Mackie Onyx Blackjack

The Mackie Onyx Blackjack is a very small interface that is a 2 in and 2 out USB unit. The latency is suppose to be zero but I could hear a very small amount of latency while listening to play back and it was really irritating me. This unit is very inexpensive costing around 150 dollars, if you are a musician that has used some good interfaces. Then this one will not work for you, the preamps are average at best and they are not very quiet. You will hear a small hissing sound from time to time and with the latency during play back makes it unusable to me. I do not recommend getting this interface unless it is your first interface and you are just starting out.

UTILIZATION

Setting it up was a breeze on a Vista computer, but when trying to install it on a XP system gave me a world full of issues. No matter how many times I installed the driver, it just would not recognize the interface each time.

GETTING STARTED

The Blackjack does have phantom power but with the pre amps being so bad you just really can only do so much with this interface. The design of it is pretty sleek, and rugged; but if you were to drop it one good time I think the knobs would break off completely because they are made out of cheap plastic. Which is expected because of the price of this unit. When you purchase this interface you will not even get good production software with it. It comes with Tracktion 3 which is not even close to making my top 10 of software production programs.

OVERALL OPINION

For me there are just too many issues that I could not over look with this interface. It was looking for something small and affordable that I could just throw in my laptop bag and take with me. But the pre amps on this unit are so bad compared to other interfaces that I have used that cost just a little more than this one does.

There are only 2 usb interfaces under 150eur offering identical preamp professional gear. These are ur22 Steinberg and Mackie Onyx Blackjack.
On paper, the choice is between these two models.
Regarding the DAC, Mackie really wanted to offer a quasi-professional product. These converters CS5368 Cirrus Logic. This chip 114dB which eliminates the jitters conversion is sold alone 20eur by Cirrus Logic. (Http://fr.mouser.com/search/refine.aspx?Msid=67410000&Mkw=CS5368-DQZ)
The UR22 does not use the excellent chips its big sister the MR816 but the most low-end chip Cirrus Logic CS4270 worth the 4EUR (http://fr.mouser.com/search/refine.aspx? Msid = 67410000 & CS4270-CZZ Mkw =).
Finally to complete the comparison on paper, Mackie is USB1.1 and Steinberg usb2. Bandwidth USB1 .1 allows full duplex recording 24bit 48kHz but not 96kHz. Apart from the frequency of sampling is the only difference.

UTILIZATION

Mackie drivers for Windows were reputed unstable at their debut in 2010. Using this last-Mac, I only rule for Mac: Perfect stability, class compliant with CoreAudio.
In Logic, you can descend a latency <10 ms with 128 samples, which is very good.

GETTING STARTED

Very simple OSX.

OVERALL OPINION

One hundred hours of recording made with, reliability.

I would do this choice without hesitation, no interface has an equivalent audio quality at this price.
The main regret is that online entries go on the preamp. Can not record live. The preamp is excellent, but why put a floor more in the audio path?
This problem, however, is common to all interfaces that price.

Compactness, reliability and mechanical products Audio Mackie. I beosin a small audio interface in addition to my digital mixer.

UTILIZATION

Catastrophe ... I use WIN 7 64 bit and very clearly, this interface does not work. I told myself as dab it could come from me, my config ... but I went on the forum Mackie and then I saw that I went to a club of customers infuriated by these useless drivers.
Comem I already let go my Spike and my ONYX 400F for the same reasons, I conclude that Mackie vriament a serious problem on the side of drivers!
It happens to limit the damage with a buffer to 1024 ... latency hello!

GETTING STARTED

See above. One might also note the absence of soft. It is true that this interface is simple, but we did not even have a small setup utility. Must go to the PLOT WINDOW ..

OVERALL OPINION

For now, my opinion is obviously easy to summarize. I bought a card which I can not serve me ... I am wary of once again Mackie and its drivers. I do not recommend this product fortemnt under 64 bit, I can not say anything below 32 bits of course ... but if they are the same developers who made the two drivers, one can raisonnablemetn beware!