Keep my Mackie 8 Bus Board or not?

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joswil44

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Hello all,

I bought a Mackie Analog 8 Bus 32 Channel Mixer at the early stages of the digital recording era.

I am currently using Nuendo 2 on a PowerMAC G4.

I run the Mixer Direct Outs into 2 Nuendo/RME 96k 8 I/O Digital Converters.

At the moment I only have 1 Outboard Mix Preamp, Grace Design Model 101.

I am seeing studios where they are pluging in direct to a Mic Preamp and strait into a Converter. Then all EQ is done on the PC.

I have also read books recommending that if you are using a mixing board to keep everything flat and EQ on the PC.

Which makes sense that if you do EQ too much on the mixing board while tracking you cant go back and take that away.

Where as tracking flat you have a nuetral starting point to take from or add to.

I am wondering if I should sell my Mackie 32 and buy some Mic Pre's and other gear like a good Compressor/Distresser.

Or are there other reasons to keep it?

I never return into the mixer.

Other than initial input, I only use the mixer for its Monitoring/Playback features and the Talkback Mic.

Any suggestions?
 
I would rather use the mixer on the way out then on the way in but that's just me!
 
I have one and I wonder the same thing sometimes. What I like about that board is the direct outs. My converters (which I just sold), 2 Delta 1010's, had just trs connections. So I needed something to plug xlr's into and control the signal. I have to say that I use the eq on the board quite extensively for drum recording. I don't compress the signal going in, but I do eq it.

Back before I had the 8-bus, I used a Mackie 1202VLZ and a 1402VLZ. Those mixers only allowed you to use the inserts if you wanted independent channels, but they bypassed the eq strip. This created much more work to get the sound I wanted and I don't think I got it with plug-ins.

Also, signal routing for me is a no-brainer. I use the aux ins and outs, routed to a 4-channel headphone amp that allows me to customize individual headphone mixes.

That being said, I am looking at other options, like the Mackie Onyx series. I also noticed that a lot of the new gear, like the MOTU 8-Pre and the Firestudio have neutrik connections and volume knobs, as well as extensive software mixer capabilities. The 8-Bus sure takes up a lot of room. ;)

A lot to think about. Good luck with your decision.
 
I am also using a Mackie 8 bus, (temporarily while my Soundtracs is in the shop.) Since I started mixing down through the analog mixer(s), I am forced to rely more on my ears instead of always watching the waveforms, and my mixes seem to come out better now.

I have not used it for tracking yet. I record through other micpres straight into the computer DAW. Then I send up to 24 tracks out to the real mixer. (I keep the software mixer flat.) I have the option of using computer plug-ins or using my hardware rack effects and processors. I am happy with it. I rather like it that way, except for not being able to save the mixer settings after each mix.

If I were you, I would keep it for the diversity of it.

RawDepth
 
I've gone through a similar progression. Tracked and mixed on the 24-8, then track with the 8', mix ITB, then outboard pre's. The last jump was I had to get it out of the playback path.
It's day job now is tracking-monitor mixes and some effects send/return to the DAW.

I could get by with something smaller, but bottom line is I can't imagine not having a good feature rich mixer like this on hand. ..all those 'other tasks that come up, (the occasional analog mix :eek: :D ) .. it's paid for. :)
Wayne
 
I guess the whole thing started when I got the feeling that Mic Preamps are necessary to get the best sound, and if you use a Mic Pre, then the Mackie is pointless.

I was originally thinking that I was supposed to run a signal into the Mic Preamp, then to a Mackie input and out from the direct out to the Converter input.

Then someone said I was defeating the use of the MIC Preamp and should go strait into the Converter.

Which is when I learned that alot of people are doing that with digital setups.

The other things kinda mentioned here that I have never quite figured out is mixing down on the board.

I like the idea of mixing by ear.

I do feel like I have better control with the mixer knobs than with an EQ on the PC.

I feel like theres too much control with the EQ on the PC that you can really screw it up if you dont know what your doing.

But with my Nuendo, I could never really setup the outputs properly to go back to the mixer.

It seemed like I had to have a separate bus for each track and sometimes it wouldnt work right.

I havent tryed it on Nuendo 2, but 1.5 wasnt working to well.

Think I should give mixing down into the Mackie another shot? Or keep relying on the DAW?
 
joswil44 said:
Think I should give mixing down into the Mackie another shot? Or keep relying on the DAW?
Click to expand...
I'd guess that there's certainly something to be gained by doing some outboard mixing -caveat we're all probably biased by the way we came up. :) It's sure a whole different set of trade-offs, ITB vs out.
Can't you get separate tracks to assign to the outs? How many D/A out do you have to work with?
 
I have a total of 16 TRS ins and 16 TRS outs on my converters. It actually works well because I could use 16 Channels of my 32 for Inputs and the other 16 for mixing without having to change anything on my board.

I just never used it for mixing because it was sort of a pain to setup the Outputs in Nuendo.
 
joswil44 said:
Hello all,

I bought a Mackie Analog 8 Bus 32 Channel Mixer at the early stages of the digital recording era.

I am currently using Nuendo 2 on a PowerMAC G4.

I run the Mixer Direct Outs into 2 Nuendo/RME 96k 8 I/O Digital Converters.

At the moment I only have 1 Outboard Mix Preamp, Grace Design Model 101.

I am seeing studios where they are pluging in direct to a Mic Preamp and strait into a Converter. Then all EQ is done on the PC.

I have also read books recommending that if you are using a mixing board to keep everything flat and EQ on the PC.

Which makes sense that if you do EQ too much on the mixing board while tracking you cant go back and take that away.

Where as tracking flat you have a nuetral starting point to take from or add to.

I am wondering if I should sell my Mackie 32 and buy some Mic Pre's and other gear like a good Compressor/Distresser.

Or are there other reasons to keep it?

I never return into the mixer.

Other than initial input, I only use the mixer for its Monitoring/Playback features and the Talkback Mic.

Any suggestions?
Click to expand...

I have a 24.8 Mackie. Great board. Great preamps. If you want to sell it cheap, PM me how much...I could use another for a spare. Does it have the meter board?
 
I don't mix down on the Mackie. I don't own any preamps. Software automation and effects are too good to not exploit the better features of a DAW software.

When I look at the weaknesses of my setup they are PC related: I've had a PC blow a power supply in the middle of a session. I've had hard drives shit the bed, leaving me without the latest version of my project. The best preamp in the world is not going to fix this.

The Mackie is a good way to get a reliable signal into the computer and allow me to put my hands on each of the input channels' levels and eq's while tracking, customizing headphone mixes, regulating main out and control room levels.

I'm sure I could get better sound from better preamps and converters, but you need to have good control of logistics and an efficient workflow too. Nobody has ever, ever complained about sound quality from my rig, but I have seen people get restless waiting for their turn to perform or having me regulate headphone mix.
 
I would keep it. If you've never learned to mix outside the box you still haven't grown into it. Rather than see it as yesterday's technology I would think about rediscovering it if I were you. :)
 
I'll take it! :)

I've been salivating planning my new attack for the studio. At this point I am hell-bent on doing a bit of envelope editing in my DAW, but major changes on the mixer. I guess I would be downgrading from my Onyx in some people's eyes, but I really want to mix outside the box. There's another piece to owning a bigger mixer...when you own a commercial studio (for demo projects) people have a hard time taking you seriously when you have a great 16 channel mixer, that is until they hear it. They want to see a bigger mixer like a 32.8...and so do I. I'd just like to see it everyday and say "that's mine." I'm a gear slut, sue me. :)
 
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