Mackie Onyx8 8-channel Analog Mixer with Multi-Track USB Reviews

I was in the market for a new mixer, and there are an amazing number of options in the sub $1000 range. I wanted something relatively small for live gigs, and also wanted something that could interface with my ipad. I initially tried some of the extremely low priced entry level mixers, but you really get what you pay for. Easy to throw in a bag to bring to a practice sessions, but the audio quality was not great with quite a bit of noise from the audio inputs and usb port, so I would never use one in a live performance.

Eventually, after doing some more research, I started looking in the $500-600 range and was deciding between the Mackie Onyx8 versus Onyx12. I liked the idea of having some extra ports "just in case," but ultimately went with the 8 because of the smaller footprint.

Bottom line, I couldn't be happier. The mixer is well made; the knobs and buttons feel solid and move smoothly. The sound quality is outstanding with a ton of headroom and very little, if any, noise. Its nice having sweepable mids on the first two channels. The USB connection works extremely well with my ipad and allows me to seemlessly incorporate my software instruments into my rig, and my iphone connects easily via bluetooth for audio streaming. The mixer also allows you to make a stereo recording of your live performance to an SD card (although it does not record the individual tracks).

The effects are convenient and, to my ears, very usable, although that can be quite subjective. Truthfully, I run all my inputs from the mixer into my ipad, apply some pretty high quality effects (reverb, EQ, compression, etc) to the audio signals, and then send the processed audio back to the mixer and then out to my speakers, so the onboard effects are not as important to me.

Just a word of warning, you will lose the use of some of your physical inputs (3/4, 5/6) if you plan on running one or two USB channels through your mixer, (and 7/8 if you are streaming audio), so spend some time thinking about your set-up to make sure that you will have enough physical imputs for all of your gear and mics. You can always go up to the 12, but the 12 has a much larger footprint (14x15 versus 10x11), so that's the trade off. Probably not a big deal if its going to be sitting at home on a desk, but I preferred the smaller version for playing out, and the 8 has enough inputs for my trio.

I liked the mixer it just like the mixers of Yamaha but new mixers of Mackie onyx is the comparable before Mackie came my favorite was Yamaha 10 channel now I have changed my mind to Mackie is good for everything.

I have been using a Mackie ProFXV12x2 for the past few years. I've gotten really really used to it. I wanted something that was comparable, and yet an upgrade. I don't NEED 12 channels, and I went through a couple mixers until I settled on this one. The Onxy does NOT disappoint. It's been a learning curve and the biggest difference and frustration I had with this, was figuring out that there is a driver needed to download. I love the fact the speaker and outputs are at the outer edge of the machine and not taking up space at the top. This is a good plug and play machine, which means you don't have to have everything plugged in right away before firing it up and using. If you need that extra microphone, you can just plug it in and go. (watch with Itunes though as programs can be picky doing plug and play stuff) I love this mixer and very excited to go live with it. I'm using to the slides for volume adjustment, but that is minimal to me as this tank will be very useful for my live needs, and recording needs.

The Onyx compared to the ProFX mixers from Mackie: The Onyx has an internal power supply and sweepable mids, so thats really cool. BUT! They took away the compressor and ruined the only truly usable effects setting - Reverb + Delay. On the ProFX, it's a true slapback with a nice small hall verb. On the Onyx, it's like a verb with pre-delay. It leaves your voice brutally clean and then the reverby echo sound follows. Seriously unusable. I called Mackie to see if they were gonna fix that in a software upgrade, and the dude said basically "whatever - go away". If you really want the SD card recording and expanded USB abilities PLUS Bluetooth, the Onyx is a clean board with nice EQ. If you want to use the built in verb/delay, sound good at gigs without any other gear, stream in stereo, and have per channel compression on hand, then go with the ProFX.