$700 Mixer... Mackie or Soundcraft?

  • Thread starter Thread starter JonathanRay
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JonathanRay

JonathanRay

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I'm torn between Mackie or Soundcraft. I hear great things about Soundcrafts pre-amps, but all my buds use Mackie. (Including one who owns a pro studio.) I need a mixer for recording in my home. For the money, I can get a huge mackie CFX-20 mkII, or a smaller Soundcraft M12. Which to choose!? Thanks!
 
The Soundcraft has 100mm faders, direct outs, S/PDIF out etc.

Mackie has more advertising. ;)
 
Soundcraft sounds way better then Mackie and has better EQ. The direct outs are also pre/post EQ switchable.
 
Sorry for pimping but... When I get back from vacation in a few days I'll be putting this Mackie 24x8 back up for sale at $750 USD. :D

Mackie EQs sound good to my ears unless you do extreme things with them -- like turn 'em past +6 db boost... which is silly anyway IMHO. Nevertheless if I were buying a brand new mixer, I would probably go with an *analogue* Soundcraft. Personally I wouldn't buy anything that has effects or digital I/O built in -- I'd rather get a mixer for the same price for which the engineers have spent their time exclusively on better preamps and more headroom.

$0.02! :)

Johann
 
I have a Soundcraft M12 console and it sounds really nice. I prefer the mic pres on the Sounccraft over the Mackie VLZ Pro series. The Mackie sounds clean but a tad sterile for my tastes. The EQ adjustment is where the Soundcraft shines. I guess that's why Mackie came out with the new Onyx series trying to emulate the "British" sound.

Pete
 
If you are comparing any of the VLZ or lower series Mackie stuff, the Soundcraft wins hands down in my opinion. However, the new Onyx stuff sounds much better and in my opinion easily stands side by side with the smaller soundcrafts. I would go by whichever feature set suits you best if you have been considering an Onyx. If your are looking at a pre Onyx Mackie, than I would go with the Soundcraft in a heart beat.
 
unless you can talk someone down on an allen and heath mixwizard...looks like soundcraft wins that battle
 
xstatic said:
If you are comparing any of the VLZ or lower series Mackie stuff, the Soundcraft wins hands down in my opinion. However, the new Onyx stuff sounds much better and in my opinion easily stands side by side with the smaller soundcrafts. I would go by whichever feature set suits you best if you have been considering an Onyx. If your are looking at a pre Onyx Mackie, than I would go with the Soundcraft in a heart beat.
Click to expand...

Good point,

just don't forget when recording you can't use the Onyx EQ during tracking. That won't affect everyone but some may want the option.
 
therage! said:
Good point,

just don't forget when recording you can't use the Onyx EQ during tracking. That won't affect everyone but some may want the option.
Click to expand...

the neverending decision.....inserts and no eq or direct outs and pay more...
 
I used to multitrack with a Mackie VLZ-Pro. A word of warning: one or two tracks sounded ok when stacked. But stack six, seven...ten or so track on top of one another and you get all sorts of wierd phasing problems. I know there are engineers out there with lots more skill than me that probably know how to dial this out - either while tracking or mixing. But, now that I have a better pre (FMR RNP), I don't have this problem.
 
The EQ is pre/post direct out switchable which is a great advantage over the Mackie. I personally thought the Soundcraft had a richer and full sound then the Onyx.
 
I agree that the Soundcraft has a little "warmer" sound than the Mackie Onyx. The Onyx however seems a little "truer" to me with a smoother top end to it. For cheap preamps, they would actually be very complimentary. Unless you have other preamp options, I think it is better to start cleaner and add tone than to try and remove tone from a preamp. Everyone has different taste though. I am just glad to see Mackie finally make some real changes.

As far as the VLZ-pro goes, if you use the EQ on them at all, you are bound to have some very odd phase shifts. The preamps alone on the VLZ's weren't bad, but were very "unexciting". The cross talk on the old Mackie stuff was horrendous though.
 
Here's an old thread where a lot of people weighed in on the same basic subject. Hope you find it useful. :)
 
I have both Mackie and Sound craft desks, I prefer the sound craft but my students prefer the mackie............
 
just a thought that i figured would be the first question asked...what applications will you be working on? how many tracks do you need to record at a time? what do you need for routing capabilities? ect ect...i might not be the best to answer based on those questions because i dont have any experience with those mixers, but it might help you or someone else try to help you out a little better.
 
Thanks!

Thanks for all the input guys! I'm a 17 year old who is just getting into recording. I play saxophone, drums, and a little keyboard. I've recorded out of my bedroom with an old radioshack mixer running into my computers soundcard, but now it's time to upgrade.

I'm still not sure if I'll be using a stand alone multitrack recorder, or something like a Digi 002r, but I know I need a good mixer now. Right now it's only my brother and myself recording, but I'd like to record other people soon. That's why I'm taking my time and finding the better quality stuff and purchasing it piece by piece.

Thanks for all the help!
 
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