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Mackie DL1608 in the house!

guy n. cognito

guy n. cognito

Secret Agent Member
Dec 28, 2005
13,976
13,989
Nashville, TN
#1
I play bass and run sound for a cover band playing small venues mostly in a suburban location. Most places we play have a very small "stage" and and "installed" sound system, which usually equals a old powered head and speakers that saw the end of their usable life 10 years ago. We almost never have a soundman, and I have to run sound from the stage. I had previously built a 16U rack with a tilt top and passive speakers, but that rig was difficult to move and took up a lot of space in some of our smaller stage locations. I've been considering moving to a smaller, lighter powered system for some time now, and the Mackie DL1608 was at the top of my list. I finally decided to go for it and bought myself and early Christmas present, along with some Alto powered speakers.

The thing that surprised me the most was how intuitive it was. I read the quick start menu in about 20 minutes and was up and running a few minutes later. The controls are very straight forward and easy to use. The wireless setup is a bit confusing, as the Mackie manual seems to try harder to be cute rather than convey meaningful information. Now that it's up and running, it's very simple to use.

Not a lot else to report right now. I haven't had a chance to gig the system yet, but I'll be taking it to rehearsal this weekend. I'll add to this thread after I've used it in a live setting.
 
#3
MNAirHead said:
Questions


Does it have a limiter?

Are the reverb/delay/eq acceptable?

Does it recall prior mixes?

Any glitches?

Know if it works with iPad mini?
Click to expand...

Compression, but no limiter. It does have a "hard knee" setting, which would act as a limiter.

I really don't know.

Yes, you can save a significant number of mixes, and even group them into "shows" for recall.

No glitches so far, but my experience has been limited.

I don't know if it works with the Mini, but I wouldn't suggest it. You can't see all of the channels as it is, and the Mini would make it worse.
 
#5
My buddy has one of these and we used it a few weeks ago. He paired it up with some of the new little powered EV's and it was a devastating little rig. Evidently people can control their own monitor mix as well if they have an ipad. As it was, there was only one ipad and it was extremely simple and intuitive....and SMALL.
 
#6
baba said:
My buddy has one of these and we used it a few weeks ago. He paired it up with some of the new little powered EV's and it was a devastating little rig. Evidently people can control their own monitor mix as well if they have an ipad. As it was, there was only one ipad and it was extremely simple and intuitive....and SMALL.
Click to expand...

Yeah, you can synch a number of iPads wirelessly so that everyone can control their own mix. It's really awesome.
 
#7
baba said:
My buddy has one of these and we used it a few weeks ago. He paired it up with some of the new little powered EV's and it was a devastating little rig. Evidently people can control their own monitor mix as well if they have an ipad. As it was, there was only one ipad and it was extremely simple and intuitive....and SMALL.
Click to expand...

That's what I'm heading toward
 
#9
Like Guy N. I've been mixing sound using a DL1608 since late Oct. We use a large setup (2 QSC k122 + 2 Kw 181) medium (2 k122's + 1 K181) or small (2 k122's) depending on the venue. I've had 10 gigs with it so far and myself and the band are loving every minute of it. I run sound from the stage but being able to go out front (wireless) before the show and sound check the band with Ipad in hand has made all the difference in the world. Getting the kick and Bass tweaked FOH along with the other instruments and vocals is a game changer for those of us mixing from the stage. The only downside I can see so far is the inability to grab a slider quickly and tweak your mix. Working in the digital world requires a slight bit of getting used to. The difference of nano seconds when a vocal's volume isn't right or fixing feedback seems like an eternity.
 
#13
I'm not the type to keep up with the latest high-tech, P.A.-related gadgets (That's our sound man's territory), but that thing is friggin' awesome.
I'm tellin' ya, Mackie is really cementing themselves as a staple great, quality band/music-related gear. I'm almost certain when they first hit the scene. If the band I was in was lookin' for a piece of gear, we'd walk right past the Mackie stuff and over the Crown, JBL area. Well not any more!! I just love their P.A. cabs. Great stuff.
 
#15
Enjoy that board guy. Its a fun unit to use. I'm running the 1608 with two RCF mains and a Mackie sub. I only use what's built in to the board with no extra effects. This set up has never left me short of power and just sounds clean. I also love that I can have multiple aux mixes so I have 4 separate IEMs going. My band runs all direct except for drums so it offers a ton of control. For bigger rooms I mic the drums. I also love that each venue we use this PA has its own show saved so it saves time setting up.

But I think the thing I love the most is that this whole system including stands and my basses fit in my little hatchback with room for a passenger.
 
#16
backtobass said:
Enjoy that board guy. Its a fun unit to use. I'm running the 1608 with two RCF mains and a Mackie sub. I only use what's built in to the board with no extra effects. This set up has never left me short of power and just sounds clean. I also love that I can have multiple aux mixes so I have 4 separate IEMs going. My band runs all direct except for drums so it offers a ton of control. For bigger rooms I mic the drums. I also love that each venue we use this PA has its own show saved so it saves time setting up.

But I think the thing I love the most is that this whole system including stands and my basses fit in my little hatchback with room for a passenger.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's one of my reasons for switching. My current rig requires the use of a trailer to move. With this rig, I can fit all of the FOH, plus my gear and personal monitor into the back of my pathfinder.
 
#18
Wadge said:
That mixer looks great. I think that I prefer the presonus because you can use it both with the ipad as well as without it and I like moving faders and having everything immediately under my fingers. I also like the extra features the presonus has. But the makie is a good $300 cheaper and you cannot argue with that
Click to expand...

Honestly, I considered the Presonus, but I found very difficult to use. It is not intuitive at all and many of the features seemed difficult to access. The Mackie was more "plug and play", which worked better for me.
 
#19
guy n. cognito said:
Honestly, I considered the Presonus, but I found very difficult to use. It is not intuitive at all and many of the features seemed difficult to access. The Mackie was more "plug and play", which worked better for me.
Click to expand...

Heh, interesting how one person's "intuitive" is another person's "difficult to use". There's a reason there's so many different interfaces on the various mixers out there.
 
#20
I own both the mackie and the presonus. Prefer the mackie better. To many reasons to type but if you want to use the iPad or iPhone as controllers with the presonus you need preferably a Mac laptop running the it via a FireWire connection and a private wireless network. I used the Mac books built in network but it still took more time to setup and use.

On the mackie you need a router to go wireless but it is a sinch to hook up and the wireless remembers the settings from gig to gig. Then you can run up to 10 iPads and iPad minis as additional controllers. This is a simple pa to setup and run.

I have a small music stand on my mike stand and put the iPad there leaving the controller on my bass stack behind me.

Easy peasy. Yes the mackie doesn't have most of the features as far as out's that the presonus has but for a quick pa with remote ability, 16 xlr channels, 6 aux outs and a 31 band graphic on every out it is amazing. Did I mention the whole thing fits in my laptop bag and weighs about six pounds.

I Am sold. Who wants my personas 16.0.2?
 

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