The latest generation Mackie Onyx 8 Mixer is part of the revamped lineup of Mackie Onyx Mixers introduced earlier this year at NAMM’s Believe in Music Week and are available in 8, 12, 16 and 24 channel configurations. The latest generation of Mackie Onyx mixers are a modern take on the original Onyx series that first came out in 2006, followed by the Onyx-i firewire integrated series that came out in 2010. The latest generation Mackie Onyx series are designed to tie a lot of audio solutions together in an easy-to-use, flexible interface. At its core, the latest generation Mackie Onyx series are hybrid USB enabled recording interface/mixers that can be used stand-alone or connected to your PC or Mac. Mackie Onyx mixers are class compliant devices, meaning that on most Mac devices the Onyx will be plug and play. Windows users will need to install Mackie’s ASIO driver available for download on the Mackie website.
All the models in the latest generation Mackie Onyx range are capable of recording at resolutions up to 96 Khz. The Mackie Onyx range are great for capturing stereo mixes as well as capturing raw tracks for mixdown back home or at your studio, making them perfect for band and live multitrack stereo recordings.
The latest generation of Mackie Onyx mixer feature a full color Command Center that allows you to record directly to an SD card. SD cards need to be formatted to the mixer for correct recording and playback. When you first set up the Mackie Onyx mixer, you will need to configure the RTC (short for Real Time Clock). This will make sure any recording made to the internal SD card will be correctly time and date stamped.
The latest generation Mackie Onyx Mixers have all the features you would expect including Hi-Z switches for connecting guitars, Perkins style British EQ with sweepable Midrange on each microphone channel, mono and stereo inputs, Aux / Monitor outputs with dedicated per-channel send controls, dedicated Main and Control Room outputs, Headphone outputs and more. All the preamps on all the models in the latest generation Mackie Onyx range have 60 dB of headroom, offering more than enough gain for just about any microphone you would want to record with.
The channel strips themselves are designed with hybrid USB/ Analog circuitry that are assignable to either the USB output for multitrack desktop recording or to the internal digital recording engine for stereo recording and playback. Other features include a High Pass filter on every channel, Lighted Mute & Solo switches and an AFL and PFL switch and the ability to do a hard bypass on EQ so you can preview but not record what you are getting in your Mix.
There are a different number of Hybrid USB/Audio channels on the Mackie Onyx mixer depending on which model in the range you are using. The Mackie Onyx 8 shown here has two stereo hybrid channels. All the other mixers in the Mackie Onyx range have four.
The on-board effect engine offers a large selection of user configurable effects. These include Delay, Echo, Slap Back, Hall, Plate and Room Reverb, Chorus, Flinger and three combination effects. The presets section allows you save up to six settings to memory. The effect engine’s flexible routing allows you to monitor or print the effects as you record. All the DSP processing power is on board so it will not tax your computer’s processor while in the recording process if you decide to print the FX via USB.
All the Mixers in the latest generation Mackie Onyx series have Bluetooth connectivity for pairing your phone or other sound source for Playback through the mixer as well as feature channel assignable USB returns making them a great choice for podcasting.
With so many recording interfaces and portable mixers currently available, Mackie knew they had to deliver a professional yet competitively priced product you can grow with. The result, the latest generation of Mackie Onyx mixers, are flexible and great sounding hybrid mixer / recording interfaces that can accommodate pretty much any musical application you would want to use them for.
The Mackie Onyx series is priced from $499 to $899 MAP Pricing and comes with $500 worth of free software including a license to Pro Tools First, Waveform, Traction and more.
Find out more at mackie.com.
