Mackie Onyx 1620i or Presonus 16.0.2?

iainboyd

Logician
Hi. I'm thinking of e-baying a load of gear and using one of these digital mixers as both a practise room/live mixer and audio interface.

I quite like the Mackie because it just looks simpler. The Presonus offers a whole lot more (and is a bit more expensive) but I don't want to spend all my time figuring out the mixer instead of playing or recording.

Anyone else looked at these (or other options?) and have any comments about using them with Logic 9? Comparable preamp quality?

Part of me say wait till all this kit moves to Thunderbolt, but it doesn't seem to be happening very fast. There's a new Thunderbolt to FW800 adapter from Apple. Do we think this will talk to FW400 okay? - as found on most FW interfaces.

Any help would be much appreciated.:thmbup:
 
I have had no issues with my Mackie 1640i thus far. It is simple and pretty much plug and play. it's not a neve or ssl, but it's clean and gets the job done. perfect for the home studio, rehearsals and live gigs.

The presonus will give you more features with dynamics on every channel, master effects, etc. but it's not as intuitive as the mackie...

I think you may be waiting a while for these to go to thunderbolt. sooner or later the manufacturers will get on board. I use a 800-400 FW converter and it works fine for me...
 
Went ahead with the presonus and am very pleased with quality, size & performance - and the lovely little lights!

It is more complex than a conventional mixer but I am finding it well laid out and intuitive (unlike the MOTU 828, for example, which I could never get the hang of), and I'm not getting bogged down trying to remember how to do things.

Best of all, the cost will almost be entirely covered by e-baying the items it has replaced.

Running on good old Firewire 400 into a 'mid-2007' iMac. No problems, so will forget about Thunderbolt for another year or two.
 
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