Mackie Onyx

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studiomaster

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A very noobish question..but is the Mackie Onyx mixers just a standalone mixer and/or an interface?

Also, do you think the mic pre's on the Onyx mixers better than the MOTU 828 ones?
 
A very noobish question..but is the Mackie Onyx mixers just a standalone mixer and/or an interface?
Click to expand...

It is an interface if you add the optional Firewire card.

Also, do you think the mic pre's on the Onyx mixers better than the MOTU 828 ones?
Click to expand...

Never used the 828, but my 1220 sounds fantastic.
 
Do you also have the optional Firewire card? I need to know if this will be a reliable setup for me. I might need multiple inputs in the future so that's why i need one of these. By the way, the Onyx mixers cannot be functioned as a DAW control surface right?
 
The Mackie Onyx can be used as a direct audio interface if you have the additional firewire card. Keep in mind however that it only returns two channels, and all of the sends are pre-EQ.

Preamp wise, I would say yes it sounds much better than any of the Motu pre's I have heard.

The onyx can not be used as a control surface. From what I understand, the only communication the Onyx has with a computer is via the firewire add on and is multichannel audio to the computer (how ever many channels each specific Onyx is) and stereo audio back from the computer. No moving faders, transports, midi functions etc...
 
mackie onyx

i have the mackie onyx 1620 with the firewire option - like anything it has +'s and -'s. because it is a *fully functional* analog mixer as well as an interface it has certain amenities like record out's (which i use to run to an 8 track otari). the signal that is sent to firewire is pulled pre-fader and also, curiously, pre-insert - so patching in outboard gear can be awkward. mine doesn't have busses - only 4 mono aux outs and four stereo aux returns. the lack of busses on this model make it unsuitable for mixing analog (it also makes it a hastle for having different headphone mixes) . also the drivers for the firewire option are in thier 1.0 stage - i have run into a few problems but they may be specific to my setup. so in the end i have good pre-amps, and an 18 channel firewire interface, (and it comes with a free copy of thier DAW, Traktion 2.0) - for a great price, but the 'mixer' part of it i only use for monitoring. hope this answers some of your questions - i'll try to check back again
-ben
 
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