Love hardware studio recording. I am 100% hardware including the 24 track recorder. Been through all the recording media/devices over the last 55 years except mini-disc. From reel tape, cassette, 8track tape, hard disk recorders, exabyte tape, to computers and back to all analog up to the recorder, now using a ZoomR24. The freedom of an analog mixer for effects and configuration is unmatched for simplicity and dependability. I lost my old studio and instruments back in a divorce of 2006. It has taken me this long to rebuild the studio and buy all new instruments. I use four 8channel Mackie VLZs for 32 channels subbed into 8 stereo channels to the ZoomR24. With this I can replace a broken mixer without finding a repairman for a large board. Each of the four mixers have their own effects in the aux loops. This setup works great for my style of recording. I am a synth orchestrator and sound designer, I record Vangelis style all in a single take to 32 channels. Every level, EQ, effect, compressor, is meticulously set up before the recording session (tracking wet), so that what I hear as I play is what is recorded. I use pattern sequencers to help in accompaniment for backing when I am maxed out with both hands and both feet (pedals) playing the synths. Recording live in one take instead of multi-tracking has really captured the emotion and passion of my compositions to the recording.
I've always heard the small Mackies sound better than the larger models. The studio I have now is the one I rebuilt after a divorce so I understand that completely. This is probably the third version of my studio after having lost all of it twice. I really like your philosophy on tracking that way as well. I can definitely see how more of the emotion and creativity would come through that way. I started with analog tape, then the ADATs and Tascam DA-88s came out and I used those and some analog tape for awhile. I sold my last big 24 track MCI JH-16 in about 2008. I have a small 16 track Tascam now and I love it but tape costs keep me on the digital side which is also useful for RU-vid though I have been able to sync tape recorded tracks to videos for some of my Tascam and Fostex tape machine videos. I guess they are pretty stable speed wise. My first analog machine was a Fostex 4 track followed by a Tascam 488 cassette 8 track. I am familiar with Vangelis work and also listened to a lot of Tomita especially his Firebird suite. Point me to some of your work. I'd love to check it out. Thanks so much for your comment!
The last two videos on this, my channel, are from the new studio. One is just solo piano, but the other illustrates the orchestration and full use of all equipment. This channel however is experimental, the only music people want from me (pay to hear) is solo piano where I perform my compositions. Yea, this one take recording style can also use acoustic instruments like guitar by sampling in long clips and then just launching them at the right time. I use vocals too sometimes as a launched sample. And I use only analog synths to the sampler to keep the DAC/ADC conversions to just one. I don't have room for acoustic drums but considering long sample clips of these too, investing in a Edrum pad.... Maybe. What do you do for drums? I spend too much time programming Edrums when I am able to just play them in. Let me know if you try a one-take session. Always wonderful sharing notes on recording, recording is not a competition, I don't keep any secrets, I want all the music in the world to sound fantastic.
I really like your style. This is what is sorely missing in todays music. You got a "sound" going there that is your own. "Run what you brung" attitude is what creativity is all about. Hope to see more
Just recently obtained my own Mackie 8 bus and these videos have all been super helpful in getting my understanding of the unit under control! Thanks for the work, subbed!
I have 14 channels of high quality mic preamps Api, Daking, Purple Audio and Great River going to a Alexis HD 24 then to my Mackie 24 channel 8 buss mixer for monitoring EQ etc., I’ve made recordings through the Mackie preamps and I can’t tell the difference between them and the expensive preamps!
The Mackie 8 Bus is very underrated in my opinion. I have always liked the preamps and EQ but the sound of the mix bus is even better. I used Mackies for a lot of recordings earlier in my career and it always worked well and sounded good.
I try to make things sound exciting and match the way I hear it in my head. My favorite mixing engineers are people like Vance Powell, Jack Joseph Puig and Brendan O'Brien to name just a few. I like exciting mixes that are punchy with a lot of vibe and depth. I go for a more organic, semi-vintage sound or slick and 3D depending on the song but it always ends up having some analog juice 🧃 thanks again and thanks for watching!
Thank you! It sounds pretty good on snare too. I normally use the Symetrix 501 on snare but the 163X does a good job. I've used it on bass a lot before too.
Great sound, I'm a huge fan of Mackie. What heard on this video, especially on the "Hurricane" song was very reminiscent of 90s alternative indie rock. Especially since this board was very accessible for indie labels for it's high quality sound at a reasonable price even for the 90s. $3,000.00 was easily among the four members of the band along with 2 or 3 DATs... That's it You're set. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you! My band in the late 90s had a 24-8 with 3 DA-88s so I know exactly what you mean. I worked in a studio that had a 56 channel Mackie and 48 tracks of DA-88s as well. I hadn't touched a Mackie in many years when this one popped up locally for a good price and I couldn't resist. I figured it would at least be something cool to demo in some videos. I'm a big fan of Mackie especially this model. It could partially be nostalgia but when heard this one, I really liked the sound and all the material recorded with these still sounds good today. Thanks again and thanks for watching!
I agree 100% I do use other styles of music in my videos but I have always mainly been a rock musician. 70s-90s are probably my favorite but there is still some good rock music being released today.
That should work great for you! Those are close to the same preamps and summing as the 8 Bus so should be excellent for tracking or mixing/summing. They are also quiet and the EQ works well. Have fun with your new Mackie!
I haven't used a 4 channel Behringer but I used the Composer compressors a lot back in the 90s. I used to like them back then but it has been years. The 1066 manual says the contour switch is for a full mix so I assume it was designed partially for mix bus purposes. I thought it sounded pretty good.
I bought a Mackie Onyx 4880 a while ago that was sitting in the church, what do you tell me about the sound and components used in the construction, are they related to the 8 buss?
@@raphaelfeitoza2756 those are a newer model that's designed for live sound. I don't think many of the circuits carried over from the older 8 Bus but the Onyx consoles are still good. It may even have a slightly cleaner sound.
This might be useless information for you but you can strap a dbx noise gate to the dbx 163 x and it behaves as a slave and its good for stereo compressing.> The reason i mention this is because i found two noise gates dbx something x i forget but i bought 2 of them for 40 bucks where the 163's are pulling alot more money out of my wallet. Thanks my friend
I like the old Mackie 8 Bus quite a bit. I had used them a lot over the years but it had been close to 20 years since the last time used a Mackie 8 Bus. Coming back to one after all these years, I actually like it better than I remember. I have more videos planned with the Mackie and a comparison test will be one of them. Thank you for the suggestion
I like them a lot personally. I've heard people say they are harsh and not that useful but not in my experience. I've mixed a lot of records with these consoles and mostly used their EQ.
Yes, that's what it is. I like the room reverbs for drums but I have used it for other things as well. It's a good 90s sounding reverb with a lot of useful parameters.
I recorded and/or mixed a lot of albums in the 90s with these. It didn't sound as good as the MCIs I also used at the time but the MCIs always had issues because they were already so old so I leaned to appreciate these. They really don't sound bad at all and are reasonably reliable. I used the Mackie at some of my first studio jobs so like I said in the first video, it is partially a nostalgia thing. My main console these days is a Soundcraft Sapphyre but I buy a lot of used older consoles to make videos about on the channel. I actually liked this Mackie better than I remembered from the 90s work I did with them but I also have more experience getting good sounds than I did then. I see your point and see the same things in forums all the time. To me, a good engineer can get good sounds and a good mix out of anything that's working and not too noisy or broken. There seems to be a lot of DnB and electronic producers that like to drive the Mackie line inputs for the distraction it gets. While I respect your opinion, I have been able to do some really good work with the old Mackie 8 Buses.
