Mackie Studio & Home Studio

I purchased this 12 channel mixer so that I can have all of my instruments and mics plugged in all at the same time to eliminate removing certain cords just to switch them with different ones so much. Because we have so much gear we wanted a mixer that we could just have and keep all of our gear plugged in at the same time and never have to switch out anything. This is a great interface that hooks up USB to your computer and depending on which daw you are using you can synch it with your daw and use it to control your virtual mixer right on this hardware device. Setting this up was a tough task at first and required a lot of reading of the manual and a little research on my daw but after a few hours I got it all to work and now when I slide the mixer knobs the knobs in my software slide to. With just a slight millisecond of a delay but they still synch up great. UTILIZATION The sound quality is great, and now have been using this as our interface for a while now. My friend as even went out and purchased one of these so he can have all of his stuff hooked up at the same time. His reaction seeing this when I was using it was great, he couldn’t believe for this price he could do all of this. The price of this is righ around 200 dollars or so which is unreal and a must buy if you ask me. SOUNDS The sound is clean, you cant ask for any more better of a sound for this price. OVERALL OPINION Great device, the Macki pro FX 12 has built in effects and 4 stereo channels. The actual mixer doesn’t seem really well built though, I wouldn’t want to drop it I would be scared that knobs and sliders would start popping off of it really fast if I dropped it so I take extra care of it, and for 80 dollars I found a mixer stand that keeps it tight so it doesn’t fall and hit the hard floor in my basement because that would just be a disaster. It is a great mixer for the home musician with a lot of different gear.

Theres is nothing missing, i have the firewire so it great. I wish i could have bought the one with 4 buss on it, but my budget limited me. It has all you need to record anything. Price paid 1000 UTILIZATION Its very easy to use and the fire wire is plug-n-play so it loaded up smoothly. Also the low latency abilty really helps out when im working on bigger projects. Its very heavy duty can take a bit of a beating. but its my baby so i make sure its says in great shape. SOUNDS I love it everything that comes through it sounds great. The preamps are great! OVERALL OPINION I just love it, i was using an Edriol UR-80 so its a vast improvement as far as recording. I have many more options and have the ability to ugrade other equipment w/o having to worry if its gonna handle it. Great purchase!!!! Originally posted on FutureProducers.com Posted by: J2thaP ( 7-, 2005)

With the right "rack ears," then yes. But they are sold separately. So here is the break down Inputs=4 XLR with Gain, 4 Stereo 1/4", and 1 Stereo RCA Main Outputs= 2 XLR (stereo), Stereo 1/4", and 1 Stereo RCA Aux Output= Stereo 1/4" Control Output= Stereo 1/4" Sends/Returns= 2 Stereo 1/4" labeled Aux 1 and Aux 2 that apply to all channels (each is set up as a single 1/4" stereo Send to a regular (left/right) Stereo Return). 4 Stereo that apply individually to each of the XLR inputs ( each one is a single 1/4" stereo) Headphone Output= 1 As for EQ you get 1 for the Highs, 1 for Mids, and 1 for Lows. You also get a Low Cut option on each XLR. There are no effects on this board. UTILIZATION The setup on this mixer is a little confusing. You have a decent amount of options but you really have to read the manual to get the gist of things. The things I had trouble with were the Control ouput options and the Send Returns. The Control output I eventually figured, by reading the manual of course, but the Send Return issue has never been solved. Its seems that the Aux 1 and Aux 2 operate differently. Where 1 operates as its own volume control and 2 requires the Main fader and the Aux 2 fader used together (very weird). I personally find this to very frustrating because the Aux two is always blended with the clean signal, so you cannot isolate the effect signal. I have read the crap out of the manual, and still find no mention of this strangeness. As for accessibility, everything is either fader or push button on the face and two switches on the back (power, phantom power). Everything is labeled well too, even some with info (i.e. proper input level). The manual is clear, concise and even a little silly. They have a sense of humor and they try to be funny here and there. My only complaint about the manual is the lack of info on the situation with the Aux 2. SOUNDS Well, I notice when I plug my keyboards directly to the amps instead of using the mixer, I think they sound better. Much warmer and louder. I have come to realize that I need a better mixer. I guess it has pretty decent preamps, can be noisy when you have weak signals, but usually fairly quiet. The EQ is really just cut or boost. I try to EQ my Fender Rhodes and the Mids are really just a volume control. Lets face it, good EQ comes from Units specified to do just that. OVERALL OPINION I have had this mixer for One year. . I am using this mainly as a keyboard/synth mixer going into a Roland KC-550, Peavey TNT 150 and a Fender Twin. What I like the least is the Tone loss. When my Rhodes reaches the Twin, it sounds thin and weak. Directly through is definitely warmer. Same with my Korg Tr going the the Roland. What I do like is its hardiness. This thing is solid, feels like I could drop it and nothing would happen to it. I tried another model recently, the Allen and Heath Mix Wizard. WAAAYYY better. Just twice the price. Other than that, I used some older mackie vlzs and strangely enough, I think they were better. As for value, yeah I guess. If you only want to spend $300 on a mixer, then this is probably the best one. But if you want a really good mixer, you need to spend more, at least from my experience. I would not buy this again, i would save up and shoot higher.

I use not only the Mackie LM-3204 mixer with master section, but also 2 of the ultra-rare slave (LM-3204E) units daisy chained to the master via ribbon cable for my home studio. The setup gives me 48 stereo channels in fairly compact space. I've got at least a dozen synths most of which have multiple analogue outputs and I like to be able to make use of all of them. With the Mackie, I can do just that. Everything can stay connected, so no messing with cabling, I can just turn the studio on and get straight to work. The mixer is very clean, it doesn't add noise and has excellent headroom. I bought the master 2nd hand about the year 2000 and over the next 10 years I found the LM-3204E slaves one by one on eBay. I choose the Mackie mostly because there was nothing else in the market that came close and sadly today, it's very much the same, nothing new has really emerged in stereo line mixers. What good about this setup is 16 clean stereo inputs per module, good headroom and solid reliability. What's not so good? All the AUX Sends are post gain, I would have liked the option to switch to pre-gain as needed. Lastly, there are just 2 buses, the main-mix and the ALT3-4 bus. More would always be better, but I have learnt to live with just the 2 stereo busses.

The Mackie Onyx 1620 has a total of 16 inputs. Eight of them can be used as either Bal/Unbal line ins or XLR3 microphone inputs. The remaining eight inputs are solely Hi-Z line ins. The inputs run through Onyx microphone preamps(one of the best mic pre's on the market is built into this board!). From there, it is equipped with Perkins E.Q., which is phenomenal. Not only do you have your typical E.Q. controls(high,high mid, low mid, low), but both mid E.Q. sections on each track have an additional frequency control knob. This knob controls the center frequency for the E.Q. filter. Think of it as a frequency selector. Once the desired frequency is found, you can then adjust the volume of said frequency in the usual way. It is equipped with Aux sends and returns that can be used for bussing premixes or effects to or from or through whatever-wherever. Analog tape ouputs, main line outs, main XLR outs, control room line outs, and an optional Firewire card. The Firewire card turns this kick ass analog mixer into a bad ass digital interface. So... What else could you need?... A lamp? just in case it gets dark? Oh wait. It has one. UTILIZATION Set up is always painless. It has no frills to get in the way and is extremely straight forward. With so many output options it is also extremely versatile. The manual is straight to the point and provides diagrams of suggested set ups for most common uses. I've used it in studio for the most part. When used in a live setting, however, it is just as simple. Plug up. Adjust levels and E.Q. Play. That simple. SOUNDS With the detail that can be achieved through the E.Q., everything is easily dialed in. No hissing or "electronic hum" from the unit. The Mic pre is constantly satisfying. With any preamp you sort of have to find it's sweet spot. Once learned, it can easily be reproduced for every occasion. The sweet spot on this one is pretty much everywhere. Dial it up to unity, adjust as needed, but it only takes a couple seconds to reach the perfect gain. Fan-Frikkin-Tastic. OVERALL OPINION This is constantly doing something in my studio. If I am working in my studio, this is undoubtedly being used. Best mixer I've ever owned. I'd highly recommend it to anybody who needs a board for any purpose. This is an older model, however, and I'm sure that the newer Mackie Onyx mixers have upheld the same incredible standard. Try one of those out first. If you can't find one of those within your budget that will suffice for your project, go old skool and find one of these. INCREDIBLE. Pros: -Onyx Mic Preamp -Frequency Selector on the Perkins E.Q. -Incredible versatility with multitudes of output options Cons: -I believe it is discontinued. That means(unless you can buy the mixer and the card together), finding a place to get the Firewire card for this model will be difficult.

The Mackie MR8mk2 is a 2 way reference monitor that has very professional transducers and great power amplifiers. You can crank this monitor up and not have to worry about it distorting the sound at all. They have clean highs and solid mids with warm low end sounds. I have used the MR8mk2 over a dozen times and I still think it is one of the best set of monitors that you can get for the money. SOUNDS The low frequencies are my favorite about them, no matter what style of music you are working with or listening to with them the low end is thick and warm, mainly because of the power amplifiers that these Mackie monitors have in them. The strange thing is that I have used other Mackie monitors in the past that clam to have the exact same style of amplifiers in them (dual precision), but they do not sound anywhere as good as the MR8mk2’s do. OVERALL OPINION I was using these at my home studio which is in a bigger room without just a little bit of acoustic treatments. They instantly upgraded my whole sound. Right before I had these I was using a pair of Alesis monitors that I thought where pretty good until I purchased these from Mackie. It was an instant upgrade. Out of most of the monitors that I have heard in this price range, these could be the best ones. I have been through so many monitors from home to the studio and for this price range the only other ones that I would suggest are the KRK Rokit’s just because they have a very similar sound but these have cleaner highs than the KRK Rokit’s do. With the sound being clean and warm you just cannot go wrong with getting these monitors. If you are looking to spend in the 500 dollar range for a pair of monitors check these out or the KRK Rokits if you just want to focus more on bass.