Makie Onyx series or Interface

Can someone tell me the difference or benefits of one over the other? I am looking for a multichannel hookup, including MPC to track out in Ableton. Thanks!

I just picked up the Mackie Onyx 1640 with the FireWire option last week. Not messed with it too much yet but ill tell you why I got it. It is an analogue desk first and foremost, has flexible routing options, 6 aux sends, 4 groups, good EQ section with sweepable mids, pretty good preamps, and its not huge in size. The FireWire option gives you 16 individual channels of digital audio plus a stereo mix (total 18 channels simultaneously) into your DAW, pre EQ.

Downsides? As mentioned the FireWire feed is pre EQ, but you can track with EQ using the AUX sends or group outs. The faders are short 60mm which feels a bit odd to me having had a Mackie D8B as my last mixing desk. You only get a stereo feed back from your DAW which is ok for monitoring. Metering isn't that great, it's adequate, and to fit it all I to a rack space the control are quite close together but workable. No digital I/O, no midi I/O.

I suppose you need to decide what you need from a hardware mixer, and what you need from an audio interface. I went for the best of both worlds in terms of flexibility, which will allow me to mix in or out of the box, and handle a lot of audio inputs but also track easily up to 16 sources. Midi I/O would have been nice, Ill need a seperate USB midi interface. If I want to track with EQ, ill need another audio interface. If I want digital I/O...you get the picture. But the Mackie meets my needs for now. The newer 1640i has less compromises but costs almost twice as much. You can get an audio interface with 8 analogue I/O, ADAT I/O, midi I/O, 3 band EQ, standalone mixer, FX for less than I paid for the 1640, for example my old Digi 002 desktop.

Choices, choices...

@Clint

Is firewire/USB standard on the mackiemixers?

Cus me getting a SP makes my 8 channel mixer obsolete, i need a 16 ch.
So ive been looking around at mackies, seems nice and affordable.

1620 seems pretty nice too.

I like the idea of a 4 band eq that some of them do.

Are you happy with it overall?

I bought the 1220i a few months back and really like it. It's plug and play with Mac so there's no drivers to mess with or configure. I can't get it to work with Windows XP yet though, but I'll sort that out when I've got the time.

I was only using a middle-of-the road Focusrite interface previously, which was ok, but I was having to constantly dick around with the software mixer. I just prefer everything to be hands-on.

The lack of midi and digital connections is a sacrifice worth making for me. The only negative I've found so far is a slight dip in performance on very heavy projects. Also, one of my gain knobs is slightly scratchy, so I'll have to get it swapped out if it doesn't right itself.

If you're switching from an RME or Apollo interface you might be a tad underwhelmed, but if you're in the market for a well priced mixer/interface combo, you can't go wrong.

when using the Mackie 1220i with a mac, you just simply have to buy a firewire to thunderbolt cord, right?

Nope, just a Firewire 400 to 800 cable. It depends what Mac you're using though.

marrelarre wrote:@Clint

Is firewire/USB standard on the mackiemixers?

Cus me getting a SP makes my 8 channel mixer obsolete, i need a 16 ch.
So ive been looking around at mackies, seems nice and affordable.

1620 seems pretty nice too.

I like the idea of a 4 band eq that some of them do.

Are you happy with it overall?

FireWire is standard on the newer Onyx i series (1640 at least) and optional on some of the older Onyx boards. I like mine so far but have only had its week, need some monitors to really go in.