Not happy With Mackie/Loud Tech

[RJH_MUSIC]

Wow, thanks for all the information. I admit that my needs are somewhat different than the casual producer as I am on 80% MIDI and 20% live producer. So I am Leveraging mainly the MIDI features of the console with my DAW. I find the ability to save a project and snapshots to be very useful, when the need to quickly load a project arises, so I do not have to spend 30 minutes retreating everything. For me the greatest feature the D8B means that I don't have to record audio from my synths into my DAW, which saves a tremendous amount of resources in the DAW, as well as hardware which means more resources allocated to VSTi.

[doktor1360]

Anyway, in the reply that I got from one of the Mackie sales guys, although he didn't say it outright, his reply really sounded as if Mackie are seriously looking into designing/releasing a new large format digital desk, such as the d8b or TT24.

I have no idea if/when this could happen, but the reply sounded that it was not going to be too far into the future.

One can only hope and in the meantime, I will continue to drag out of its box, the trusty d8b if and when I need it, which is not all that often these days as I have virtually retired from the business --- almost 60 years sitting behind a desk is really quite long enough. !!!!!!!

Could this be what you're referring to?

https://mackie.com/products/onyx-series-premium-analog-mixers-multitrack-usb

This is interesting, but in all honesty... I'll pass for now. It's nice, but I think personally it's just another late-model DAW interface... and by that, let me clarify by saying the physical routing n i/o, etc. It doesn't really look like anything different (physically) than most other popular vendor mixer offerings. Now, what really grinds my f'n gears are those Onyx pre-s (hardware)... SOB, if ONLY those things could somehow be leveraged and integrated into the D8B... WOW... but we all know that is just not gonna happen...

This just isn't compelling enuff for me personally to even consider moving away from what I have invested in the current D8B/HDR platform(s)... not yet anyway. Is it a pivot point for Mackie/Loud? Maybe... they had engineering balls in the past, let's see where this one goes. I personally think this'll compete quite well with current gear on the market just due to the pre-s, it's just not for me at this moment in time... but it is interesting none-the-less...

Interesting to hear what y'all think about this mixer...

Here it is, you knew it was coming :
[Standard Mgmt Disclaimer] - "Your actual mileage may vary..."

[csp]

Dok,

You could be correct in your thinking, but I had the feeling at the time when I was communication with the Support Dept, that what was possibly being referred to was a completely new digital desk, such as the d8b or the TT24, BUT I could definitely be wrong in my reading of the comment !!!!!

David

[RJH_MUSIC]

I agree. To be honest, I don't think Mackie has anything to offer these days that even comes close to the d8b. All of the mixers look like toys to me. The only mixer that has decent features is the DL 32s, but you still need a control surface to control it manually.

[csp]

RJH, I fully agree with your comment about Mackie and why I thought the comment made in my communication to Mackie was very interesting.

Who knows maybe Greg Mackie (who is apparently still designing consoles for other people), has been asked to do something and if that is the case, then I am sure that it will be something very interesting.

If something is released, I might just have to redesign (ie update to 202?) the electronics on my 8-track recorder to make it work in the digital domain, BUT definitely would not be throwing out my 48 tracks of Alesis HD24 (two units synced), as they work perfectly with the d8b. Only problem there is that the editing software does not work with Windows 10 (thanks Microsoft for removing a couple of important files !!!!!), so I will have to keep my Windows 7 computer and hope it doesn't fail !!!!!

David

[Phil.c]

No...and even worse, there's now Windows 11

[RJH_MUSIC]

Been there before many years ago. Back in 1995, I finally dumped using on board sequencers and bought my first windows laptop running windows 3.1. Had all my midi gear hooked up using 2 MTPAVs networked together.. then I updated to windows 95 and half of my studio would not trigger MIDI. After weeks of scratching my head, I found out that windows 95 had a 10 port midi limitation, so I had to roll back to windows 3.1 until Windows ME was released. Had to also rollback Cubase because Cubase 5 VST needed a minimum of Windows 95 to run. That seems like the dark ages.... lol. I remember when the d8b first arrived on the scene. I drooled over it in the music store and dreamed of owning one but it was way too much money for my budget back then. In 2005 I finally gave up on windows for music and switched to a MAC platform. And never looked back. Bought my first d8b used on ebay in 2007 and again never looked back.

RJ.

[csp]

RJ,

Couldn't agree more. Re Windows 11, from some of the reports that I have read over the past couple of weeks, it is generally considered (at this time at least) that it should not be installed as it apparently is bug heavy.

Some even say that it will probably go the way that "Vista" went ---- down the drain at a rapid rate.

It will be interesting to see how many of the computer manufactures start adding it to their new products, or do they shy away from it !!!!!

David

[RJH_MUSIC]

I guess operating systems are like cars. Never buy the first model year. Wait for the manufacturer to work out the bugs. Which leads to a very interesting point about software licensing if you really ever dug into its meaning. Think about how you would feel if you wanted to do a car dealership to buy your dream car but the salesman said well you agree to buy this car knowing that it may not even start or work at all and you have no recourse and we don't even guarantee that will work a week from now. Would you buy it? Basically that is what you're agreeing to every time you buy software you agree that you can take it home unwrapped and installed and it may not work at all and you have no recourse.