thinking about getting a 400F, a few questions

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anton

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Hi Everyone,

I have seriously been thinking about getting a Mackie 400F soon. It looks like a good interface, and people i respect have told me that the preamps sound really good.

I have been reading over the manual online, trying to get a better understanding of the unit. I have some questions about the software virtual mixer. On the options panel is says to mirror headphones out to either outputs 1-2 or 7-8. Does this apply to the Control Room Outputs as well? So basically when monitoring through the virtual mixer software the two headphones and monitor outs can either reflect what is routed out thru 1-2 or 7-8? Obviously custom monitor outs can be created as well using the addition line outs on the unit.

I think i understand this ok. the only other unit i had before this was an Mbox, where basically all my tracks in Pro Tools were routed to analog 1-2 as the output. Since i will be recording mainly solo acoustic guitar i assume i would do the same thing for the 400F too, unless i want to monitor with no latency through the virtual mixer, which is when i would just mute the output from my DAW through the 400F, and route whatever input my mics are plugged into to outputs 1-2 in the virtual mixer.



anton
 
Does the 400f's pres sound better than the MOTU ones?
 
Not sure, i am a PC guy, so have not really considered MOTU. The guy who told me he liked the sound of the 400F alot has the Motu 896 and some high end preamps/mics. He knows his stuff and i respect his opinion.
 
MOTU Ultralite

I just got a MOTU Ultralite a month ago and am absolutely thrilled. The mic pre's are probably a little "less" than the 400f, but I can't tell for sure. I feed the "best" mic through a Eureka first, anyway. But the MOTU pre's are good enough for the vast majority of things you're likely to do. The converters are very clean, the unit is flexible, and it works perfectly with good stable drivers. The 400f has had some legendary problems in many of these areas.

I almost bought a 400f. I'm so glad I got the Ultralite.

Hope that helps,
 
studiomaster said:
Does the 400f's pres sound better than the MOTU ones?
Click to expand...

I owned a 400F a while back and the Onyx pres blew the pres in my Traveler out of the water. MOTU's weaknesses have always been preamps, converters and clock. They've gotten significantly better in the last few years though, especially with the 896HD and the Traveler. Still not as good as they could be though.

Anyway, both my Traveler and my 400F are gone now, but if I had to get one of the two units back it would be the 400F, without a doubt. I still kind of miss it because it had some pretty nice features.

You can pretty much route anything to anything with the software mixer. I'm not a Mackie shill (or even a huge fan, by any means) but I don't think you'll regret buying an Onyx device. I still have an 800R in one of my mobile rigs that gets used at every gig. The Onyx pres are quite good.

I never had ANY stability issues with my 400F. It was solid as a rock on Windows XP and on Mac OS X. Others have reported problems, but hey that happens with EVERY device on the market.

jshebell said:
But the MOTU pre's are good enough for the vast majority of things you're likely to do.
Click to expand...
This is true.

We have a MOTU 896HD in one of our mobile racks, so it's not like I'm a hater either. Their newer boxes are very useable overall, and terribly convenient in a 1U or 2U rackspace.
 
another vote for the 400f. Incredibly happy with mine. And you're completely correnct about the control room and headphone channels. The can either copy outs 1 and 2 or 7 and 8. Unfortunately, the headphones must be the same as the control room outs. You cant select different for each. Great unit though. I dont think youll regret getting one.
 
oh hey

i dont know everything about the 400f
but isnt it restricting
is there any word clock, adat, aes, or anything for expandability?
 
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