Mackie 54 channel 8 bus mixer... should I get it?

im thinking they hatin on muh 54 chans, thas wud im thinkin.



unless it is a complete fluke, it sounds like all mackies... hissy, snappy, and dark.

like muh women

The Grublet wrote:im thinking they hatin on muh 54 chans, thas wud im thinkin.



unless it is a complete fluke, it sounds like all mackies... hissy, snappy, and dark.

like muh women

nah, some people think it should be a 25-50k mixer or nothing... casette porta studios are shit, yet nobody complains about music made on those

it is true, it's a live board... but really, if the budget is 1k then you aren't getting a broadcast quality sound tech or SSL, or some yuppy equipment. not saying they dont sound good... cause for real the actual goal is to get no sound what so ever... completely transparent... you pay for that. Unless you make so much damn money you cant do work without buying a mixer that costs almost the price of a house then maybe there is some justification to spend that type of cash.

for routing and convenience of everything "pre patched" id say yes. for sound and build quality no.


thats a cool price though. most 32-8s i see go for more than that.

more gear in tandem then you can now

MIDI'D the f out too.


......


My whole motto.. and why I always rotate gear stock... is ...


(don't steal my swag)
















Buy it cheap.

























Play until bored.....

































Sell for more.























Make money and have a good time at it too.



im sure I could unload this for 1500 to the right buyer easily, if I HATE the sound.

But heres the deal... Its a LIVE board right???




Where do you want your songs to bang?




~IN DA CLUB.




Thats right, in the mu feezy cleeezy.




Thats why I'm getting it thursday.


To make some Club Bangers.

try to get it for 700

it would be fun to plug all your samplers in at one time.


start doing to wicked dub style mixes

he came down from 1,200. I may still try for 9 tho.


I have the MIDI knowledge to do what I always want to do, but never have the physical channels for... PRE MIX everything... 8 mono tracks MAX for beats... EVERY time.

and only one sound per channel.




THIS is why I am getting it.




If the thing makes it to AZ, and still turns on... Its a WIN in my book.

my friends had a big live board like that and they had to plug it into the 220 outlet where the dryer was.

keep that in mind, is yer studio near your laundry room!?

just sayin...take note.

ps. what's all this 'locally' stuff then talking about transporting from MN to AZ??

Good luck and congrats

moving.

If you dig it, shwoop....

What I'd suggest.... bring your 2KXL

Stab phones or monitors to the 2KXL..... run outta xl to smackie, and monitor off that as well

A/B

If you don't hate it, go for it.

You're techy n tweaky enough to know if you can use it.

Honestly... I don't know why people think they need to run a 2KXL thru a SSL to make it sound good. I've heard some banger albums come off of Behllringers....

Those aint that bad a board. Bridge is a huge plus.

The technical nightmare is the ribbon cables used for power and bus architecture in these. Lots of bleed

But.... you are techy. I'd be real comfortable at 800 if I felt it suited my needs. 900 wouldnt be a killer if its 100% functional.

Down the road there is room for improvement. Smackie uses super cheap opamps in the input modules (as many do)... I'm talkin cheap and crummy. Some good opamps will make a world of difference if you want to mod later. You can get 'good' opamps for $.30cents to $.50cents each if you're ordering enough for the whole board. You don't need a $3 opamp to have a good opamp. and those would be an improvement over stock. You wouldn't stick the earths rarest diamond in a cheap band... but maybe a nicely cut ruby... same theory

The single biggest thing in my book would be to separate the power distribution and star your + and - ..... noise floor will drop like a rock. period. single biggest bang for your buck mod. time and wire.... soldering.... that's it.

As far as transporting it.... u drivin it? I wouldn't even sweat it. If it doesn't have a case, just set it on some cushions or blankets. It's not as modular as a trident or otari or the like.... and it's not bus cards, it's ribbons (Think IDE and block crimps/headers)..... shouldn't have to worry much about things getting jacked up in the move.

if someone else is moving it (Truck, plane) then you're gonna want a ATA case..... I might be able to score u one for $50-100... would not be cosmetically perfect, but would be sound.

AZ? You outtie dogg? Poof goes the Grublet?

Ive been meaning to hit you up lately... just been busy.


Hells yeah I would score on some op amps... probably wouldn't get to soldiering them in just yet... how many per channel go in?


STAR? my + and -? WTF does that mean?


It does have the nicer G ribbons.. so at least I have that going for me.

and yes, I would like a travel case (if you could find one ill buy it)



what else should I be looking for on this monster while im testing it?

STAR? my + and -? WTF does that mean?

I believe he means your raw voltages going to the individual components all radiate from a single point, vs daisy-chaining and setting up serially.

Like, use just ONE ground reference, amirite?

probably. I guess that would lessen noise and bleed.

Hey Shorty....


how's about we skip christmas.... Light the kwanza tree on fire... tip over the ule log... and tear this **** apart.


LMAO.

Ok, power in most consoles is ran down the bus... wether ribbons or cards.

So , for instance, top to bottom, trace/lead to trace/lead, youd have something similar:

+48v
+5v
0v
0v
0v
-5v
+12v
-12v
+15v
+18v

aux1
aux2
aux3
aux4
aux5
aux6
L
R
sub1
sub2
sub3
sub4
sub5
sub6
sub7
sub8

etc etc


some of them, power is on the same card/cable... others they are seperate.

The problem is that you will bleed from one to the next in close proximity, level dependant on quality of pcb or cable shield, connector quality, ribbon length, distance from point of distribution (Where power comes in), grows as you get further down the bus adding channels, etc.

lots of factors.

Typically, your power and ground comes in where the cable plugs into the back of the console (Drrr) and branches out down the board.

Usually this goes into one channel, then the next, then the next, and so on. one to the next, all the way down the board.

STAR GROUNDING is a method of separating the ground from this scheme. As easy as clipping the ground where it comes in the console... and separating it between channels.... so that it doesn't extend to the channels and down the 'bus'

Then, take a nice heavy gauge, (You can bench each input module / channel, measure it's needs, multiply by the number of channels and buses, and get your gauge)..... run it to say midway down the board to a terminal block. Then branch off the block to each individual channel.

That is a star ground. It does three things.
1) It provides an adequate gauge ground to support it's load. 99% of consoles, even high end, can suffer from use of insufficient ground. believe it.
2) it provides even distribution of the ground, rather than pulling thru all previous channels to ground, each channel grounds straight to ground.
3) It isolates your ground from close proximity to what may be audio signal or + voltage causing bleed. In the case of mackies with ribbon busses andd power, you have a + voltage directly against your ground.... booooo....

You can do this with your power as well.

Clean power, and isolating it from your audio paths, will make that joker seem like a different console.

Seriously.... google this ish.

Even big name manufacturers boards suffer from this and can be improved on.

So why dont they do it out the box? Time ... and time is money, and extra wire is money.... but it's mostly the time.
WAY WAY faster to and cheaper to just slap a ribbon cable in. Cost of manufacturing a harness is dirt with ribbons cause it's all on a machine, verses hand trimming, tieing and crimping/soldering a custom harness.

The difference on my board, just with the ground, was night and day. I swear. Unreal. From hearing the nopise floor in the monitors, to NOT. You can barely even SEE it now in PT when zooming the waveform height on 'silence' .... and you can't hear it. you'll get more digital ripple trying to amp and hear it, than you will get actual recorded noise....

Trust me

Grubs... I'll be at studio around 5 if you wanna jump thru for a bit. Or I can come to you. Where you at?

Gimme a call. PRIMARY number on my websites

And there is a lot more to it than that. That is the uber quick generic version, but sums it up.

Also, most power supplies for large format consoles are really only good for a board half their size or less. Until you get into high end stuff, and even those can be improved on.

For instance.... I spec'd out a PSU for a Behringer MX3282A I was repairing..... I wouldn't have used it on a 8 channel mixer.

yeah.

As you add channels to the bus (Pressing L/R, or any Bus), you draw from the PSU.
The more you add, the more you draw.

The more you add, the more you eat what's available from the supply, and thru it's distribution in the console.

Though it might function with all engaged, I guarantee you, the quality of ONE single channel will be better on it's own, than any individual channel with all say 54 engaged. Particularly in low frequency, and overall clarity/transparency of the channel.

Nevermind all the other factors.