Great sounding preamps. Mackie has done well in this area as well as very musical EQs. The mixer sounds great in the studio or live.

The FireWire card is the best feature of the mixer. Very easy to record and monitor via the FireWire. The full aux section has come in handy many times.

Becomes easier with time. The manual MUST be read fully and understood. Had no problems so far, but should have plenty of light. Do not try live sessions in dim light or you will mess up!

Once again, the preamps. Really good especially when a high quality studio condenser mic is plugged in or an instrument condenser and an acoustic guitar is used. Very musical EQs, the sound is near realistic with good monitors.

Really good investment for a small-format mixer. Have used it everywhere!

Never expierienced problems so I'll give it a 10.

It is a pretty long mixer for a small-format, but does have features simimlar to a larger console.

Recording/Live Engineer

Rock, Techno, Dance

The preamps are very nice, clean and uncolored. This board has many features that make it desireable.

Mine came with the firewire card. I would not recomend it for serious recording via the firewire card though. Totally do-able if you use tracktion (the mackie redording software) and are not interested in studio quaility recording. But if you use a cpu hogging program like Sonar (which gives a better end result than traction, despite being difficult to use by comparison)you better have a very up to date computer or you will not get good results. Seriously disturbing latency problems with high end recording software like Sonar Producer edition.

The tlyaout for this board is a little tight i question the wisdom of the attempt at making it rack mountable. Whose rack is that deep?

The board fires up every time, but the firewire card is often not recognized by a typical PC. It's a firewire problem, and while not unsurmountable it is a little frustrating. Also, the thing should have had two signal paths available to the Firwire card, assignable by a button, rather than only preamp to card bypasssing basically the rest of the board. I'd love to try those perkins EQ's in my mix without having to patch through two cannels.

Mackie support was fantastic at giving answers, although sometimes the answer was sorry that's just how it is.

Recording Engineer

Country

The Onyx series is by far the best sounding board in it's class. The top end is pristine and clear, the mids warm and punchy, while the bottom is thick and smooth. Or it's flat - your choice. If you don't know the correct way to use an eq then it doesn't matter what mixer you have. Every other mixer - including Mackie's VLZ series sounds muffled and lifeless in comparison, even with the eq's flat. It's not "bright", it's CLEAR.

More and more, "real" engineers are discovering the beauty of a pre-post setup when using one board for FOH and moniters. If you have to eq a channel to sound good out front, chances are the mons need it too. My only complaint with the features - no inserts on the sub groups, but there's ways around that. As far as recording goes, I'veonly used the Firewire out so I can't comment on the direct outs. The shows that I have recorded are beautiful. What was at the input is what's on disc. Most engineers don't use much if any eq while recording. They'll either process in the box or with outboard gear later. Once you record with eq, you're stuck. Also you have to remember, this is a live board that can be used for recording not the other way around. If you want to use a Behringer board because it's cheaper, go ahead. You get what you pay for.

Everything is where it's supposed to be and easy to find. It's a little cramped by the faders if you want to change sub group assignments. Also the lack of inserts on the subs makes life a little more challenging but not impossible.

Built tough - like every other Mackie I own or have owned. We've been using it for just under a year now with no problems and I don't expect any. Never had a problem with a Mackie except for what's noted below.

It's a fair price to pay for the sound quality and ease of use. Yes it would be nice if the Firewire card came with it but that's unrealistic. Plus, why should someone that doesn't need the card have to pay for it? Again, remember it's a live board with the ability to record. As for the software with the card, I agree that it should come with all the extra plug-ins that are included with the stand alone software package. If I really needed the plug-ins, I would have to buy another copy of Traktion but I not going to put a negative for this on the mixer because this is a review of the mixer, not the card.

Any questions I've emailed tech support in the past have been quickly and politely answered. I haven't called. My original CR1604 (remember those?) died half way through the first gig it went out on. Mackie had it fixed and shipped back UPS Red label in four days with an explanation of the problem and an apology!

I own it and will probably buy another one later this year. Why probably? Because I'm waiting to take delivery ov my shiny new Onyx 24-4. Does that tell you enough of how much I like the sound and features of the mixer?

Live engineer, ive recording engineer, studio engineer, & former full time musician (now part time)

I only use it in my home studio for recording w/the firewire card.

When it works correctly it's great, just very so-so performance with a PC.

When things are working somewhat correctly (pretty hard to get to that point with a PC) it seems like a great product.

Decent overall quality, but the firewire card has never worked properly with a brand new PC bought just for use in recording. Continues to create many problems as the software just doesn't seem to play well in a PC.

If you want a mixing board, great. If you're using the firewire with a PC GET SOMETHING ELSE!!! Might be OK with an Apple, their customer support department seems to think so.

I would say Mackie support was probably one of the worst experiences I've ever had with any company EVER. Because of it I will probably never buy another Mackie product. They basically told me that it wasn't really designed for use with a PC and to go buy an Apple. Nice.

Just your plain old board, really. Use it as a mixing board.

Professional Musician

Rock

The preamps are solid.

Post EQ, Post Fader, Post insterts on all direct outs. Someone was smoking crack when they constructed the routing of this board.

I'd give it a 10, but because the post eq, post fader, post insert, I give it a 2 for the preamps.

Again...only for the preamps, then why buy the mixer if all I want is preamps....even stand alone preamps have eq and compression.

Hobbyist/Pro

Hip Hop, Techno

Good sounding board, great pre-amps!

Firewire card is great addition. I use this as my soundcard for Cubase 4 and it works great!

It's rather simple, but as usual you need some tech support and to read the manual

It's solid!

With the firewire card I paid $1200 for both brand new...that's a killer deal. 16ins with Onyx pre's is for $1200 is amazing

It's possibly the worst tech support I have ever worked with. I am an original owner of a d8b and HDR24/96 and have always hated working with their tech dept.

It's a bit long, but the entire back pod can come off and mount underneath...great design!

Mixing engineer

worship