A well known secret is that the highest selling album of the 1990s was Alanis Morissette's Jagged little pill which was tracked on one of these, Engineer Chris Fogel talked about how it was what they had to work with, since a Euphonix console they had kept breaking down, and producer Glen Ballard had a ton of studio break downs during those session so they used the Mackie 8 bus and 2 ADATS that Glen had in a demo rig he used and that is what they had for the record.
That album sounds really good too especially for 16 bit ADATS but the Mackie sounds good. I have used them a lot in the past and never had a complaint. In fact, coming back to one in 2023, it sounds better than I remember.
I'm happy to stumble on your video. I am building an analog summing station and rack for my home studio, on a budget. I found a Mackie 1402-VLZ for $125 on eBay. I was hoping I made a good decision, I don't have any experience with mackie gear and really only know them as live sound mixers. I've since learned about all sorts of mixers, engineers, and artists that have used this generation of Mackie's to make great music.
People used to say the smaller Mackie's of that era sound better than the big ones like the 8 Bus. It's probably pretty good for summing using the line inputs. You need an interface with separate outputs to connect to the line inputs.
Hey! Wow man, you are rocking my forst home studio setup! a Mackie 32 8 bus , which i still have, and a Tascam MSR16 which unfortunately I gave away- Wish I still had it if. Nice video man!
Thank you! It's a good sounding setup. I have an Otari I need to finish restoring too plus my digital system with the Soundcraft. I'm moving right now so it will be awhile before I'm back.
Thank you! Thought about putting more console maintenance into the video but I didn't want it to get too long or off track. I think I will be replacing the 9 through 16 board before long to fix the bad channel so I might film all of that in an edited down version so it doesn't get too long. I'm working on several more videos with it before I do anything else though. It may become the companion to my MSR-16 tape machine depending on how good they sound together. I have a lot of things to try. Thanks again!
Sounds Awesome Bro the Mackie 8 Bus Is Definitely Impressive for Its Age When I Had Mine It Always Was Reliable and Made My Mixing Sessions A Breeze 👍👍👍👍
I always liked them. I used them at studios in the late 90s and early 2000s but haven't used one until I got this. I remember liking them but using one again really impressed me. Especially that it still sounds so good for its age.
Ah yes, the old Mackie 8 bus. I was a final tester on that line when I first started working for Mackie in the late 90's, I might have even had my hands on that one. They were decent for the money, though a lot of people give them a undeserved bad wrap. It was an affordable workhorse in my opinion and I'm guessing that the Carvin MX series was the only thing comparable. I eventually moved over to the d8b line. I still own one of those and currently use a dXb with ProTools in my studio. I love faders over the mouse.
To me, the Mackie 8 Bus is a classic! It's not just that they were used on so many successful recordings, but also because so many small studios used them and were able to get such good results at the price point. I'm very nostalgic when it comes to the older Mackies, especially the 8 Bus. I spent a good portion of my younger career days behind a Mackie 8 Bus. If you worked on that series at any time, you are part of that history. And it's funny you mentioned the Carvin MX as I used to have an MX2488. That was a cool console but didn't quite have the features of the Mackie 8 Bus. But it has control room volume on faders which was cool and seemed to sound really good for the few projects I used it on before the PS went bad. Maybe the power supply was a weak point on those MX consoles but it was very well built. Having used both, if my memory serves me correctly, the Mackie sounds much better but the Carvin didn't sound bad. It was more aggressive sounding while the Mackie was more detailed with a wider and deeper soundstage. It has been about 20 years since I used the old Mackie 8 bus when I got this one several weeks ago. The verdict is that the Mackie sounds better than I remembered and has all the IO you'd ever need for a hybrid setup or to use it for monitoring. I'm planning some more videos with this one including testing out the mic preamps. It has been years since I have recorded drum tracks with a Mackie. It could all be nostalgia based but this 24-8 that I have now seems to sound excellent for its age especially. The power supply is rusty and the LED on the power switch doesn't work, but it powers the console just fine and everything but one channel is working. I definitely agree that these are very underrated.
I cut my teeth on the MX2488 as well. I hated that thing with a passion, it always had a "zing" to it, which is probably what you heard as aggressive. As I recall, the power supply blew up on our Carvin as well. Yes, the 8 bus was a much more robust console than the Carvin. I hope the Mackie serves you well. @TwinCreekAudio
Excellent content as always Grady! You've got the old Mackie sounding great. I'm working on a new patch bay and rack mounting one of my DAW's for my 24.8 so my tracking/mixing time has been very limited but it sounds great. Really brings back some great memories. Thanks for posting!
Getting this Mackie 8 Bus really brought back a lot of memories for me as well. It has been years since I used one and it was really surprising how good it sounded. I really enjoy the hybrid style studio and hybrid mixing especially so I'm sure your new setup is going to be great! I'll have more Mackie 8 Bus videos coming as time allows. Thanks again for your comment and thanks for watching!
I love that you're doing this! So what I'd like to see, or for you to convey is the Difference between mixing on a Board and with a Mouse. The Analog Summing vs ITB analysis is fantastic, personally though with a good interface and well maintained Console/Summing Box, the difference is miniscule and you can Null both well below -100. The big deal mixing on a board, is Mixing On A Board. To me, the Console is an Instrument, and the Mix is a performance. And the Console has what I call On-board processing, but also insert points for Outboard processing. Which makes the entire studio one big musical instrument. The Mouse, Keyboard, and Monitor are amazing devices. But they never really replaces Buttons, Knobs, Faders, and Meters. Can you demonstrate spilling out 24-tracks across the board, and how having the whole Song layed out at your fingertips differs from being on the Monitor, and one click at a time. (Let me say this though: I am fully Hybrid. I came from Analog and was always an early adopter of everything digital that came along. But the DAW was an ADDITION to the Control Room, not a replacement of everything in it. I'm also deeply invested in Control Surfaces, and the idea of having Emulations of nearly every piece of gear in every rack in the history of recording. But accessing those parameters click by click just ain't the same)
Those are a lot of the same reasons they I use my analog gear. The workflow is big reason for me and the fact that I won't use as much CPU when using more analog gear over plugins. That means I don't have to upgrade my DAW computer as often or pay for as many plugins, subscriptions etc. I like to invest in hardware more than software personally. Reselling a plugin to get some return on investment is a bit more difficult than reselling hardware that holds better value. But my biggest reason is still workflow but I also have hardware here they don't make a plugin version of. As far as RU-vid is concerned, there's no reason for me to make videos about digital and plugins because there are so many great channels doing that. I come from an analog background, though I use digital and DAW all the time so I figured that would be a good angle that would help people on RU-vid. I really appreciate your comment and it got me thinking about making a detailed video about why I work the way I do. Strangely, I think I've covered a lot of the how to in videos before but haven't talked enough about why. Good call and thanks again!
@TwinCreekAudio That's Exactly what I was getting at! The Why not just the how, or how much. I've said for years, and maybe now people would agree, that : Even if you gave me the entire plugin packages of the top 50 plugin manufacturers, and even if all of thier Analog Emulations were in-discernable from thier actual Analog counterparts, I still wouldn't wanna mix only with a mouse. Today, I pretty much DO have an unlimited number of incredible plugins, so much so that organization and too many rather than too few choices are the problem. But also, I see each plugin Like a piece of gear, and like with every piece of gear, you have to Learn it! I probably Have mastered a thousand peices of gear and plugins at this point, so much so that GAS and FOMO are finally wearing off. Anyhow, YES.... Your videos are right on point, and a different point from the RU-vid herd. And whenever you get the time to produce the video equivalent of your previous comment, I think a Lot of people will resonate with Why!
I had made 2 albums on a 32 channel 8 bus and I always thought that they were generally just clean and clear sounding. I use a little Mackie SR24.4 VLZ pro in my home studio now and they get the same bad rep simply for being Mackie. People say just what you said in a previous video "the EQs are hash and not musical". In my view they do exactly what you ask them to do. If anything they're just clinical. In the age of DAWs it's moot anyway because if you want musical sounding EQ then just throw a plugin on the track in the box. I like my VZL pro a lot. It does a great job of allowing lots of routing for using outboard gear and it gives the mix a greater sense of width and depth than just mixing in the box. Thanks for the video Grady.
I made so many great sounding records with Mackie in the past. I like the way they sound including the EQ which I always liked and found useful. I think a lot of the Mackies reputation comes from people repeating things they see in forums online. They are very good, reliable consoles too. They are also easier to work on than research would suggest. I think I spent 30 minutes cleaning the main ribbon cable connections and now my 8 Bus is 95% functional and it's probably 25 years old. I'm a fan of the Mackie and underdog gear in general so I'm glad to have this one in my collection and use a Mackie again.
@TwinCreekAudio I agree, people just repeat internet myths. And they are indeed very reliable and I like how they sound also. My board is more than 20 years old and in spite of having never been serviced it works just fine. I happen also to agree with your point about underdog gear. I have used some pretty inexpensive stuff and gotten good results.
I had to EQ my Mackie a Certain way to make it sound more frequency balanced and rounded What you want to do is take off a db of 12K and 500 K and do a db boost of 10K on the high mid and a db boost of the 60k on the low shelf that will make it sound more like a Trident...warm...but open.....but still punchy...then Im EQing with Acustica Audio's Ivory...which is about 90% sound of a analog Meselic EQ......going back in....its worth it to EQ with Acustica Audio...and use the EQs on the Mackie to make the 8 32 or 8 24 sound cleaner and more open....that takes away alot of the "Steral Sound of it" Just putting this information out for everyone.....
Thank you! That's great advice. I like the Mackie analog consoles. I think they sound really good especially for what they cost now. I'm getting a lot of requests for more Mackie videos so I'll probably make more videos about it as time allows. Thanks again!
The thing is newer desk may sound cleaner...but this one sounds so musical...im gettting really great mixes with this....its basically a Line In, Line Out, EQ and Glue Saturation rolled into one unit...all you need with this is Coming from or to a Comp before you go back into your your interface.....
@@TwinCreekAudio I had to EQ my Mackie a Certain way to make it sound more frequency balanced and rounded What you want to do is take off a db of 12K and 500 K and do a db boost of 10K on the high mid and a db boost of the 60k on the low shelf that will make it sound more like a Trident...warm...but open.....but still punchy
Thank you very much for your Videos ! Its good to have a community with peoples who have the seame Gear ! I have too this Mackie Console and i also have a Tascam 1" 24Track Machine, wondering if the Tascam will still work, i boght in 2008 but barely never used... 😞 Soon i will test the Tascam if its still working.
They are usually very reliable machines. My MSR-16 mainly needed new rubber parts like the sound roller and pinch roller. These can be bought new from Athan. I replaced both on my MSR-16. The S versions of these machine sometimes have bad Dolby S chips that cannot be replaced because they aren't available though
The issues with the ribbon is a common problem I guess... I clean mine the first time I got it a few years back... NowI need to do it again, the master bus send seems to be unbalanced. The mute and the buss switches also cause problems sometimes. nice videos!
I was lucky with this one. Cleaning the ribbon cable connections seemed to clear up several problems. Now it's almost 100% functional minus 1 noisy channel.
You need an audio interface with individual outputs to use it for hybrid mixing. You can also run the direct outs or the subgroups out to inputs on an audio interface for recording. Subgroups would be to combine multiple signals from the mixer to a single track or something. I have 2 videos about setting this up with a Soundtracs Topaz which is very similar. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RWmxkO2gnOs.html
For an original copy of the printed manual, the only place I can think of would be eBay. Otherwise, there are PDF downloads of the Mackie 8 bus in a lot of places on the internet. Personally, I do not have a printed manual, but I was able to download one for reference for the videos.
Yes there were some problems, mainly solo wouldn't work from the main channels but would from the master section. So I guess I cleaned them for both reasons.
There are several new analog consoles that would have the same kind of features as the Mackie 8 Bus. Trident makes a good range of analog recording consoles like the 68 and 78. The Audient ASP4816 or the newer heritage edition would also be very similar features wise. Neve and Rupert Never Designs also make great analog consoles. Unfortunately, a current, good quality analog console is a lot more expensive than they were in the past so a used console is going to be the least expensive option. The quality of the new Trident or Audient is probably a lot better than a Mackie 8 Bus but the cost of either is over &10k while used consoles start at under $1k. If I had the money, I'd go for something like the Audient ASP4816 Heritage edition, the Trident 78 or maybe an API 1608.
@heathwatson1185 The only new consoles like that are the hybrid type consoles like the Soundcraft Signature MTK versions. They don't have 2 full signal paths per channel so you couldn't use them for a tape machine but they would work well for hybrid style mixing with a DAW and have a built in audio interface. They don't have inserts on the channels though but sell for around the $1k price. Allen & Heath used to make the Zed R16 and R24. Those were great hybrid consoles but current driver support is already an issue. Either of these sound really good. I tested the R16 in some videos and it sounded amazing! Driver problems are why these sell for a lot less than they were new. The other A&H mixers they are making now don't seem to have multitrack capability either. Just USB connectivity for the main outs. The A&H Zed R16 is one of the best sounding modern consoles I've used but it had no analog subgroups so it wasn't as useful for me with my collection of analog outboard gear. I like to use buses for things like parallel compression.
@@heathwatson1185 The 2400 is a good sounding console. It's built for live sound. You can tell what purpose A&H made different models for by the prefix of the model number. GL prefix is for live sound and GS models for studio. If you are using with a digital audio interface, consoles designed for live sound can work fine in a studio.
I have had this desk for a while in my studio now. I love workin with it and outboard. I've hooked my interfaces 24 outs to tape in's and my pacthbay is normalled here. Only thing thats bugging me is that control room and main outs arent balanced. Am i right? For listening i have Genelecs older S30c:s. Sometimes it would be nice to monitor straight from the desk but the default out the speakers is from the interface. This is somethig that i've been scratching my head lately. Any ideas?
Sounds like a cool setup. I think the main XLR outs on the back are balanced. The confirm room outs and alot of other things aren't but that was pretty standard for project studio consoles back then and doesn't seem to hurt the sound at all unless you have long cable runs and lots of interference. Hopefully your interface has some kind of control panel that you might be able to use to change the routing for the monitor out. I usually assign individual mono or stereo pair outputs in the DAW and monitor through the console control room outputs like you are wanting to do. If I'm mixing in the box, I'll just use 2 channels on the console to monitor with but still going through the console. Good luck and hopefully you'll be able to find a way to make your interface work like you want.
I would never buy anything but moular mixers (like some soundcrafts). Servicing non-modular mixers is a pain in the ass since most of them are very old and more prone to faults…
I understand that. My main console is a fully modular Soundcraft but the Mackie really isn't that hard to work on. I had a Soundtracs Topaz that wasn't modular and it was much more difficult to service than the Mackie. The way they are constructed actually makes it fairly simple but obviously replacing 8 channel board for one bad channel isn't so great.
@@TwinCreekAudio Mackie is just a tank of a mixer, great build quality, that’s why a lot of them are still circulating around. I worked on many, small and large and never really complained about the sound at all. After all there was a point where Mackie mixers were a weapon of choice for a lot of electronic music producers, notably heavier side of drum and bass in tje 90ies and early 00’s because of how the preamps distort when pushed hard. The saturation was somewhat harsher and abrasive compared to Soundcrafts and similar consoles and they prefered it.
I recently picked up a 1605-VLZ3 for $175 and it was working fine for about 2 days but now all of the sounds sound distorted. Everything works fine but everything is distored in terms of audio...any idea what it could be? Best way to describe the sound is as if you were peaking a signal.
If it's happening on every channel, that indicates it could be a power supply issue. I think that model has an internal power supply so that would be the first place to look. The power supply will have some filtering and voltage regulation etc and there could be something off there.
