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Why did Mackie dropped the price on the Onyx Satellite?


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I know I should be asking at the Mackie Forum/Their Company but I'm looking for honest "freelance" objective answers and opinion.

 

Is it because the machine has too many loose screws and they just want to get rid of it, is it because there is a replacement release coming soon, or finally Mackie is just a damn good company with low budget musicians in mind?

 

I was looking at getting one of these for remote use, basically because of the pre-amp but the price dropped has raised some concerns regarding stability.

 

Any help/answers/views/opinion guys?

 

Thanks very much.

 

AI

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Check out the Pro Review of it. It sounds good, and I still use it with my Mac. But it's an older product, and may have been more of a solution in search of a problem. Then again, for some people, it really does fulfill a need if they have a small desktop studio and also do remote recording with a laptop.

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Sometimes it's GREAT when a lot of people don't "get" a product, and the folks who do get the benefit of a price drop.

 

If you like it, just get it. Who cares if the price went down? Would it make you feel better if it went up? I can buy one and sell it to you for a lot more money, if that makes you feel better. ;)

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Sometimes it's GREAT when a lot of people don't "get" a product, and the folks who do get the benefit of a price drop.


If you like it, just get it. Who cares if the price went down? Would it make you feel better if it went up? I can buy one and sell it to you for a lot more money, if that makes you feel better.
;)

 

I have not heard recording done with the Satellite but I have played around with it physically and I loved the firmness. The thing is built like an amored truck.

 

My question regarding the price drop is for technical and usable reasons.

Most companies will drop prices when they are no longer going to be making them or support them, driver wise.

 

I just want to make sure I'm not buying something I'll be getting stuck with.

 

I know other compinies that have smaller units and I'll be looking at those also.

 

Thanks guys.

 

Patrick/AI

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Is it because the machine has too many loose screws and they just want to get rid of it, is it because there is a replacement release coming soon, or finally Mackie is just a damn good company with low budget musicians in mind?I

More like the last item on your list. They found that it was cheaper to make, and it's an entry level product that with some features (knobs and switches, actually) not found on most of the competition.

 

Of course the fact that it doesn't do a few things that you'd expect and that a lot of systems seem to reject it means that there are probably more of them in the warehouse than Mackie would like to see. There was a firmware update that supposedly took care of some of the more common complaints but they only implemented it for the Mac and apparently it broke a few things in the process.

 

The Satellite is a great product IF it works on your system and IF it does what you need. It's not worth waiting for it to get better if it doesn't suit your needs as is. Much as I try to be a friend to and an advocate for Mackie, they really aren't making much progress toward fixing the problems with this unit.

 

I have one and it works OK on my system (Windows) as a straight audio interface but many are not so lucky or expect it to do things that it doesn't do, or doesn't do well.

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I'm actually wrestling with possibly picking one up to -- but don't have money I want to waste right now, either.

 

I'm one of those weirdos who actually kind of likes the preamps on his VLZ board -- but 24 channels is a lot of overhead to carry just for the one channel strip I typically use -- and it warms up my work area pretty good on a hot August day.

 

I've heard a lot of pretty good things about Onyx pres (and plenty bad, too, I hang out at GearSlutz :D ) and I wouldn't mind having an energy efficient front end. Plus, I'm thinking the converters are likely to be at least on a par with my MOTU 828mkII.

 

OTOH... I finally put the MOTU to work doing some signal routing, juggling a handful of sources to go to my power amp so... I dunno... I'd always rather not spend money given my druthers.

 

 

Mike - what kind of things do you think folks expect it to do that it doesn't do -- or doesn't do well?

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what kind of things do you think folks expect it to do that it doesn't do -- or doesn't do well?

Well, for one, do overdubs. You can listen to the input in the headphones, and you can listen to the DAW playback in the headphones. But you can't listen to a mix of input and playback in the headphones. They just must have plum forgot that people need to do that when overdubbing. This is supposed to have been fixed (at least in a limited fashion) with a firmware update, but so far the update installer has been issued for the Mac only (I think that was back in April) and the Windows manual uploader and FPGA data file version are only passed out under the counter presently.

 

There's no way to switch the headphones to mono. If you're recording from only one input channel, you hear it either in the left or the right ear depending on which channel you're using, but you can't hear yourself in both ears.

 

It appears that some units whine and others don't (Mackie will fix this if you send it in for service, but it's been reported by some that they don't always fix it right the first time). Some always whine, some only whine when the pod is in the dock, some whine only when phantom power is turned on.

 

Those are all things that could have been fixed quickly, but Mackie doesn't seem to be moving very fast (or at all) with this, so any one that you buy won't be updated/upgraded as should be the case for a product that's in continuous production. One thing that can't be fixed, that may or may not be a problem, depending on what mics you're using with it, is that the phantom power is only 38 volts.

 

I use mine without the dock strictly (but with the AC power supply) as a stereo recording front end, and for that, it sounds good and works fine, even with my Neumann KM84 mics which are designed to work on 48V. I suspect that they might be a little shy on headroom running on a lower than standard voltage but I don't usually record loud noises so this hasn't been an operational problem (yet).

 

Is that encouraging enough so you'll give one a try? :blah:

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Mike & Nessie

 

THANK YOU!

 

I think that sums it up nicely... while a couple channels of Onyx pres still sounds good -- the rest of it sounds really... not so good. At all.

 

The whine I might be inclined to think was a FW-ground loop issue (which I faced under easily avoidable circumstances with my laptop and my MOTU FW box)... hum is usually a sign of bad design, production, or both.

 

Too bad. I really liked the Mackie products I bought back in the 90s (for the money). I still really like my 24-4... and don't hate the VLZ pre's at all. (I like them better than my small collection of Art/Bellari/Meek standalone pre's.) Which I guess is a good thing as I'll be sticking with them for now.

 

 

Again -- THANK YOU very, very much. You just saved me either $200 or a lot of agonizing -- or maybe $200 AND a lot of agony...

 

;)

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I like it, tbh.

 

It never moves from the end of my desk so I don't use any of the docking undocking stuff.

 

I bought a firebox that was DOA, sent it back and at the same time the price on these had just been dropped.

 

I use it with the supplied copy of tracktion, an Edirol midi sync and an SM57 it gets results I'm happy.

 

I guess if there was money involved and I was making a living from it then I'd have another opinion. Good budget product in my experience.

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Well, for one, do overdubs. You can listen to the input in the headphones, and you can listen to the DAW playback in the headphones. But you can't listen to a mix of input and playback in the headphones. They just must have plum forgot that people need to do that when overdubbing. This is supposed to have been fixed (at least in a limited fashion) with a firmware update, but so far the update installer has been issued for the Mac only (I think that was back in April) and the Windows manual uploader and FPGA data file version are only passed out under the counter presently.


There's no way to switch the headphones to mono. If you're recording from only one input channel, you hear it either in the left or the right ear depending on which channel you're using, but you can't hear yourself in both ears.


It appears that some units whine and others don't (Mackie will fix this if you send it in for service, but it's been reported by some that they don't always fix it right the first time). Some always whine, some only whine when the pod is in the dock, some whine only when phantom power is turned on.


Those are all things that could have been fixed quickly, but Mackie doesn't seem to be moving very fast (or at all) with this, so any one that you buy won't be updated/upgraded as should be the case for a product that's in continuous production. One thing that can't be fixed, that may or may not be a problem, depending on what mics you're using with it, is that the phantom power is only 38 volts.


I use mine without the dock strictly (but with the AC power supply) as a stereo recording front end, and for that, it sounds good and works fine, even with my Neumann KM84 mics which are designed to work on 48V. I suspect that they might be a little shy on headroom running on a lower than standard voltage but I don't usually record loud noises so this hasn't been an operational problem (yet).


Is that encouraging enough so you'll give one a try?
:blah:

 

 

New drivers and new firmware have fixed all problems and you can now listen to input and playback at same time, the instrument pre-amps are awesome

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New drivers and new firmware have fixed all problems and you can now listen to input and playback at same time, the instrument pre-amps are awesome

 

 

Quite true. Once they (finally) came out with the firmware update everything was fine. It's a great piece of gear and the price is just the icing on the cake.

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New drivers and new firmware have fixed all problems and you can now listen to input and playback at same time, the instrument pre-amps are awesome

 

Relatively old news, but there still have been many problems reported with the dock part of the Satellite.

 

I have it from a reasonably knowledgeable source that the Satellite has been quietly allowed to slide out under the door. Companies don't announce that they've discontinued a product until support is no longer available. While you're not likely to see further driver updates, they'll probably continue to offer technical support for a while yet, for those units still in service.

 

I've installed the firmware update in mine and it works, but I don't think they made all the correct design choices with it. Since with the new firmware, the D/A stage is now passing a mix of the input and playback streams, it's easy to overload the D/A converter if you run your levels "hot" as people tend to do. The result is horrible distortion in the monitor.

 

The solution is to just back off on the level to the monitor section of the Satellite (record level as well as DAW playback level) and turn up the monitor volume control if it's not loud enough, but users who don't understand gain structure get uneasy about such things that they consider "work-arounds."

 

What I think Mackie should have done was to internally pad down the levels going into the mixer section by 6 dB so that the only change the user would notice is that he now has to turn the monitor volume up higher than previously (this, too, could possibly have been done in the firmware).

 

Oh, well, Mackie says they have many "exciting new" products in development. In the mean time, I continue to be happy with the basic Satellite as a decent mic preamp and audio interface.

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Relatively old news, but there still have been many problems reported with the dock part of the Satellite.


I have it from a reasonably knowledgeable source that the Satellite has been quietly allowed to slide out under the door. Companies don't announce that they've discontinued a product until support is no longer available. While you're not likely to see further driver updates, they'll probably continue to offer technical support for a while yet, for those units still in service.


I've installed the firmware update in mine and it works, but I don't think they made all the correct design choices with it. Since with the new firmware, the D/A stage is now passing a mix of the input and playback streams, it's easy to overload the D/A converter if you run your levels "hot" as people tend to do. The result is horrible distortion in the monitor.


The solution is to just back off on the level to the monitor section of the Satellite (record level as well as DAW playback level) and turn up the monitor volume control if it's not loud enough, but users who don't understand gain structure get uneasy about such things that they consider "work-arounds."


What I think Mackie should have done was to internally pad down the levels going into the mixer section by 6 dB so that the only change the user would notice is that he now has to turn the monitor volume up higher than previously (this, too, could possibly have been done in the firmware).


Oh, well, Mackie says they have many "exciting new" products in development. In the mean time, I continue to be happy with the basic Satellite as a decent mic preamp and audio interface.

 

 

 

Thanks for the info, makes sense considering the price you can now buy it for, still Im happy it allows me to do the things I purchased it for and does them well, cant say I have seen the distortion problems yet though. Oh and just a side note it was supplied with the wrong power supply, Im in the UK and it came with a Euro supply.

 

I hope the lessons are learnt.

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I just hope they still have plans to update the drivers so that they work under Vista. Their other Firewire products need to be updated as well, so hopefully it won't be too difficult to update the Satellite in the process.

 

According to Mackie they will be releasing Vista 32bit and 64bit drivers for all products except the Spike. :thu:

 

http://forums.mackie.com/scripts/forum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=27;t=001819

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