"Mixed" reviews Mackie Onyx 1220, any advice

T

t2roc

New member
Im looking for an interface. Its between The Echo AudioFire 4:
and Presonus Firebox:
Or im thinking of getting the Mackie Onyx 1220. It seems like a good price . But this makes me think twice.
also found TAPCO BLEND-16 16-CHANNEL MIXER W/ MACKIE PREAMPS
$379.99
:http://www.shop.com/op/~TAPCO_BLEND...E_PREAMPS-prod-38392922-50995733?sourceid=298


"It is the FireWire option that causes mixed feelings for this reviewer. On the one hand, the Onyx 1220 board by itself is simply outstanding and puts my old Mackie 1202 board to shame on every level. On the other hand, the FireWire option isn’t all that it is cracked up to be. Or I should probably say the FireWire option works the way it was designed, but not the way I had hoped it would work.

The biggest thing users who are considering buying the board with FireWire option should know is the FireWire audio output is post gain only. This means you are only able to send the raw signal from the mic/input to the DAW. This means you can’t use a compressor, any part of the EQ, mute buttons, panning, and so on. And this sucks, at least for me. I really wanted to use my Alesis 3630 compressor to tweak my vocals prior to being recorded by Soundtrack Pro. While DAWs do have compressor plug-ins, I find these rather clumsy and don’t yield the same results I can get by manual tweaking a piece of hardware.

Instead, the FireWire option for the Onyx 1220 mixer only allows the capturing of the raw feed, which, if you think about it, gives the audio engineer the ability ultimate control of the mix in post. And this makes sense from a live recording standpoint, but is still a disappointment for me

If you need to capture only the raw audio file to your digital audio workstation, and if your application will support multi-track recording, then this is a very useful addition. My disappointment of the FireWire features only give it 2 of 5"

Is this a problem for anyone. Anyone with experience of these products or
ideas. cheers Michel
 
I use a mackie 1640, and I think they are a bit thin. They are really quiet and true-to-life, but they are almost boring. I have had maybe 4 people that actually had a voice that worked well with the preamps. They work pretty good for drums, but I don't like them on a snare. Also, the firewire card has some problems with it, you can read about it here .
 
I've had mine for a year. I think it is a great sounding board for the money. I got mine for $499 and the salesman at GC threw in the Firewire card for free.
 
Cult_Status02 said:
I use a mackie 1640, and I think they are a bit thin. They are really quiet and true-to-life, but they are almost boring. I have had maybe 4 people that actually had a voice that worked well with the preamps. They work pretty good for drums, but I don't like them on a snare. Also, the firewire card has some problems with it, you can read about it here .
Click to expand...

A bit thin compared to what?
 
warble2 said:
A bit thin compared to what?
Click to expand...

Actually, I am more partial to the preamps on my Omega desktop. I thought they sounded very good, and I was much happier with them. They seem to have more of that "warmth" to them. It's hard to say what exactly it is that I like more about the Omega's preamps, but they just seemed to have more coloration, which I for one really like(d). Where as the Onyx preamps just seem a bit too bright fro my taste and not very lively to me.
 
I got an Onyx 1220 with the firewire card for free too and it's a good value together. I also am a bit pissed about the post-gain/pre-insert & eq thing for the firewire connector. You can get it modded to allow you to switch them into the recording path, but it's like a $250 mod!
There are tons of compatibilty issues with the firewire. This works well with my laptop, but not at all with my desktop. I'd check the Mackie Forums for the story on this and for known compatiblity issues if you are seriously thinking about using it in this way.
That said, I do really like this board and the pres. You can somewhat get around the pre-insert thing by sending the insert out from one of the first four channels with a TS to a compressor or other outboard unit and then to the line in of another channel. This of course reduces your number of inputs and also forces you to use an unbalanced out.
I appreciated having the channels of clean preamplification to complement my "charactered" pres-- UA m610 and a CL 7602. I used it on stereo mic'ed acoustic guitars and occasional vocals with good results.
 
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