Mixer Help! Does this exist?

So you are saying if you connect the speakers (what model are they anyway?) directly to the mixer with nothing else attached to the mixer the hum is present?

....the mackine onyx "i" series of mixers does want you want -- it has a built in firewire interface that allows up to 16 tracks of recording at once (as well as sending tracks back out to the mixer). in particular the mackie onyx 1220i, 1620i and 1640i will meet your requirements.

Lil Stunt wrote:

Lil Stunt wrote:

Lampdog wrote:You tell me.

http://www.mackie.com/products/profxser ... _22_OM.pdf

Already tried to read this. I really didn't find an answer

Thanks lampdog, you always come thru.

I'm guessing what I really want doesn't exist.

Indeed the onyx does. I use the 1620i..

It's got 8 mono + 4 stereo.. all recordable individually via fire wire... Or you can assign the master output to Chanel 15/16..and 1 stereo FireWire track can be returned to 15/16 and sent to the master out if u want to use it that way.

And it's got all balanced inputs and outputs so zero computer hum comes thru.

U mentioned tho that you would need USB to FireWire adapter. If ur computer only as USB ports the onyx would not work for you as FireWire can't be adapted to usb in that direction.

Still if it's a desktop, FireWire pci cards are dirt cheap.

Edit.....That's right it's a laptop isn't it.. Maybe if it's an old school one with an xpress card port u could get a FireWire port connected.

ntalec wrote:So you are saying if you connect the speakers (what model are they anyway?) directly to the mixer with nothing else attached to the mixer the hum is present?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying.

golfdogz wrote:Indeed the onyx does. I use the 1620i..

It's got 8 mono + 4 stereo.. all recordable individually via fire wire... Or you can assign the master output to Chanel 15/16..and 1 stereo FireWire track can be returned to 15/16 and sent to the master out if u want to use it that way.

And it's got all balanced inputs and outputs so zero computer hum comes thru.

U mentioned tho that you would need USB to FireWire adapter. If ur computer only as USB ports the onyx would not work for you as FireWire can't be adapted to usb in that direction.

Still if it's a desktop, FireWire pci cards are dirt cheap.

Edit.....That's right it's a laptop isn't it.. Maybe if it's an old school one with an xpress card port u could get a FireWire port connected.

I think this is what I'm looking for.

I thought it would be ok if it was firewire, I found these things on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-USB-To-Fire ... 2a0a6e6ec0

Lil Stunt wrote:I thought it would be ok if it was firewire, I found these things on ebay:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-USB-To-Fire ... 2a0a6e6ec0

possibly - but i advise you to research on converting firewire to usb before you go buying a firewire mixer to make sure its gonna work.. you can connect a usb device to a firewire port in a computer but im pretty sure not the other way around..your computer wont recognise the Onyx through one of those..

this is a pretty common question in theworld of audio mixers / interfaces and a google search should cover it..even though cables exist it seems they dont work

It has something to do with the fact that USB is slower than firewire - or runs at variable vs fixed speed or something.. so a usb port cant handle firewire data, the cable might but not your port.. this might not be the case but with usb 3.0 though im not sure.

heres one example -but many popped up in the search
http://forums.presonus.com/posts/list/11758.page

but if you come across a way of getting an onyx to work with a laptops USB let me know cos im in the same boat.. (but i also have a desktop pc with a firewire port)

however if your laptop has pcmcia or express card port then you can get firewire adapters that will work for those.

i use the mackie onyx 1220i mixer with a laptop... you shouldn't need a firewire to usb adapter or anything... most laptops have the smaller firewire inputs that look like this here...



so all i needed to hook up the onyx mixer to my laptop was a cable with a regular sized firewire adpater on one side and the smaller firewire on the other side... check your laptop, chances are you have that small firewire port and didn't even know what it was for...

could it be a grounding issue on the mixer causing the hum? may need to just be grounded

crossings wrote:i use the mackie onyx 1220i mixer with a laptop... you shouldn't need a firewire to usb adapter or anything... most laptops have the smaller firewire inputs that look like this here...

so all i needed to hook up the onyx mixer to my laptop was a cable with a regular sized firewire adpater on one side and the smaller firewire on the other side... check your laptop, chances are you have that small firewire port and didn't even know what it was for...

true
though important to remember the 4-pin as its called fw port does not carry power, so you will need to externally power whatever device it is you plug into that little firewire port. most devices come with a power supply.

but please come off this usb->fw crap what a joke.

tapedeck wrote:but please come off this usb->fw crap what a joke.

I agree. That's more than just a hardware plug, it's also a whole different software transmission standard. Even if you can do it it probably wouldn't be worth it for a realtime pro audio device as running it through some laggy translation would negate the advantage of using firewire to begin with.

It's probably an acedemic question anyway. Those adapter cables might work for some basic, standard low level functions like transfering files between computers, but getting it to work with a complex multimedia device with a proprietary driver is very unlikely IMHO.

PCMCIA/Express card adapter or a new computer w/firewire is the only safe bet here.

elektrik_muz wrote:PCMCIA/Express card adapter or a new computer w/firewire is the only safe bet here.

my experience with fw on a laptop was that the pcmcia fw card did not work reliably at all. i would not recommend this (solely based on my experience). laptops and powering other devices is something to always watch out for.

i just ended up using the 4-pin and a power supply. an extra cable - but it is reliable.

basically - use firewire as it's intended and you'll be fine. start trying to convert between standards and plugs etc, and you might end up glitching.

I didn't think we were talking about port-powered devices here. It doesn't suprise me that they would cause problems but that's why I tend to avoid those things, at least if I'm doing anything serious. I'm not a believer in the idea of using a laptop's power supply to run anything but the laptop. That's just a DC power issue thou, doesn't have anything to do with the actual FW port transmission. The Mackie or any serious interface will always have it's own power supply or at least the option for such.

i forgot about these ones.

http://www.alesis.com/multimix16usb20

not quite as high quality as the mackie.. but still USB connection and individual track is sent

tapedeck wrote:

elektrik_muz wrote:PCMCIA/Express card adapter or a new computer w/firewire is the only safe bet here.

my experience with fw on a laptop was that the pcmcia fw card did not work reliably at all. i would not recommend this (solely based on my experience). laptops and powering other devices is something to always watch out for.

i just ended up using the 4-pin and a power supply. an extra cable - but it is reliable.

basically - use firewire as it's intended and you'll be fine. start trying to convert between standards and plugs etc, and you might end up glitching.

On laptops if the firewire interface isn't made by Texas Instruments it isn't going to work for audio and possibly not at all. JMicron is the wretched supplier of almost all of them for a few years now. On my quad HP laptop for example not a single firewire device has ever been operational. The best it ever did was show the HD in explorer but no data transfer or even file viewing was possibly.