Buyer Beware: Mackie Onyx 1640 mixer w/Firewire

I just thought I pass this onto you guys here who may be shopping for a Mackie Onyx mixer w/Firewire for use with your studio.

I was doing some research for small rack mountable mixers for puttting together a submix for my recording synth rig. The Mackie Onyx Series seem to fit the bill, namely the 1640 w/Firewire. But much to my surprize I found so many people are pissed off at Mackie for poor integration of the Firewire option and existing Chip sets. Seems it won't work on most PC......It reads like a buyer beware.

Read this quote from a thread on www.prosoundweb.com

Orignal thread:

I have just been 2 months of sheer hell with Mackie

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:zxMPgRckO9oJ:recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/m/162452/0/+Mackie+Onyx+user+forums&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=6

Other complaints focus on a huge design flaw being the Firewire option takes its audio just after the mic pre's (post) and before eq. So forget using any of the new Perkins eq's on recording tracks with the direct outs/Firewire out. This design flaw complaint was also mentioned in this months July 2006 issue of EQ magazine, page 59. The authors' dealer Front End Audio arranged for a local tech to mod the consoles so the direct outs (and Firewire outputs) could be made post EQ. Mackie agreed to let them do the mod under warranty.

I hope they fix it in production units. I really wanted one of these.

That's a shame...any truth to the rumor that the Firewire interface only works with Traction?

from that link, there is only 1 person complaining. Is this person you?

IRQ problems are not mackies fault.

evidence?

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

their forum isnt full of complainers it looks like

I even did a searched that area with "firewire" in the subject and didnt get a plethora of complaints.

hardly seems as troublesome as NIs kore.

before you jump down my throat, im only playing devils advocate here.

it works fine with every mac i've heard about.

which is really all that matters, right?

see ... instead of complaining about Mackie's inability to account for the inconsistencies of PC hardware you should instead be suggesting Onyx owners buy Macintoshen so they work right.

I just replaced a M-Audio 1814 with the Onyx 400F because of driver nightmares with the M-Audio on my PC. So far, so good with the Onyx and Sonar 4. Just be sure to use ASIO drivers.

I think if there were a serious problem with this mixer they wouldnt be so popular.

+1

Originally posted by suitandtieguy it works fine with every mac i've heard about. which is really all that matters, right? see ... instead of complaining about Mackie's inability to account for the inconsistencies of PC hardware you should instead be suggesting Onyx owners buy Macintoshen so they work right.

If only buying a mac would solve _all_ problems, not just computer ones

air-drop mac mini's into the middle east,...

No I didn't post that.

My main disappointment is with the Firewire direct out routing situation.

I'll be looking forward to seeing how it does with IntelMac's. So do you guys think this is just general issue with PC's and not Mac's?

i have a mackie cr 1604 that is still functioning fine. no isues other than needing to clean it once in a while. this thing is over a decade old and still works well and sounds clean.

i know plenty of people with mackie mixers and their studio monitors as well as p.a. gear that have never had a problem.

in every case there is always going to be a problem with one item or another off the assembly line of any manufacturer. does that mean these items represent the build quality of the actual product for the entire line?

so a guy had an irq conflict in his laptop he couldn't resolve and that was causing interference with the firewire port. mackie can't fix that with a driver. their hardware is designed and needs a certain amount of bandwidth and latency headroom. if an irq conflict in the p.c. exists and causes any firewire adapter to not function properly that is the fault of the laptop manufacturer not mackie. call your manufacturer on their out of spec firewire port problem and complain until they fix your issue or replace your laptop. don't blame the symptom blame the cause.

:thu:

Not sure about Mackie gear in the studio but DITTO regarding the Mackie VLZ Pro live. The biggest piece of dog doo doo I've ever used. From day one it sounded like we were singing through a wet blanket. At the time we didn't know any better we thought it was the speakers. By the third new speaker set for the FOH, we realized that it was the preamps. The same preamps that Mackie talks famously about. The same preamps that fizz and sounded like mud. That's whe the real problems began. Our left channel was cutting out constantly. You would scream into a mic, and it would "pop" and then work for another performance or two. When we took it in for service, our tech said nearly the same thing. It was a ribbon connector. The cost of the part was $300 and another $150 to install it "because the whole board needs to come apart and be rewired. He went on to say that it was a common problem and that it was not covered under warranty anyway. They fixed 2 or 3 two of these every few months. His opinion the VLZ was roadworthy for about 3-5 years. They use cheap metal and make them in China to cut costs. They just don't hold up to the road. And since ours was just turning 4 that we should think about replacing it.

REPLACE IT??? We just had finished paying for it.

When I asked him about the Onyx, he looked at me like I was an idiot. He said "son, you've had so many problems with this board, and you want to buy another Mackie.?" When I asked what would be a better choice for a more reliable mixer, he looked at me and said "Allen & Heath" I told him I never heard of Allen & Heath and his exact words were"well if it makes you feel any better just buy the Allen and Heath and put a Mackie nameplate on it. You'll then have a mixer named Mackie that will last you longer than 5 years"

To be honest, I've heard good things about the Onyx boards. But I won't ever buy another Mackie product again. That is for sure.

I've never had a problem with their products. I've had 4 1202s, a 1642, HR824s, Tapco S5s, I know a lot of people who use their 8-bus mixers, and 824s. All with no problems. This thread is more about firewire problems, but I just thought I'd chime in. I would be willing to wager that I'd have no trouble with an Onyx though. (but I consider myself an expert in PC configuration, so it probably like mine just fine) I pick my chipsets carefully, am very careful with driver and software choices and installations, etc. Every company produces something screwy once in a while, so it wouldn't surprise me if there were some problems with it, but just as often it's the setup it's working with.

It's also entirely possible that the Mackie "tech" was some high-school dropout that knows more about his Metal Zone pedal than Mackie products or IRQs. IRQ conflicts have been mostly eliminated on modern PCs; that has been true for years. And before then, I've never met an IRQ problem that couldn't be solved, even back when I owned an 8088 clone.

That said, I'll probably shy away from Mackie products based on the fact that there *are* a fair amount of Mackie complainers on the 'net. There's probably at least a little kernel of truth to it then.

show me 1 product that doesnt have atleast a handfull of complaints on a forum and I will send you my waldorf XT.

I've used Mackie stuff quite a lot in a proffesional context. I have no makie gear at home.

No huge complaints about the mixers, but you would think that thered be some xlr outs on the 1604... I wouldnt recommend them, but I wouldnt scream and shout against them.

Now, the SRM450- I gotta agree with Eddie Kramer, man those things just love to shut off right in the middle of my sets even when im not pushing them too hard. And it does suck to have to run a fan just to keep your speaker, maybe they should have built the {censored}ing fan into it?

Basically, unless you're sitting in a server room or a meat locker, you can't run them any louder than you would a near field monitor. Unfortunately, I had to buy my own fan for the thing, so you can imagine how much luck I'd have talking the club into buying a new monitor speaker.

I've run bigger Mackie setups that include their big subs and all, with no particlar problems, but the prices are pretty steep.

I'm not a huge Mackie fan, but I do have a huge fan for my Mackie.

I wasn't talking about just a handful. I have done a good bit of forum research recently and did notice, from my POV, a bit higher complaint rate about Mackie in general. Perhaps my POV is wrong. Who knows.

But I'll bite anyway:

- Waldorf Wave

- DSI PEK & MEK

- MOTU UltraLite

- HOSA plain jane MIDI cable

- Eventide Eclipse

- Dumble ODS

- Top Hat King Royale

- Axxess Electronics Products

- Skrydstrup Products

- NOS Mullard ECC83

That's just the few that came to mind.

I'll PM you shortly with my address for the XT shipment. I hope it's a 30 voice, so I can transplant the upgrade card into my XTk. Thanks!

I dont speak english.

*plugs ears with fingers*

LA! LA LA! LA! I AM NOT LISTENING!

I can only speak from personal experience, But I have had a vlz pro for almost 10 years, which has gotten dragged to burning man and parties out in the woods many times, as well as being used regularly for gigs, and it still works fine. I have a mac, and have had no trouble with the 1640 and firewire card. The 400f works with core audio on the mac, so it will work with any mac DAW, and the pres are way better than on the motus.

That said, I wish those yorkvilles had been out when my band got our 450s. The 450s have always worked fine for us, but I have heard very good things about the yorkvilles.

no, had it working without problems on a PC with logic.