Mackie Onyx Satellite FireWire Audio Interface

[MikeRivers]

In Craig's official published review of the Satellite (EQ January 2007) he mentioned that "by the time you read this" Mackie would have a firmware update which would allow mixing the input source and DAW playback with the switch in the DAW position. This sounds like a good idea, in fact something I may have mentioned in this Pro Rreview thread.

Well, I read it. Where's the update? Also mentioned was a high performance driver with latency that could be set to 64 samplees or fewer (just like the CEntrance driver . . . hmmmm).

Tap tap, tap . . . . .

[MikeRivers]

I just discovered something curious today when trying to re-create the whine when docked and using phantom power. I know I heard it back when I was playing with the Satellite and looking for trouble, but I couldn't get it to make the noise again.

Anyway, I was recording with the mic inputs terminated with 150 ohm resistors inside XLRs, and was watching the meters indicate around -85 dBFS, which jumped up a couple of dB when I engaged phantom power, but I couldn't pull a pitch out of it, just a bit more random noise.

Anyway, I coughed (cold season, you know) and I saw the meters jump up to around -60 dBFS. Tried it again and they did it again. So I started yelling at the Satellite, and sure enough, when playing back the recording (with about 60 dB of gain added) I could hear the coughs and a really crappy recording of my voice.

The talkback volume control was all the way down, but I suspect that even without the button pressed, it's not as "off" as it should be. D%&*@! digital controls!

[AlexHall74]

The whine is gone! I downloaded the "CHUD" utility from Apple and unchecked "processor nap" like Craig suggested, and bam, no more whine. In fact, I can "toggle" the whine on and off with that checkbox. I think I'll choose....no whine. Craig, you are officially my hero. I will be sending a copy of this file to the tech support folks, and having them post this solution on our forum, as well as using it to help out anyone who calls up. Now then, since some of you guys must have grown up along with me in the eighties and it's great B movies, who can be the first to tell us what C.H.U.D. really stands for?

C.H.U.D. = Cannibalistic Humanoid Underground Dweller

I saw that movie at the local video rental store 1,000 times when I was a kid and will never forget it. Maybe I should rent the movie now, eh?



Regards,

-Alex

P.S. I love my Mackie Satellite and have had no problems with it on my DAW (Dell Inspiron 9400/Intel Core Duo 1830/2 GB RAM/80 GB 7200 RPM HD/Tracktion 2.1/ Mackie Satellite/HR824s) while using plenty of VSTs and recording vox/guitars/synths.

[pigboy]

Can I 'daisy chain' the Onyx Satellite with my FW HD (assuming I'm using external power supplies).

I am running a G4 Powerbook 1.33 GHZ and Logic and looking to upgrade my Audio interface.

The Onyx Satellite is now being offered in the UK at an amazing price! £169 so if this can work daisy chained I'm up for buying.

Thanks all.

[KING David]

im going to lay this out as simple as i can. so i just drew a picture....hehe. ya see i have only tought my self what i know today. so i know very few correct wording for everything with this product, and music world in all really. but hey i have made it this far (playing by ear is what i call it) on my own. but now i am in a jam. i dont know if i have my set up right or what, but i can lay down my problems like this.

1. when we record we need to hear are vocals with the beat. why is my playback for the music, and the inputs divided with the SOURCE button?

2. why dose the manual for it, in the home recording set up show a mic pluged in #1 mic plugin, and a different mic pluged in #2 mic plugin, when #1 and #2 are not stereo? one is right and one is left.....why???

3. dose my set up look ok??? if not what do i need or need to learn???

this is a basic drawling of how it is set up.



well i hope someone can school me,
much love,
KING David

[KING David]

if u cant see the pic just go hear

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog&pop=1&indicate=1

[Lucky #9]

Don't know if this has been noted in the thread before but the Satellite's price has been dropped to $200 at Sam Ash and other places for those interested.

[Dylan Walters]

I just saw the price drop as well. Sweetwater is also giving away a free bag with the Satellite as well: http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/Satellite/ . This is a killer price!

[Dylan Walters]

BTW, I've had a lot more time over the past few months to put the Onyx to the test and it's been a pleasure to use. The mic preamps are oustanding for such an inexpensive interface! I'm getting acceptable performance when I set my latency to 3ms on large projects. Hopefully when Mackie releases a new driver I might be able to get this down to 1.5ms while keeping the CPU usage down. Otherwise, it's not a show stopper for me. And Vista support would be nice as well (including a 64-bit driver).

[HWA]

I've noticed a very low level, sporadic, pinging noise from the outs of my satellite when I attach the firewire cable to the card on my laptop PC. (It sounds almost, but not quite, like the sounds a fax machine makes.) I first noticed it when I turned up the gain on a track I had recorded.

I carefully checked over every connection in my equipment, and its definitely coming from the connection between my firewire SIIG expresscard and the satellite. I've even tried it on another PC, and discovered the same problem. Its very annoying.

I talked with Kurt at Mackie for nearly an hour about the problem. He offered a number of good suggestions, and was extremely knowlegable, but he was still unable to offer any remedy. He speculated that it might be due to a grounding issue in either the computer, or the SIIG expresscard. He finally suggested that I try out the satellite on a Mac to see if the problem persists.

I'm still trying catch up with a friend of mine that has a Mac laptop. So I haven't had the chance to do that yet. In the meantime, I thought I would leave this post in case anyone else may have had a similar issue with the satellite, and could offer any suggestions.

[Anderton]

Your experience is not uncommon with FireWire devices: "Doctor, I hear this funny sound..." I found a way to tame it most of the time on the Mac, but frankly, it hasn't been as much of an issue on Windows machines.

 

Clearly it's something hardware related with the Firewire/interface mojo, but so far, no one has yet been able to isolate it with a definitive cause, followed by a definitive cure.

 

I have not experienced these problems with my Windows desktop or laptop with any Firewire interface, but did with the Mac G5.

[musikmachine]

Can i run the pod from a pcm card without the power supply?I've read that you can't on a pc in general but the blurb about the satellite says it can be bus powered and mentions nothing about platform so i hope this is the case..

Thanks.

[musikmachine]

Hello...?

[godofmetalguita]

Is there a way to use the pre's without using the converters/interface? Can they be synced with say a pro tools rig somehow (word clock? ADAT?)

[Anderton]

Just FYI -- my review unit went back a long time ago (this review is, after all, close to a year and a half old!) so I can't really provide any answers.

[Lee Flier]

I have a perfect application for the Satellite - it's working as both a control center for my editing and mixing workstation, and we use the pod and a laptop when my band does live Internet broadcasts. It works great in both applications! The preamps are really excellent sounding, and I like all the hardware and buttons - it takes a little getting used to, but I vastly prefer having real knobs and buttons to having to root around in software to route everything. Very cool.

 

The one issue that I've had is that installing the drivers is somewhat of a pain unless your computer is configured exactly the way it expects. I am also wondering when Mackie will have Vista drivers available? I have a new laptop which I would love to use for our broadcasts, but I can't install the Satellite as of right now because the laptop runs Vista. Am thinking of blowing it away and going back to XP, but I have other hardware that requires Vista... ACK.

 

Anyway, I'll comment more as I get to play with the thing more...

[blackmonday]

Digging up this post from the dead...

 

I just picked up a new in box satellite for $100 bucks from a local studio that never used it.

 

I hate, hate, hate the fact that mic inputs are routed hard left and right when direct monitoring. It's solved by monitoring from DAW, but it makes casual guitar/vocal practice a bigger pain than it needs to be.

 

Other than that, I'm loving the unit, and I'm taking a liking to tracktion. I was a little bummed that the version of tracktion they give you doesn't have the cool plugins like Amplitube LE, but I guess I can live with that.

[Crispone]

Being a guy, and a guy who knows computers well on top of that, I failed to RTFM and plugged in the Onyx before running the installation.

I'm using Sonar LE, and I can't get any sound out of the Onyx. When I fire Sonar up, it complains that "the following driver(s) are either incompatible with the current configuration or are in use by another application" (my version of the wording), and then lists the Onyx drivers. When I tell Sonar to use MME drivers, the Onyx is no longer an option.

Could my problem have been caused by plugging the Satellite in too early? I've looked in the Windows device manager for drivers to uninstall so that I can start all over, but can't find anything that seems obviously specific to the Satellite. Any advice?

[wal]

Just received my Mackie satellite system.
Fantastic build quality!
Only one problem.. I'll have to go to France to plug it in!
Wal, Manchester UK...

[wal]

Wrong power supply shipped with Mackie Onyx Satellite..


I just received my Mackie Onyx Satellite system from Digital Village in the UK. However the unit came with a European PSU (not UK) and a mains kettle type lead taped to the inner packaging? Which of course is not required. I used my euro to UK AC travel adapter. However, when I plugged the unit in (with satellite docked and unit turned off) there was a large flash from the rear of the unit. (Polarity protection diode no doubt..) As I am an electronics engineer I can only conclude that the supplied PSU is the wrong type. The supply has 230v Primary and 12v DC secondary 1000ma with a positive inner on the connector. The voltage I measured from the supply was 17.75v DC so I assume that it is unregulated. As there is no polarity marked on the Mackie's supply socket, my concern is that the UK distributor may have shipped many units with the wrong supply. Anyone know what the correct supply should be AC?, polarity if DC?
I also feel that I should not have to go through an internet RMA system to get a replacement. I would like to speak to someone in person and receive a replacement straight away.
Wal, Shipwreck Recording Studios, Manchester UK

I tried to contact the UK distributor/service department this morning but The service is not available until Monday! Ever had that helpless feeling?..

[d.sydens]

Crispone, i've had the exact same problem, and here's how i fixed it:

Options>Audio>Advanced>Playback and Recording>Driver Mode:ASIO /
Share Drivers With Other Programs : Checked

Hope that's it for you problem.

[d.sydens]

Hey fellows,

Now, for my experience with the satellite, i'm very much pleased.
My rode nt1-a sounds great on the preamps , so much detail.
I've had no problems with the drivers, etc, running on a pc, with sonar, cubase, reason.
Everything it's how its supposed to be except for one -
I'm not satisfied with the levels i get during recording when using my shure sm-57.Why is the output to the software so low?
For spoken word levels, in a quiet studio, i have to turn the pre between 4-5 o'clock, almost full power, to get a signal wich reaches +- - 18 db.

I A/B tested like this - Same source, a headphone speaker, mid level, with the mic almos touching the cup.Club, compressed music playing.

With my satellite system on sonar, with the pre at exact 3 o'clock, i got to -33 db.

With my other system, mackie 1202 ms, pre at 3 oclock, fader at u, no gain,
routing to alt 3/4, into my audiophile, recording on sonar.I got to -12 db.

Am i too detailist or is i like that?Anyone with a dinamid mic had the same experience, lack of boost on the pre to record a spoken word source?
cause i don't think it would be normal to get to full pre power for that...
Of course, for my condenser it's got more than enough juice...

[mikesr1963]

[Dylan Walters]

Am thinking of blowing it away and going back to XP, but I have other hardware that requires Vista... ACK.

 

 

 

Hey Lee,

 

I'm curious to what hardware you are using that requires Vista. I've yet to see any software or hardware that will only work on Vista and doesn't support XP. FWIW, I've been running Vista 32 on my laptop and Vista x64 on my desktop for about 7 months and so far I am really enjoy it.

[davidc2478]

Hey Dylan, I have Vista too. Do you use Asio as your driver? I'm using Asio4all because I bought my Onyx Satellite open box from Guitar Center, but I can't get my DAW to get the audio.

You guys have any Onyx tips? I'm still new to digital recording