste at all. The deals are out there though, keep your eyes peeled and your pocketbook ready:D

Be careful though. A month and a half agoI started calling around about used consoles in the $6000 - $8000 range because we were going to get a bigger one for the studio probably this next June or July. That was at the beginning of November that I called. Now I have a huge D&R Merlin sitting in my studio that has a current market value of about $55000 because we ran across a deal that was too good to pass up. This gear lust is killing me. I can't stop:(
 
I keep thinking about this thread... I go back and forth with the Mackie thing in my mind. I'd love to drop the $4k or so for a Soundcraft Ghost 24LE but can't see spending that much... yet. So I get to looking at the A&H GL2200 that some people say is "only" a live board and other say you can record with it.

But if a 24 channel desk doesn't have both tape ins and tape outs with some sort of "mix b" set up, how do you record and then play back without repatching? That's one thing that drew me to the Mackie setup was never having to repatch... or the Ghost for that matter.
 
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