guhlenn, I have never worked with the Mackie,
but I do read a lot, and Everybody seems to Rave
about them.
I am in the process of making my CD, and right now
I am concentrating on the Midi stuff first.
However, I have laid down several violin tracks,
and the Pre's work fine. I use an Avlex c133
mic, which nobody has heard of but it is nice.
I have made some nice recordings, so the
Pre's arent garbage.
I would take an educated guess that the Mackie
Pre's would be much better, but of course
a comparable Mackie would cost much more.
The good thing about the Spirit stuff is that
they have the best prices known to man for
decent stuff. I bought my mixer brand new
for $179 at Guitar Center (U.S.)!! If it was
stolen, I would buy another one.
The spirit
http://www.spiritbysoundcraft.com has some
amazing features for the price, and you
could only buy one of the small Mackies in
comparision. Good Luck, David