>Anyone out there used a Mackie Onyx 1220 or 1620 w/Firewire option >with Logic 6.4.3, or 7? Not exactly, but here's what I posted some time back into DAW-Mac. A little info, at least. At 10:30 AM -0700 4/29/05, hank alrich wrote: >I said I'd report back after messing with a Mackie Onyx 1620 and the >FW option card. > >Folks' primary concern seems mostly about conversion quality. >Conversion is okay, if not quite as good as my MIO 2882+DSP, a Jim >Williams mod'd RME ADI-8DS I have on loan, or the Waves L2. But it's >plenty usable for basic work. Feed it something decent and it sounds >decent. As I hear with good versus okay preamps, mics, etc., the >differences between okay and good always seem to have to do with the >sense of depth, the audible equivalent of three dimensions instead >of two. The Onyx FW seemed slighty less three dimensional, but >certainly not unusable for a lot of practical work. > >I ran into some routing issues with Logic + Onyx FW, and tried to >figure out what was happening: Logic? Onyx drivers? OSX Core Audio? >The deal was that I could find no way to route an input from the >Mackie card to a channel in Logic numbered differently than the >channel from the Onyx. Now, Logic can route nearly anything >anywhere. If the app has a fault it's that it can do way too many >things way too many ways. But I could not find any way to manage >this every-DAW-day routing. > >So in order to change tracking into the computer from Logic tracks 1 >& 2 to tracks 3 & 4, etc., I had to repatch the mic inputs at the >console. Doesn't much matter for what I see this board's really good >use, simultaneous digital recording and SR for a band, and only >moderately tedious for simple at-home work, but a real pain in the >ass for any sessions where one would want rapid and comprehensive >flexibility in routing while using a multi-microphone config. > >I'm not well enough informed about the inner workings of OSX's Core >Audio to assign causality here. I do know that everything OSX to do >with my MIO works exactly like it's supposed to, even exactly like >it does under OS9 (ignoring features not available in the older OS), >and that all things Logic Pro 6.4.1 also seem to work seamlessly >under OSX. Damned if I could pin this down. > >The Onyx pres are interesting. I wonder what the actual circuit >design and topology differences are between it and the VLZ Pro pres. >I think the Onyx pres work a tiny bit better with dynamic mics than >did the VLZ Pros, and maybe slightly worse with condensors, the >opposite of how I feel even about my old 1202 pres. Perhaps they >just didn't like the Schoeps, but... imagine _that_! The DI is >unexpectedly good, better than the RNP's DI with the K&K Pure >Western pickup recently installed in my J50. The RNP smushed the >Onyx pres without breaking a sweat, and the Great River let me >appreciate the Onyx convertors while using the Schoeps. > >The inability to pick the FW feed post EQ is unfortunate. The Onyx >EQ is in a different league than any previous Mackie EQ I've met, >and could make a huge difference in workflow and results, were it >available going into storage. If wanting to use this rig in the >studio, this limitation would be a pisser unless one spends for some >outboard, costing more than the Onyx mixer itself. But that EQ is >going to be very helpful for SR work, when applied by folks knowing >what to do with it. It's hugely better, and so much more flexible. >But it seems to me a shame that there isn't just one more switch to >snag that signal post EQ. Goddamn this consumer obsession with the >lowest-priced alternative to something that works well. > >One workaround for a pair of tracks is to route channels of choice >to the Alt 3/4 bus, then patch that back into a pair of inputs. Like >many workarounds the benefit comes with severe limitations. In this >case one is stuck with with either an input pair or a stereo submix >of chosen inputs. > >I'm going to need to go looking for better docs re Traction than I >found on the CD ROM supplied with the Onyx FW card. I'm DAW retarded >and not much made sense to me. New paradigms? Hey, I'm a hillbilly; >twenty cents is s'posed to be twenty cents. -- ha