mackie 24/8

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zook250

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hi. does anyone here have any experience with the mackie 24 ch 8 buss mixer? i have researched this unit and it seems to be descent , but id like to know any annoyances etc to look out for. the reason is that i just bought one in the box , 1 year warranty complete wtih the meter bridge for 1300.00.
is this a stepup from my mx2442a? or more the same.

thanks
 
I've seen chatter on ProSoundWeb that the Mackie 8-buss had huge reliability problems, which is why they are discontinued.
 
I have never had reliability problems with them. They just don't sound that great and the eq is only half useful. It is very easy to overload because it has very little headroom. I have never used the mx2424 so I don't know how it compares.
 
I use a SR56*8. I love most of the features on it.
Butt headroom sucks.and the ultramute is nothing but problems.
That is why Mackie got out of the big board business.
And they used cheep ribbon cables in them that need to be reseated or replaced.
Mackie wants a grand to do a referb on the board plus shipping. Board is only 5 years old.
 
There are issues with the ribbon cables that connect the various PCB's together inside the console, the major problems seem to be either the aux busses, one/some/all, getting noisy, cutting out, and/or not working at all, and the same thing with the main stereo bus, the control room outs, and/or any/all of the output groups.

Mine had the problem with the main stereo bus, it would drop in volume on the left side only, after doing that for several days, it would also sometimes drop out completely on the left side only.

It spent 6 months in an authorized repair shop in the next state, and by the time I got it back I had moved "in the box" for recording/mixing, so after testing the 24x8 for about 4 hours, (it seemed to be working fine), I put it back in it's box, and it's been there ever since, about 4 years now.

Sometimes they can show almost the same symptoms, but can be easily fixed by "cleaning" the insert jacks on the malfunctioning channels by repeatedly inserting/removing a 1/4" plug in the insert jacks.
 
My church had a 32x8 that had the aux bus issues. After we moved to our new facility (with new Midas Legend console) I took the Mackie home, spent the $60 for the ribbon cable kit, and did the upgrade. I've been running it in my studio now for a year and a half with no problems.

The only complaint I have about the mixer in general is with the headroom and the EQ's. The EQ seems to work fine if you work with a cut philosophy instead of a boost philosophy (see BlueBear's articles for better explanation), so that is generally what I do. I have to admit, though, that I have converted over to mixing in the box mostly and am getting better results (primarily because the same amount of money bought more plugins than I have outboard gear, so I have more flexibility). The Mackie, though, is my tracking and monitoring board and provides me with loads of flexibility in that application.

Darryl.....
 
Check out the clips at my studio site... all mixed via a Mackie 8-buss.......
 
I bought an SR24 VLZ Pro instead. Mine is exclusively for live performance mixing, not recording. I have a set of Aardvark Q10 dedicated to recording.

I wanted one of the Mackie Onyx boxes, but they were vapor ware for so long... then I started thinking about it being a 1.0 product, and the inevitable board revision changes... Being in the computer industry the last 30+ years has taught be "just say no to one dot oh".
 
I just got a 24/8 off ebay and have just started to get to know it... I'm wonderin though: What's a viable option in the $1000 (used) price range?
 
Disregarding price, to my knowledge, the nearest console in terms of features and functions is the Soundcraft Spirit Studio 24/8.

Pros are:

Better Pre's and EQ
Better overall build........each channel is on it's own PCB, etc., etc.
Better overall sound

Cons are:

No meterbridge
Age.....may necessitate servicing of jacks, pots and switches

Allen and Heath and Soundtracs are two other options for consoles or you could jump up to a Soundcraft Ghost.

:cool:
 
i used a 24-8 for 10 years with no problems at all. i was running it with da-88's and i was getting good sounding results. the eq is limited but it is useable. it is a good starter board.
 
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