Analog Alternatives to buying a Mackie Board

Well yeah, always beware of marketing blah blah. But it's not really important where this Perkins guy lives, only if he can design good circuitry. "British EQ" has become somewhat of a marketing term itself... All I know is the original (VLZ pro series) EQ wasn't fantastic, but I'm sure the Onyx EQ is a noticable improvement.

If I were looking for a new desk and I couldn't afford the Venice I just bought, I'd definitely be looking at Allen&Heath. The GL2200 is only €1900 now that the GL2400 came out, and the MixWizard series is great if you don't need that many channels. For second hand, I'd be looking at a Tascam M2600mkII or M3500/3700 (space permitting), or older A&H (GS3 etc) or soundcraft boards.

All I know is the original (VLZ pro series) EQ wasn't fantastic, but I'm sure the Onyx EQ is a noticable improvement.

How are you sure have you compared them or our you just speculating due to the marketing blitz?

jaem wrote:

All I know is the original (VLZ pro series) EQ wasn't fantastic, but I'm sure the Onyx EQ is a noticable improvement.

How are you sure have you compared them or our you just speculating due to the marketing blitz?

how are you sure, the onyx is not better, than the vlz?


have you used both, have you heard both? It seems like your commenting on somting you don't know much about.

jaem wrote:

All I know is the original (VLZ pro series) EQ wasn't fantastic, but I'm sure the Onyx EQ is a noticable improvement.

How are you sure have you compared them or our you just speculating due to the marketing blitz?

Funny thing about the expression "I'm sure..." It expresses confidence, not certainty. As in "I'm sure you'll do great"... I can't be "sure", but I'm "confident".

Like I've said, I have not heard the Onyx EQ for myself, but I do have extensive experience with the Original Mackie EQ; I'm confident they've improved on that because there was much room for improvement, and the EQ was generally considered to be one of their weaker points.

So that's why I said: "[the new Onyx EQ] should be pretty decent, but listen for yourself." I REPEAT: LISTEN FOR YOURSELF. I'm just saying I believe these small mixers are worth auditioning if you're looking for something in that price range.

So when Paul White of Sound on Sound says:
"...it didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that the Onyx sounds noticeably sweeter than the EQ in the regular Mackie range."
That doesn't mean you have to run out and buy an Onyx, but IMHO it might suggest you wouldn't be wasting your time checking one out in the shop to see what it's worth.

(Read the Mackie Onyx 1620 SoS review here)

just curious, how much would a studio pay for an SSL console?

specifically the 4000 or 6000 e

Ok a while ago I heard the firewire option on the onyx would stream post-gain, pre-eq. But someone at Sam Ash yesterday was swearing on his mothers life that if you turn off the eq bypass you can stream post eq into the DAW and track your shit out with the EQ from the desk still applied. Anyone know for sure?

This guy also said that the Onyx sounded punchier than Soundcraft Spirit?

I have never been a mackie fan and prolly never will be....

I dont like the EQ on the VLZ series, its honky sounding, too much hi mids......

and I am forced to use these boards way way to much.........

so when it comes to the onyx series and their bs marketing talk......it seems like a big hustle and waste of my time.....you wanna defend the onxy??????

1-tell me who the fuk cal perkins is and how he has anything to do with british EQ
2-explain to me the point of having the available bandwidth to do 16x16 via firewire 400 bus and not utilizing it
3-explain to me how onyx is marketed as a firewire mixer but i got to drop more $$$ to get this capability..........

its all a big hustle...and a successful one I might add


as for those sprit boards....they fall apart cheap chinese piece by cheap chinese piece......


If I were in the market for a mixer I would go with an A&H or a Midas (btw an entry level A&H costs just as much as an onyx w/ the FW card)


If those were out of my price range I'd go with a MG series from yammie

the yammie board is crap but at least its priced like crap and doesnt have the noise floor of a behringer.....

the vlz is priced at 2x the MG

BOTTOM LINE
if you dont have the $$$ for a good mixer dont waste your money on marketing hype........buy the cheapest usable alternative

jaem wrote:I dont like the EQ on the VLZ series, its honky sounding, too much hi mids......

I'm not a fan of th VLZ series EQ myself, not many people are.

jaem wrote:and I am forced to use these boards way way to much.........

Yep, they're all over the place. Apparently Mackie have a really good marketing division.

jaem wrote:so when it comes to the onyx series and their bs marketing talk......it seems like a big hustle and waste of my time.....you wanna defend the onxy??????

How could I? I haven't heard them yet. All I'm saying is, if I were in the market for a $1000 $1500 small, new mixer, I'd prolly give the Onyx a listen.... And then I'd buy an A&H!

jaem wrote:1-tell me who the fuk cal perkins is and how he has anything to do with british EQ

Perkins designed, or helped design, the VLZ pro preamps, which are VERY higly rated. He also worked on the HR series monitors... Opinions differ on those.
And 'British EQ' is just a type of EQ. You don't have to be born in the UK to design or build one. My favorite brand of Scotch is from Ireland, not Scotland. (OK, Champagne has to be made in Champagne and Cognac has to be made in Cognac to be called that, but you get my point...)

jaem wrote:2-explain to me the point of having the available bandwidth to do 16x16 via firewire 400 bus and not utilizing it

What's your point? You could say that about half the FireWire audio interfaces out there.

jaem wrote:3-explain to me how onyx is marketed as a firewire mixer but i got to drop more $$$ to get this capability..........

Who cares about marketing? If I'd be buying an Onyx, I wouldn't need the FW capability, so I'd be glad I wouldn't be paying for it. Those who need it can buy it seperately. I don't need the EB16 in my 2000xl either, but it's great that it's available for those that do.

jaem wrote:its all a big hustle...and a successful one I might add

Told you they had a good marketing division...

jaem wrote:as for those sprit boards....they fall apart cheap chinese piece by cheap chinese piece....

They're cheap. Build quality and component quality isn't great. But I had a $300 s/h Spirit Folio SX for a while, and it didn't fall apart on me. The EQ on it was actually more pleasant sounding to me than the Mackie's (!), and for $300 on a 16ch mixer, I'm not asking too many questions.

jaem wrote:If I were in the market for a mixer I would go with an A&H or a Midas
(btw an entry level A&H costs just as much as an onyx w/ the FW card)

That's what I did. I bought the Midas. If I had less to spend I'd go with A&H or a big, old S/H console.

jaem wrote:BOTTOM LINE
if you dont have the $$$ for a good mixer dont waste your money on marketing hype........buy the cheapest usable alternative

Wasting your money on marketing hype isn't a good idea under any circumstances, I think.

Some good suggestions for affordable mixers have been made in this thread, and let's just reserve our judgement on the Onyx series until we've heard it.

The used market is much better for most budget cats, things are proven by that point and people have more realistic expectations.

elmacaco wrote:The used market is much better for most budget cats, things are proven by that point and people have more realistic expectations.

True dat. I've bought all my mixers except my first one on the s/h market. And this doesn't just go for budget mixers; there is also a big market for s/h mid-price and high-end consoles.