Why Mackie?

M

Mixman

New member
Why do you yanks always use mackie mixers what's wrong with Allen and Heath, Soundcraft and SoundTrac Boards.
I would be very interested to know!!!
 
Who da hell you calling yank.....

Anyway, as far as I know, Allen and Heath and Soundcraft come highly reccommended around here.....many use Mackie because they are a little more affordable, and a quite decent board compared to the others in their price range (Behringer).....
 
its cuz Seattle has MIND CONTROL over everything and everyone.

starbucks

Microsoft

boeing

mackie

msr

rane

jimi

grunge


xoxo
 
Mixman,
I bought a Mackie mixer because the construction and features far surpassed any other mixer I looked at.(They don't even offer Allen and Heath where I live.)

Also,last week it developed a hum in the power supply,
I've had it about a year and a half,and when I bought it they offered a 2 year warrenty if I returned the card in two weeks.I did,and when I called them last week I figured I was in for it,the runaround,UPS shipping and no mixer for 6 months if they would fix it at all!

Well they suprised the heck out of me,I talked to 2 live people,and in 5 minutes had an order number and a repair shop 10 minutes from my home!(the Mackie factory is 3000 miles away).

Took it in the next day and they told me 2 weeks,and the only reason it will take so long is the repair man is out with the flu.

That's just my 2 cents worth.
Good luck,
Pete
 
Mackie Boards

I am running a Mackie 32/8 and I also have an old Soundcraft 400b (16 input).. and there is a major difference in sound quality.. Not that the Soundcraft is bad, but it is a different sound and as an owner of both, I prefer the 32/8.. Mackie has an awesome preamp design.. Some say, that the on-board preamps in the new 8 bus series, are as good as expensive outboard rackmount models..One downside is Mackie is known for bad factory wiring and I was a victim to this, and after having to be sent to mackie itself (the repair couldn't be done at a local repair depot) it was gone 6 weeks, It came back no friggin' better... exact same problem.. finally after a few threatening phonecalls on my part, they broke down and shipped me a brand new board and took back my faulty one.... Since you were asking about mackies compared to other boards, I thought I would give you my honest senario. They are great, boards and I wouldn't trade it for anything, but i guess with any company, there can be a few problems here and there.
 
Well, I purchased a Mackie mixer because it was a name I was somewhat familiar with (newbie) and it has a high level of availability in my area (Cincy, Oh). To tell you the truth I've never even heard or or seen any of those other mixers and I've checked a few different music shops around here.

Marketing rules apparently.
 
Having lived on both sides of the ocean, I've played with most of the boards mentioned.
Mackie is reliable and simply very good value for money.
I wouldn't go as far as to agree with Vox regarding the Mackie pre's. They are, once again, good for the money.
But... I still don't think you can compare a Mackie to an A & H, which would win hands down purely on sound quality.
 
Don't get me wrong, I don't mean that Mackie's preamp's compare to Avalon, or another high end preamp, but as in comparison, to what comes in the other brands, Mackie is deffinately superior.. (value to quality)... I test drove alot of brands when I was shopping, and this is what I discovered although other peoples ears may hear different.... Another thing... What is good about Mackie, is they don't go cheap on the cheaper boards... Supposedly, all of there models, have the same quality, preamps, and components... even the small vlz series.. 8-inputs, or whatever.. Mackie claims that the circuitry and components, are the exact same ones in my $6600 (CAN) 32/8, although less channels and less eq options, and generally smaller scale...WOW mixman, you are getting some great reply's to your original query. Im sure, you'll be either scared away from the Mackie's, or the opposite senario, you will run out and buy a Mackie tommorow:)
 
Camn, I wouldn't be boasting about Microsoft or Grunge, coming from your city... You may get beat up just for living amongst those things in many other parts of the world, although the rest are a very worthwhile environment to reside, especially Starbucks! (Vox love's the lattes) :)
 
sjoko2 said:
Having lived on both sides of the ocean, I've played with most of the boards mentioned.
Mackie is reliable and simply very good value for money.
I wouldn't go as far as to agree with Vox regarding the Mackie pre's. They are, once again, good for the money.
But... I still don't think you can compare a Mackie to an A & H, which would win hands down purely on sound quality.
Click to expand...

I could not agree with this statement strongly enough!

I have used all the named consoles, and can surely attest that the Mackie sounds the cheapest of the bunch...

Are there preamps usable? Yes. Are there eq's usable? Not to my ears.

I have used all these brands in both live and studio applications. What bugs me about mackies in the studio is even WORSE for live sound. Thanks god the club I am working at now has my Ghost console installed. The mackie 32/8 was simply horrible. The club owner, a non-technical type described the sound difference between the two consoles like this:

"The treble just sounds nicer to me. All that nasty harshness we used to have it gone. Cool dude!" :)

I noticed right away too that the low end tightened up significantly. Also, just to top it all off, the PA system now has much more headroom. The Mackie summing amps are simply horrible. Mixing through a mackie is nearly impossible to do in critical applications. They just don't handle hot signals very well.

Bedubs statement is as true as it gets. Mackie doesn't HAVE to improve the sound of it's boards because there is little competition to do so. Forget about all those stupid "endorsements" from top musicians and engineers. If you knew what they were REALLY using the mackies for, you would be mostly unimpressed. Usually they are a mixer for keyboard modules and stuff. There is seldomly more then one source running through them at one time, so the summing amps don't muck it up as bad. And, the eq's are not used in these situations.

A&H makes a great mixer. Soundcraft is killer stuff. But, I wouldn't touch a SoundTech product if they paid me big money to. There stuff simply stinks! Harsh and cheaply made.

A very very happy Soundcraft Ghost owner!

Ed
 
Well said , Ed......thank God you are back....I had to act like I knew what I was talking about while you were gone....if you are sticking around, I can go back to being a dumbfuck......
 
agreed 100% - I replaced a console in a friend's club in Hollyweird last year with a 32 ch A&H - what a difference!
Fact remains - if you're on a budget..........
I'm spoiled :>)

On the keyboard thing - I've gotten used to using realy short (3') mogami cords from the outputs direct into a Lucid converter. Wow! what a sound.
Also, last year we opened up a Yamaha and disconnected the on-board D/A - so we could go digital out. Again a vast improvement, pretty amazing one actually. I don't understand that in this day and age, keyboard manufacturers still don't offer AES or ADAT digital outputs.
If you like I can send you an MP3 file with some sounds from a cheapass Yamaha recorded like described above.
 
Sonusman,
Wow, im surprised about your opinion on Mackie boards. Everyone I've talked to, owners and dreamers, can't say enough good stuff about 'em... Of course they are not an SL 9000 or vintage Neve, or even a higher end model of the soundcraft line, but bang for the buck, is definately an plus with this unit and In my studio, and every one I know's studio who has installed the 8 bus series , we are all getting pro- results, are you sure there wasn't a blown monitor, or a descrepincy with the hooking up, of that board you heard?? Speaking of opinion... Most people are surprised to hear this but, I hate the Yamaha NS-10's.. (The most famous, and widely used studio monitors...) I can't stand the friggin' things.. I actually use my Polk Audio RT-10's for mixing now (not even really known at all for studio use.. (more of a home stereo bookshelf speaker))... but now and then, I switch back to the NS10's just for a quick listen,,, but can't stand 'em... Thanks for your reply on the mackie, it's interesting to here everyones opinon on different equipment.
 
and I think Mackie will follow. Oh no, my mistake, not mackies' HQ, just their manufacturing. Where is it again that people like Behringer have their stuff made? You know... those boxes which, when you open them up have at least 20 bucks of stuff in them? Oh yeah, I remember, I think its called China. You know? That place where they make all those cheap plastic toys. Oh and fireworks as well. Don't let me forget fireworks. Those are the things that go bang when you light them, you know? Those things kids make over there to earn money for their school, when they really should be learning. Pitty they all went bang last week, those kids. What were we talking about again?
 
VOXVENDER

My dislike of Mackie is mostly famous around here, get used to it.

If you haven't used it side by side with an A&H, or a Soundcraft you will not know what a difference it makes. You will find these "warmer" British designs will give you better levels without compression to your master deck, and much more transparent EQ.

I spent the last three months doing live mixes, and a few demo projects on a Mackie and was pissed the whole time using it. The very first nite that the Ghost was installed to the club, not only did the club owner hear a difference, but some people in bands that had recently played their heard a difference. There IS a difference!

If you think you are getting "pro results" out of a Mackie 8 buss, you will get "stunning" results from a Ghost! There is absolutely no way you can compare the consoles in pure sound quality. sjoko2, who is far more experienced and "notable" in audio claimed the same above when comparing a Mackie to a A&H.

Go work on a nice console for a while and hear for yourself. It doesn't have to be an SSL to be better then a Mackie. There are a lot of affordable consoles that sound better then Mackies. Granted, you are going to pay more, but quality has it's price.

Anyway, not to sound snobbish, but my assessment of Mackie compared to some of these other consoles is validated by any person who has used them all, and these people are usually professionals. This leads me to believe that it is not just ME who has a distaste for them when compared to other affordable consoles. It is more or less a consensus.

Screw those paid endorsements you read in the mags! Hell, I might evensay a nice thing or two about Mackie if they floated me a free console or some cash! :)

On second thought......

Ed
 
Hey Ed... I don't question what your saying.. I've worked with both Mackie and Soundcraft live, and no doubt the Soundcraft came out on top. But now we're talking quite costy consoles.. If we instead look at consoles in the 1604 vlz pro range; What consoles would you prefer?
 
Sonusman, Remember, Im not comparing any boards, Especially A&H. From what I hear they are great boards... I compared my 400b (soundcraft) to my mackie 32/8 and gave opinions, about my Mackie... I am not comparing to the other brands....Im sure for more money I could have got, a better board. Im not saying Mackie is the best, just explaining all the good things about them, and mentioned a few bad things about them (repair dpt) also to answer the original message. Your Statement about the ads, and endorsments, is definately not entirely true, although it does happen... If you read Eq mag last month, you will see that Graham Nash just installed one in his studio, and there is about one sentence in the who article about the 32/8.. he uses as his MAIN console, Definately not pushing them.. Trent Reznor has installed 3 of them, and does use them for final mixing..I can't believe people use a $6000 board, to run just Keyboard modules through, I mean thats almost funny, or scary and dumb if people do that. But honestly, I was giving my opinion about my Mackie, not comparing the others.
Sorry if you took my posts wrong, but I agnowledge, the other boards are great pieces of equipment.
 
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