Editors' Blogs

"DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK", said the ads run by Mackie at the end of 2008, showing one corner of some type of device on an otherwise black page. The rollout for this new product, originally scheduled for NAMM 2009 last January, was delayed until September 9. In advance of the official announcement, Mackie sent out advance units to the press, and granted permission for information about them to be published.

The black box contained Mackie's ONYX 820i, a small desktop mixer with 8 inputs, 3 ONYX mic pres, two mono Aux sends and two stereo Aux returns, a built-in Talkback mic, and some other niceties. Also in the box: a copy of Digidesign Pro Tools M-Powered 8, the version that runs on any Mac or PC connected to an M-Audio interface, and a CD-ROM containing an introductory video and a copy of a new Mackie Universal Driver. The big news about these new mixers (photographs of four models, the 820i being the smallest, are visible in a poster in the video) is that they are proudly Pro Tools M-Powered compatible, just as if they were M-Audio hardware.

The enclosed installation document states: "When you complete your walkthrough of this document, you will be the first to experience what our beloved end users have been asking about for years, and will be experiencing only weeks from now—flagship Mackie mixers with integrated FireWire that are compatible with Pro Tools®." (It also states that the current version of Pro Tools M-Powered will show the audio device as an M-Audio ProFire 2626 interface, and that this is "normal when an Onyx-i mixer is installed and in perfect working order".)

The mixer box has a large logo on it that states: "COMPATIBLE WITH PRO TOOLS M-POWERED" in huge letters, and underneath in somewhat smaller type, "AND LOGIC, SONAR, CUBASE, ETC. - MAC & PC."

No mention anywhere of Tracktion, Mackie's own DAW that their own website calls "...the fast, powerful, complete solution for turning your ideas into finished songs. And unlike the competition, Tracktion 3 comes with all the power and plug-ins you'll ever need." 

[Mackie informed us upon reading this that "all Onyx i models come with Tracktion, even though it’s not stated on the sticker". Our thanks for the clarification.]

Anyway, that's what was actually in the black box: a new FireWire mixer that lets you connect a Mackie ONYX front end to Pro Tools M-Powered. I might hold out for the largest model when it ships, but one way or another we'll be doing a review in a future issue. [ADDENDUM: Please see my blog entry for August 13.--MM]