G
groovyb
New member
Hello all, I've been visiting this forum on occasion for a while but decided to join since I have a question about recommendations for a DAW desktop or rackmount interface...
I've been using a Mackie Onyx 1640 with firewire card in my home studio (spare bedroom) for a few years and love the quality of it, but it's a largish rack mixer that is IN a large rack box that my band uses with IEMs and recording on location, and constantly setting up & tearing down between studio use and live/practice use is a hassle. I considered getting a SMALL Onyx mixer just for my DAW but they're quite expensive and still take up a lot of desk/tabletop space.
I'd like to get a single rack space or small desktop USB or firewire interface solely for the studio, something of comparable quality to the Onyx. Mackie has the Blackbird which looks like it might be ideal for my needs (the nice sounding Onyx preamps and plenty of them, inserts, virtual mixer software), but the $500 price tag is really pushing the boundaries of my budget. There's also the Akai EIE Pro which looks like it might have what I'm looking for and is the right price, but only 4 preamps and I have no idea how they sound compared to the Onyx. I used to use a Presonus Firebox interface, but the preamps sounded like mud compared to the Onyx and the drivers were so buggy that I had to play games with the setting all the time to get it to work right... those issues have turned me off to Presonus gear.
Is there something under $400 with more than 4 preamps and channel inserts for my outboard gear that you could recommend?
Thanks!
Ben
I've been using a Mackie Onyx 1640 with firewire card in my home studio (spare bedroom) for a few years and love the quality of it, but it's a largish rack mixer that is IN a large rack box that my band uses with IEMs and recording on location, and constantly setting up & tearing down between studio use and live/practice use is a hassle. I considered getting a SMALL Onyx mixer just for my DAW but they're quite expensive and still take up a lot of desk/tabletop space.
I'd like to get a single rack space or small desktop USB or firewire interface solely for the studio, something of comparable quality to the Onyx. Mackie has the Blackbird which looks like it might be ideal for my needs (the nice sounding Onyx preamps and plenty of them, inserts, virtual mixer software), but the $500 price tag is really pushing the boundaries of my budget. There's also the Akai EIE Pro which looks like it might have what I'm looking for and is the right price, but only 4 preamps and I have no idea how they sound compared to the Onyx. I used to use a Presonus Firebox interface, but the preamps sounded like mud compared to the Onyx and the drivers were so buggy that I had to play games with the setting all the time to get it to work right... those issues have turned me off to Presonus gear.
Is there something under $400 with more than 4 preamps and channel inserts for my outboard gear that you could recommend?
Thanks!
Ben