An Essential 
by barnone from WA, August 2008
Music Background:  Engineer

Had this for a few years now, front and center at my mixing desk. It's essential for the modern digital studio. This finally made sense of the monitoring portion of my setup. I love it and I you couldn't pry it out of my studio.

  Where have you been all my life? 
by Daryl W from Linden AB, August 2008
Music Background:  Musician, Recording Engineer

I bought the big knob thinking I'd just try it out for a while and then end up putting it on ebay... But after a month of having this thing at my finger tips, there's no way you could pry it away from me.

Makes A/B-ing mixes and monitors so simple. With three monitor outputs, I set up two sets of studio monitors and then routed one output to my home stereo. No more burning CD's to check mixes in another room! The time it has saved me has more than paid for itself already.

It's built like a tank, doesn't seem to color the sound at all and has more inputs than I can find uses for.

Be prepared to shell out some extra money for cables to hook the big knob up though. That's a LOT of inputs.

  wow. i can't live without this thing 
by Chris G from columbus, oh, May 2008
Music Background:  Engineer/Producer/Musician/Mastering

The BEST money i have spent in my studio. my mixes are 10 times better now that i check them on other speakers with the simple push of a button. i actually know what my monitors sound like now. buy cheaper monitors and this thing, if you are on a budget your mixes will be better. The headphone amps in this little guy kill buy the way. also, to all you guys complaining about the talk-back button, read the directions, you are pushing the wrong button and or have it wired incorrectly. This isn't an issue if you use the "talk-back to phones" button.

  Talkback Defeciency Negates Positive Aspects 
by ERic from Halifax N.S. Canada, April 2008
Music Background:  Musician

Everything's worked fine with this unit ... except I couldn't believe it when I began trying to use the talkback to talent in the studio from the control room.

As others have pointed out ... the monitors are not muted ... so unless your settings are just so .. you will get at the least a very metallic hollow sound or worse crazy feedback. What a Bummer!!!!

  2 years and still satified 
by Law Daproducer from NYC / Philly / NJ, March 2008
Music Background:  Producer / Songwriter / Engineer

I have owned my Big Knob for 2 years and I still feel like I just bought it yesterday! The sound quality is excellent, it is quite and solid as a tank. In it's price range, I recommend this over the Central Station any day and Mackie didn't have to pay me to say this!

  The Big Knob is Big Deal (No Sarcasm) 
by Sean from Dallas, Tx, January 2008
Music Background:  recording engineer, producer, musical artist, hobbyist

Just hooked everything up last night. I can't believe I haven't been using this since the beginning of my music "career"! Of course, it didn't exist 10 years ago, but still. This piece of hardware has made my recording 100 times easier and extremely resourceful. There are several neat recording tricks I know I can do with this that I haven't experimented with yet, but what it immediately offers was well worth the price. The volume knobs are smooth and the sound is excellent. If you do any mixing or recording from a home studio, you should get this product. It'll make things much easier for you. A common tip from the pros: any successful mixing engineer uses multiple monitors to check mixes on. This is an essential piece of gear for that reason alone.

  AWESOME!!! Great piece of equipment. SOLID!!! 
by Juan Pablo Lagos from San Pedro Sula, Honduras, January 2008
Music Background:  Producer and Musician (R&B, Hip Hop, Rock, Jingles)

I was deciding between the mackie Big Knob and the Presonus Central Station. I ended up going with the Big Knob and have no regrets.

All in all excellent product. Was using a Mackie Onyx 1220 mixer as my master control for my studio but the Big Knob totally fits the role better. Interacts perfectly with my DAW and RME Fireface 800.

Big Knob is very well constructed. The feel of the buttons and knobs are excellent. You have a lot of flexibility with the ins and outs. Definitely nicer feel than the Remote control of the presonus.

The only thing that may bother some people are the cables in the back of the unite but it isn't anything that can't be fixed with a snake or a few cable ties.

I was worried about the sound quality because of the active (amped) outputs but the sound is very clear and balanced. Just make sure you set it up properly. Don't max out all the gain knobs cause you can get a little coloration if you go overboard. As you would with any amp or gain control.

Its also the perfect size for my desk. Onyx 1220 was too big but the Big knob fits perfectly and at arms reach. Peace.

  Great piece of equipment.... 
by La Forest Gray from El Paso, TX, August 2007
Music Background:  Producer/Engineer/Composer/Song-writer

This is a great piece of equipment, has all the features that I need to route 4 set's of monitors & a sub, using DIGI 002. The sound quality is outstanding, no-coloration, sturdy & does exactly what I need it to do.

  The One Big Mistake on this Mackie Product 
by UncleDano from NYC, LA, Washington DC, July 2007
Music Background:  Mixer, Sound Supervisor, Chief Engineer

Don't get me wrong, I love Mackie products and use them daily. It seems that with every item they produce they miss the boat on a key, yet inexpensive issue. This time it is a $2 relay and a resistor to dim the monitors about 15 db so you don't get feedback when using the talkback function. Please Greg! I beg of you... incorporate the mod in your design so I don't HAVE to buy the competitors product. You can do it. You have the power, you have the technology.

  The Big Knob is a swiss army knife 
by S from New York, March 2007
Music Background:  Hobbyist

I'm not a studio guy, instead I'm more of an audiophile / music geek. The big knob does more to control audio on my desk, headphone rig, and apartment than any other piece of gear I've seen. It allows me to switch between or combine my Apogee Mini-DAC and onboard sound card, choose what gets routed where, and wire music to different places in my apartment. All in all, this is a phenomenal product. I'm generally a purist in terms of signal path, but I can't find any real problems with inserting the Big Knob in it.

  Big help 
by Torbell from Skien, Norway, Europe, September 2006
Music Background:  pro producer/musician/composer

I needed a way to control the volume of my monitors, without using my mouse and clicking some virtual knob. Then I needed a monitoring/hedphone-amp solution. The Big Kob fulfilled my needs and then some. Cool to have phono inputs too, but I wish it had a digital input. And one downside is that if you wish to place this on your desk next to your computer keyboard ore somthing, you´ll end up with in a cable mess.

  Excellent!! 
by Arvid Gunardi from Jakarta, Indonesia, July 2006
Music Background:  Recording Engineer, bassist.

I tried presonus Central Station, it was great, but the price was just simply higher than BIG KNOB, so it was easy enough, and I went with Mackie.

The "big" knob is very cool and practicle, the turning motion is very smooth, and during low volume monitoring, the left-right balance are still symetrical. Mute, Dim, and Mono buttons are very practically positioned in the middle of the console below the big volume control.

The main reason why I went with big knob, is it has everything most "master section" offers, even exceeds them, with a price of around U$300.

Definitely no noticable coloration on the sound.

I used a similar product by SPL, everytime you press the talkback button, the speaker would create a twitching/static sound, and it cost waaay more than big knob.

Cool toy!! 
by Kirk Fischer from Texas, April 2005

I have two computers, three sets of monitors, a headphone distribution amp, and was fighting a talkback problem with improvised solutions. The Big Knob solved them all.

It's built like a tank, does not color the sound at all, and gives me complete routing control. It couldn't be easier to use. I have a LOT of Mackie gear. This might be the coolest toy yet. Well done.

Mackie Big knob 
by George Witham from Ontario Canada, February 2005

The big knob is a great unit. It's just what I need to complete my DAW setup. It is very clean and queit. It's built like a brick S**thouse. Rock solid. The only thing I wish Mackie had done was to use a breakout box for the connections
and have a single multi-pin cable going to the Big Knob.


worth every cent

Bought this and the Presonus. Thought the presonus would win but... 
by Tim , February 2005

Mackie:
First, Big knob feels better, more solid switching.
Input trim controls on each source (you're gonna want these)
Simultaneous input monitoring (ever want to play along with a CD or other 2 track source) Mackie, YES. - Presonus, NO.
Quiet outputs

Presonus:
The Presonus remote seems cool though I'm still waiting.
Noticable crosstalk across outputs.
No mono source input.
No input trim.
Only one source at a time.

All in all the Mackie is more flexible.

It's Simple .. It Works! 
by Rene Cruz from Clifton, NJ, February 2005

I bought it about 3 months ago and it's probably the best investment I've ever made for the studio. 4 inputs sources, 3 outputs sources for your monitors so that you can switch between them, talk back feature to studio and headphones output. This thing rocks and will make your life in the studio another day in the park.

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