Mixers today

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plexi59

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The FireWire option card in my Mackie ONYX 1220 kicked the bucket, and a couple of pots are scratchy, so I started looking into a replacement.

Much to my surprise I discovered that nobody (and that includes Mackie) seems to actually make anything that's reasonably priced and offers the same functionality. By "the same" functionality I mean a decent mixer with a decent multichannel recording interface built right in. Nowadays it looks like you either get a shitty 2x2 USB interface in a mixer (and they hide the specs for that interface really well, because it's often 16bit 41KHz, basically bottom of the barrel converters), or you get a fully analog mixer and then spend a ton of cash on the actual standalone interface (with a side effect of a rat's nest of wires). I mean I get why you'd want to do that in an actual high end studio, sure, but for a hobbyist like me this is just dumb. Audient id22 looked interesting, but I can't tell from the specs if it even works without a computer. It certainly requires the computer for adjusting the parameters. I don't want to have to fire up a computer every time I want to play.

And interfaces are equally idiotic. You either get decidedly low-end USB2 stuff of questionable quality, or you have to get Thunderbolt stuff for which there are several incompatible versions, and which starts at $500 for just a couple of channels. I mean, really? The very highest end ADCs and DACs TI (aka "Burr-Brown") makes are like $12 per stereo pair. Cirrus, the same. Why is that interface $2K? I mean I get why Axe FX costs as much as it does: there's a lot of software in there, and software is expensive, but there's very little software in an interface, and in case of e.g. Universal Audio you have to pay hundreds of dollars for it separately. Another explanation could be that they're very low volume manufacturers, of course. As I was looking at this stuff, I was thinking "man, Fractal could build this blindfolded; the problem that's being solved here is markedly easier than guitar input stage which is subjected to crazy levels of gain, which magnifies noise".

So I ended up just getting a used FireWire Mackie (a newer version) for like a hundred bucks. Congratulations, mixer manufacturers, you've played yourself. The budget was $500 or maybe a little over.
 
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You do realize its all about the numbers, right? Whatever works for most people is what they will gun for. The fact that it means losing the oddballs like you is the trade off they will accept.
 
The FireWire option card in my Mackie ONYX 1220 kicked the bucket, and a couple of pots are scratchy, so I started looking into a replacement.

Much to my surprise I discovered that nobody (and that includes Mackie) seems to actually make anything that's reasonably priced and offers the same functionality. By "the same" functionality I mean a decent mixer with a decent multichannel recording interface built right in. Nowadays it looks like you either get a shitty 2x2 USB interface in a mixer (and they hide the specs for that interface really well, because it's often 16bit 41KHz, basically bottom of the barrel converters), or you get a fully analog mixer and then spend a ton of cash on the actual standalone interface (with a side effect of a rat's nest of wires). I mean I get why you'd want to do that in an actual high end studio, sure, but for a hobbyist like me this is just dumb. Audient id22 looked interesting, but I can't tell from the specs if it even works without a computer. It certainly requires the computer for adjusting the parameters. I don't want to have to fire up a computer every time I want to play.

And interfaces are equally idiotic. You either get decidedly low-end USB2 stuff of questionable quality, or you have to get Thunderbolt stuff for which there are several incompatible versions, and which starts at $500 for just a couple of channels. I mean, really? The very highest end ADCs and DACs TI (aka "Burr-Brown") makes are like $12 per stereo pair. Cirrus, the same. Why is that interface $2K? I mean I get why Axe FX costs as much as it does: there's a lot of software in there, and software is expensive, but there's very little software in an interface, and in case of e.g. Universal Audio you have to pay hundreds of dollars for it separately. Another explanation could be that they're very low volume manufacturers, of course. As I was looking at this stuff, I was thinking "man, Fractal could build this blindfolded; the problem that's being solved here is markedly easier than guitar input stage which is subjected to crazy levels of gain, which magnifies noise".

So I ended up just getting a used FireWire Mackie (a newer version) for like a hundred bucks. Congratulations, mixer manufacturers, you've played yourself. The budget was $500 or maybe a little over.
You may take a look at the Midas MR18 (or Behringer XR18)
 
I had the same problem and ended up buying the XR18.
Works like a charm.
Or perhaps the X32 Producer - I think Yek uses this.
 
I've replaced my Mackie Onyx 1640 by a Behringer X32C and the only thing I still miss is the ease of use of the man-machine interface of an analog board.
 
Have you taken a look at the Presonus AR12? I have it's little brother the AR8 and the features seem pretty similar to the Mackie (I had a 1620), with the addition of built-in effects.
 
I have an X32 Rack (among others) that comes with a 32-in,32-out USB card... <shrug>
 
I had an Onyx 24.4 some years back. It was a good mixer, but was well above $500 new, even back then. There have been a lot of great innovations in mixer tech since that was Mackie’s big thing, and many more options as to format, as well. As @Sustainerplayer noted above, Presonus has many options which can record a full 32 tracks to an SD card, and includes live recording and DAW software to get you started with most mixers. Even Midas now has mixers obtainable by we mere mortals.

For us older guys, the feeling of a spacious desk with a knob for every function is what’s comfortable and I liked that in the Onyx. But from the time the StudioLive and X32 mixers came out, I haven’t been back to the old format. The ability to use 16 or more auxes for monitor mixes, multiple mix busses, DCA groups, onboard effects/gates/compression, remote stage boxes, wireless iPad mixing and monitor control is too much to give up. The sound, to my ears, is cleaner and better all around, and these mixers can be had for virtually the same price as quality all analog “mixer only” desks of the past.

I’ll see 60 next year, and played through some great and some gnarly mixers through the years. Still gigging weekly now, and IMHO, mixer tech and performance vs price point has never been better.
 
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It won't meet your needs by itself, but since we're talking about mixers, I wanted to mention this.

We used the new SSL XiX at the Amp Show last month. They should have called it the SSL OMG. It made me realize that my other mixers were really failing me. The vocal channels are killer too.
 
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