Anyone use Phonic mixers here?

[Mr. Botch]

Hi Phil, nice place!

 

I'm toying with the idea of replacing my live mixer (keys/harp/sax) with a better mixer, and in the last EQ issue the Phonic caught my eye. It was $459, 12-channel, highest sampling rate, built-in effects, and built-in Firewire. It appeared to be not only a good on-stage mixer, but could serve as the I/O for my home studio when I finally upgrade my Mac. It even included a free copy of Cubase "n00b"! I was considering the new Mackie Onyx, which was acceptably close in price until I realized the Firewire was a $300 option.

I did a search on Phil's old Studio forum but came up with nothing. I don't want to buy junk, however, and will be willing to pay the extra for the Mackie (please don't suggest Behringer to me). Anyone use the Phonic? Thanks in advance!

[Vinnie Vintage]

bump, cause I wanna know too. They have this mixer on Zzounds, as well as their 24-channel firewire mixer. They look like complete knockoffs of the Mackie Onyx's but much cheeper.. They're even cheaper than a Firepod, with the same amount of mic inputs, plus eq, aux, buss, etc. So yeah, does anyone have any experience with them? I know phonic is not that great a brand, but how bad could it be, for just tracking?

[wooden]

I have used them, and i think that they do the job, of course, but just that. I wouldnt say their pres are the cleanest but they are fairly quiet. The eq? I prefer much more that on my soundcraft mixer, and I didnt like the touch of the faders. Plus the one that i tried made a lot of noise in the ouputs when you turned some of the knobs, but that could be people not taking care of it, i dont know.

 

I would say that for the price they offer a lot, better said "a lot of features", not that great, and not too much shaping tools, but they do the job. I would alway prefer a good interface...

 

Well i tried the one intended for live use, not that for recording.