MACKIE ANALOG Mixers

[purecountry70]

I was wondering if I can get an opion , I bought a MACKIE SR40-8 Mixer , for my Small home Studio , I can't say I know alot about this MIxer. Has anyone ever used one , if so would you suppose it would be a good board for Studio Recording.

[blue2blue]

I'm not familiar with that particular model but it was a fairly expensive unit when it was new (~$9K). Obviously, it was originally designed for sound reinforcement (the SR in the model designation) but that doesn't mean it couldn't be used in a small studio. The studio oriented 8 bus Mackie mixers were well liked for the money at the time.

 

That said, in the 90s, many engineers of the day -- including the Mackie designers -- leaned to clean, high gain preamps with little 'color.' Those looking for 'characterful' preamps that saturated gradually over a wide curve should probably look elsewhere. As more people adopted digital, the quest for more 'color' to replace the saturation characteristics associated with analog magnetic tape moved to preamps, and, increasingly, more folks seemed to favor the heavily colored sound of pre's like Neves, etc.

 

EQ was another place where Mackie's 90s philosophy diverged from the preferences of many who were used to 'aggressive,' 'British style' EQ.

 

If it's in good shape, though, I would imagine it could serve you well.

 

(FWIW, I have a only slightly newer SR-24-4 VLZ, a 4 bus, small-scale board [and much cheaper]. Soundwise, it's quite clean/quiet. Hardware-wise, well, the small-scale smaders and smallish knobs definitely don't have that big board feel. But in terms of features and sonic quality [and the above-provisos about EQ and pre saturation notwithstanding] I've always felt it was a very good buy for the money at the time and haven't regretted it.)

[MikeRivers]

I was wondering if I can get an opion ' date=' I bought a MACKIE SR40-8 Mixer , for my Small home Studio , I can't say I know alot about this MIxer. Has anyone ever used one , if so would you suppose it would be a good board for Studio Recording.[/quote']

 

It certainly wouldn't be my choice for a studio console, given that it's layout and feature set is designed for live sound reinforcement and not multitrack recording. but depending on how you're going to use it, it'll probably work, as long as it works. This was the series of mixers that brought about the "No Mackie mixers" requirement in a lot of performance riders back in the day. It sounded OK (but not like a Midas by any means), but they tended to be unreliable due to a problem with intenral ribbon cables which it took Mackie a couple of years and many replacements to resolve. They dropped the whole SR 8-bus line and eventually it was replaced by the Onyx 8000 series.

 

In the studio, considering that you (hopefully) probably didn't pay much for the mixer, you could live with a channel cutting out and just do another take, but that wouldn't fly in a live show. And, remember, it's at least 15 years old and there may be a fair number of noisy faders, pots and switches on it. It would have had to have been loved by a professional sound reinforcement company in order to get the maintenance needed for it to be in good shape today - and most pro sound companies got rid of them as soon as they could afford to due to the questionable reliability and a clear "nope" with a number of acts..

 

The analog 8-bus recording console from about the same period as the SR-8 series was a lot of bang for the buck. Although it didn't sound all that great, it was a perfectly acceptable companion to the project studio range of multitrack recorders and microphones of the day. It was a real recording console with in-line monitoring and an optional meter bridge which make it fully functional in a small to medium sized studio up to 24 tracks, if you got the 24-channel version.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I agree with Blue and Mike. It was designed as a live sound console, but there's no particular reason it can't be used in the studio if its features meet your needs and requirements - but the feature set was designed for live sound reinforcement, and not for studio recording.

 

I used to own a Mackie 32-8 8-bus board, and it was a good board for the time and for what it was. I sold it at least fifteen or sixteen years ago though.

[blue2blue]

Mike's analysis sounds about right. I did have a Mackie 1604 (pre-VLZ) and it did, indeed, develop problems on a channel or two, although the unit had taken some physical hits, too -- not sure I can fairly blame the ribbon cables.

[purecountry70]

Thanks guy for your. oh Option s. I guess I should get something else