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Five New Products from Mackie at AES

Mackie is using this year’s AES Convention to introduce five innovative new products for both Recording and Live Sound applications. The products will be on display at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco from 28-31 October. Mackie is located at booth 230.

The Mackie Onyx 400F is a 10-channel, 192kHz-capable FireWire audio interface that features the new flagship Mackie Onyx microphone preamps, as well as on-board DSP matrix mixing. And because it’s 192kHz capable, all of the detail and clarity of Mackie’s Onyx mic pre is sure to not be lost in the final recording. The 400F’s on-board DSP mixing matrix allows latency free headphone mixing and routing independent of the DAW software. This is a particularly useful feature for those operating older DAW-based systems where processing power is limited.

Front panel controls on the Onyx 400F include control-room output level, dual independent headphone outputs with dedicated level control, dual instrument inputs, and four-segment metering for the mic inputs. The rear panel includes four combo mic/line inputs, balanced TRS sends and returns for the first two mic inputs, four line inputs, eight line outputs, Control Room outputs, Word Clock I/O, MIDI I/O, SPDIF I/O and two FireWire ports. The rugged 1U rackmount steel chassis features an attractive extruded aluminum front panel with machined aluminum knobs. A black plastic accent strip is flushed mounted into the front panel to complete the look.

The Onyx 400F is bundled with a complete software package which includes Tracktion, Mackie’s intuitive audio recording and MIDI production software, as well as the Mackie Final Mix mastering toolkit. The complete Onyx 400F package will be available in early 2005.

The Mackie HM54 is a 1U rackmount headphone amplifier that features balanced left and right TRS main inputs, as well as left and right TRS “direct inputs” on each of the four channels. From the front panel, each user can select either the main stereo mix with its own input level control, or the stereo direct input on each of the four available channels. In addition, each channel offers its own dedicated headphone volume control, and a button that allows musicians to switch between their custom-crafted direct mixes and the main mix at any time. The HM54 offers a total of eight headphone output jacks—four on the front of the unit, and four on the rear, so that cables can be hidden away where possible.

The Mackie HMX56 is a compact tabletop headphone matrix mixer/amplifier with advanced routing capabilities. The unit features stereo main inputs, which are automatically routed to each of the six discrete headphone outputs. Four additional mono source inputs can be combined as needed with the main input feed on a channel-by-channel basis using the on-board 4 x 6 source matrix. And to identify each source input, Mackie provides a selection of pre-labeled magnets with common instrument names that can be affixed adjacent to each input source row. In addition, the HMX56 also features and individual effects send for each mono source input and stereo main mix channel, as well as an effects return control on each of the six channels.

The Mackie Control C4 is a sophisticated plug-in and virtual instrument controller that provides four banks of eight V-Pots each, and four full-size displays that provide instant access to as many as 32 software parameters—virtually eliminating the need to constantly "bank switch" a standard control surface display in order to access parameter-rich software modules.

The C4’s chassis layout features multiple displays and corresponding knobs for simultaneous access of up to 32 parameters of a given software module. Function buttons beneath the displays and knobs allow users to select the arrangement of those parameters and how they show up on screen. The Mackie Control C4 also acts as a "quick fix" tool for fader and pan settings across 32 channels, and can be used independently or in concert with Mackie Control Universal, Logic Control, as well as Mackie Control Universal and Logic Control Extenders.

Being shown for the very first time in the United States since its introduction at the PLASA in London last September, the Mackie Onyx 80 Series features all-new analog circuitry, a full compliment of Mackie’s flagship Onyx microphone preamps, and the renowned “British-Voiced” four-band Perkins EQ.

The Onyx 80 Series consoles are offered in four sizes: the 24-channel Onyx 2480, 32-channel Onyx 3280, 40-channel Onyx 4080, and 48-channel Onyx 4880. All four models incorporate features that any hardcore live engineer will appreciate including eight Aux Sends with Stereo Link function for up to four IEM mixes; an Aux/Group Flip function; an 10x2 Matrix; four Mute Groups; eight stereo Aux inputs; and an optional rack-mountable redundant power supply. The master section and channel strip configuration are the same across the line; the mixers differ only by channel count and footprint.

In addition to the features set, Mackie invested significant resources to ensure that the 80 Series consoles are durable enough to handle pretty much anything that regular road use can dish out. Extreme chassis rigidity is achieved through a modular bucket design and the addition of several heavy-duty aluminum I-beam extrusions that run the entire length of the chassis. “Basically, a block of Onyx stone is going to flex before these mixers do,” commented John Boudreau, product manager for the Onyx 80 Series line.

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Five New Products from Mackie at AES

27th October 2004

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