Mackie Onyx Blackjack Reviews

Mike
from Michigan
March 11, 2013Music Background:
singer/songwriter

I have to agree, it's great

I tried numerous interfaces before coming to this one, and I have to say this one is the cleanest and really easy to use. Plugged and played with no problems at all on my Mac Mini - shows up in Garageband and DP8 with no problems. It is very clean, very transparent and the price is amazing. Wish it had midi and firewire, but for this price, it's an amazing piece of gear!

Ryan Dixon
from United States
August 7, 2012Music Background:
Guitarist, Recording Engineer

Amazing quality for the price!!

This is just simply an amazing quality interface. It's really durable, ergonomic, and best of all it sounds great! I was deciding between a few others and I'm glad I chose the onyx, it's been a huge asset to my home studio. I really enjoy the angled face, and simple controls. It puts all the everything right where I need it to be to make recording fast and easy.

Ron
from Dallas, TX USA
May 11, 2012Music Background:
Pro Musician and Voice-Over Artist

Mackie Onyx Blackjack is Quality, Quiet, Quick and Quite affordable.

This fits my needs perfectly. i record voice-over narrations from home and on the road. I run an ADK studio condenser mic into my Dell Notebook recording on Adobe Soundbooth, and monitor playback with Sennheiser headphones. The Blackjack interface is the simplest, best quality solution I could find after trying several. It is extremely quiet, my main priority for quality, with awesome preamps and 24bit conversion; it is quick to setup using only a USB connection for both power and signals, and the price is right at under $150. I tried M-Audio Fast Track (too noisy); a separate mixer/USB D/A interface (too many cables, power supplies, etc.). A bonus, because of it's metal, not plastic, case is that it stays put when cables tug on it. It has everything I need or will need in the future. I can even add powered monitors when needed.

David Jenson
from State of Maine
April 26, 2012Music Background:
Semi-pro guitarist, home recording enthusiast

It's quiet and accurate

This little unit lives up to all of Mackie's advertizing hype (which turns out not to be hype at all)! With my Mac Mini it was simply a matter of plugging it in, selecting it in the DAW, then fingerpicking the six-string over a background of silky silence and listening to the playback preserved in pristine clarity and accuracy. It puts out exactly what you put in, so ... practice, practice, practice.

Keith Felch
from Laguna Beach, CA
February 3, 2012Music Background:
Professional Woodwind Performer

Expect a lot--this will deliver

You simply can't go wrong with this interface. I've played woodwinds professionally for over 30 years, and have use quite a bit of professional recording equipment during that time. The sound produced by this interface with a Shure KSM32 mic is natural, fat, and beautiful. Vocals with this combo will amaze you. Use it with Garage Band like I do, or a program of your choice. You will not be disappointed.
Mackie knocked it out of the park with this thing.

PJT
from Beaumont, TX
June 1, 2011Music Background:
Pro

Nice n' Easy

This little piece is an exceptionally built and functional interface. All metal solid; and hooked right into my Mac, up and running...no problem. Nice monitoring options so I can leave my preamp plugged in, ready for usb recording to my mac; or if I feel like just jamming through my board and monitors, the "to monitor" level brings the signal right in.

Definitely consider this little piece of recording gear. Price is right and you won't go wrong.

Michael Nicholson
from Kingston, Jamaica
June 26, 2012Music Background:
Hobbyist.

Marvelous machine

Installed on Windows 7 32 bit. Initially got a terrible hiss when recording, using a variety of DAWS. Downloaded and installed new drivers from Mackie site. It has been running without hitch since. Has the look, feel, and function of a quality piece of work. After the initial glitch, very satisfied with Blackjack. My two emails to Mackie were both responded to promptly as well.

Mike
from Port Townsend, WA
April 23, 2012Music Background:
Pro Musician, Home Producer

Nice little box!

This thing is pretty great. I have one and have used it several times. The sound quality is pretty decent. I used to own a PreSonus Firestudio which was firewire and I thought going down to a USB device I might have latency issues, but I haven't had any yet. I have also been using a Apogee One, but the One has been making Logic overload... but I haven't had any problems with the Blackjack doing that... but the One does have a slightly noticeable better audio quality which is why I only gave the Blackjack a 4.5... Plus it's cheaper than the One...

Gregg McVicar
from Bay Area
May 13, 2011Music Background:
Radio Producer

Perfect for Radio Production

We picked up a BlackJack for auditioning music, light Pro Tools 9 editing and some festival DJ projects. And what a pleasant surprise it has been to discover such a sweet balance of performance, design and functionality in one low-priced unit. This little guy does a few mission-critical things exceptionally well. Like any USB device, it can occasionally get confused and need a USB reboot (plug & unplug) but we've found that to be the case with Firewire units as well. The the podcaster just starting out or the grizzled pro just yearning for reliable simplicity, the Blackjack is worthy of your consideration.

Sam Hensley
from Roanoke, VA
January 21, 2011Music Background:
Singer/Songwriter

A great box for a great price

The Mackie Blackjack does exactly what I need, at an affordable price. Plenty of headroom, doesn't take up much space, solid construction. If you're doing small demo work, and don't need more that 2 channels, the blackjack is great.

Keith Tildon
from Seattle
January 4, 2011Music Background:
Musician, Home recording enthusiast

Mackie Onyx Blackjack

Built really well - not plastic or cheap feeling.
Installed without issue onto my Windows 7 computer
Sound quality is excellent

Summary
Great value / Great Interface

gary sandberg
from Westminster, CO
October 22, 2012Music Background:
retired mechanical engineer, lifetime amateur musician

Very Pleased

I'm very pleased with the Blackjack by Mackie. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars is that I have not done any recording with it yet.

I bought this to be an external sound card on a Dell (no internal card) running Ubuntu Linux. I have become very wary of USB devices for Linux, because many of them require drivers, but don't supply any for Linux. I have found that USB devices that work on my Mac, will also work on Linux. Devices made for Windows just don't generally work.

Now I'm able to listen to good quality sound on Linux and I'm very happy. I have no reason to believe that the Blackjack won't give me great recordings on Linux, but when I want to record, I generally go to the Mac OR use a standalone recorder.

Good product!

Joe Schoell
from Yakima Wa USA
February 28, 2012Music Background:
Professional Bass Player, Recording Engineer & Producer

Mackie Onyx Blackjack

A breeze to set-up and use.
For singer songwriter stuff or basic tracking for demos - it's a great fit.
The mic-pre's are "no frills" - but they are transparent....you will get back what you put in for sure..these were the reason I went with his product.
I also own an Onyx 1640-i, but needed a smaller footprint and easier portability for some jobs. Cool product and I do enjoy using it.

from
January 18, 2012

Love it!

Turned my laptop into a portable studio. Easy to use with Logic, I was set up and recording in minutes.

Joseph Calkins
from Denver, Pennsylvania
December 16, 2011Music Background:
Lecturing, teaching...not musical

Onyx Blackjack 2x2 USB interface ..really stretches an old laptop

Using this USB interface really stretches my 4 yr old Dell Latitude laptop computer. Tech support had me download a latency monitor, which shows that a number of the drivers have too long a latency..so the audio gets pops and clicks and buzzes, showing dropout of the digital signal. My newer Dell XPS8300 computer gives no such problem...works smooth as silk with very low levels of latency. I love the Onyx Blackjack, but am having a challenge cleaning up the drivers on my laptop...which is the computer I need to use the interface with.

Marc
from Indiana USA
November 3, 2011Music Background:
Former Pro Musician, Producer and Recording Engineer

Solid Unit, Terrible Driver

This rating would be five stars if the included driver wasn't so bad. It was completely unusable for me, and once it was installed I had a tough time getting the hardware unit to use the working driver I downloaded (ASIO4ALL).

Once I got the driver working I found the unit delivers as promised: excellent sound quality, easy to use, built like a tank, and the Tracktion 3 software is serviceable enough that I was finally able to say goodbye to my ancient copy of Cubase SX1 (goodbye, dongle!).

Adam C
from Galveston, TX
April 24, 2012Music Background:
Cruise line guitar player/sometimes recording engineer.

BEWARE if running Win 7 x64

Would otherwise have been a great rating, as the pres are amazing for this price range, and it's dead easy to use, but it's been out for well over a year and after several broken deadlines from Mackie, there is STILL no Win 7 x64 driver. Will work with ASIO4ALL but there are some conflicts with this solution so it does not work for everyone.

If you're running XP or on a Mac it's a great unit but otherwise this is a dud.

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