Mackie DL1608 in the house!

[KingRazor]

Just a matter of time as another poster said. Wonder what the price tag is on this baby?

$3500 stand-alone. $5000 with a digital snake. A bit out of the price range for most small bands playing small gigs I imagine. Good fit for house of worship installs and the like.

lol, looks like a great item -thanks for that link and have a great day

I use the M-400 at church and it's not bad. I do wish it had the iPad control like this one does. Unfortunately only their two newest consoles have that feature.

$3500...........

If you want a digital snake and remote-controllable/recallable head amps, it's worth it imo. Otherwise the mackie and presonus mixers are better deals. You also get 40 input multi-track recording to a laptop with Sonar over just two cables. No need for a bunch of 8 in interfaces. Hooks up with the M-48 personal mixing system as well.

Really it just depends on the size of your production and what your needs are that will dictate whether this mixer is worth it. I know for my church the M-400 was a better option than the mackie would have been, but for a small band the Mackie looks fantastic.

 

[MNAirHead]

I use the M-400 at church and it's not bad. I do wish it had the iPad control like this one does. Unfortunately only their two newest consoles have that feature.



Really it just depends on the size of your production and what your needs are that will dictate whether this mixer is worth it. I know for my church the M-400 was a better option than the mackie would have been, but for a small band the Mackie looks fantastic.[/QUOT


1- check to see if there's a touch osc overlay

2-you can always submic drums and backupvox yo analog

 

[4Mal]

I was interested in the Mackie on announcement, couldn't wait the year though and went Presonus. Glad I did. Yes, the learning curve is steep. It took me about a month.

Once you drink the kool aide, uh I mean grasp their philosophy... It get's way easier. The integration with SMAART is killer and getting more sophisticated. Presonus is going a long way towards improving the software with every release. It will be interesting to see where Mackie goes with theirs.

Obvious dowside to my 16.4.2 is the size. It is not a small board, except for when I compare it to my old Yamaha board and the 2 racks of outboard gear I used to carry...

 

[KingRazor]

1- check to see if there's a touch osc overlay

2-you can always submic drums and backupvox yo analog

What's touch osc overlay?

I've looked into control via MIDI, but it uses a proprietary MIDI control. You can control any of the Roland mixers with a laptop though, which means you could then control the laptop with a tablet, although I don't know why anyone would bother.

The M200i and M480 are the only ones they have that support native control with iPads (and not with android tablets).

I don't understand the submixing drums comment. There would probably be no need for anyone to do that unless they were only using a 16 channel mixer or had a pretty large production. We only use 24 channels at my church and that includes individual mics on the whole drum kit as well as stereo returns from a few different PCs.

 

[KingRazor]

I was interested in the Mackie on announcement, couldn't wait the year though and went Presonus. Glad I did. Yes, the learning curve is steep. It took me about a month.

Once you drink the kool aide, uh I mean grasp their philosophy... It get's way easier. The integration with SMAART is killer and getting more sophisticated. Presonus is going a long way towards improving the software with every release. It will be interesting to see where Mackie goes with theirs.

Obvious dowside to my 16.4.2 is the size. It is not a small board, except for when I compare it to my old Yamaha board and the 2 racks of outboard gear I used to carry...

I don't understand when they say the presonus has a steep learning curve. What's so steep about it? I played with one for 15 minutes and had a basic mix put together...

 

[MNAirHead]

Touch Osc - apple applet for remote


Learning curve = not intuitive to an average person --- too many layers and multi purpose LEDs and buttons

 

[KingRazor]

Touch Osc - apple applet for remote


Learning curve = not intuitive to an average person --- too many layers and multi purpose LEDs and buttons

The M-400 has no support for Touch Osc. All proprietary.

I understand what a learning curve is, I just don't know why people think that the Presonus is difficult at all to use. It's one of the simplest boards I've ever played with.

 

[guy n. cognito]

The M-400 has no support for Touch Osc. All proprietary.

I understand what a learning curve is, I just don't know why people think that the Presonus is difficult at all to use. It's one of the simplest boards I've ever played with.

You're the first person I've ever met that hasn't acknowledged the learning curve on the Presonus. Have you ever used the Mackie?

 

[KingRazor]

You're the first person I've ever met that hasn't acknowledged the learning curve on the Presonus. Have you ever used the Mackie?

No but I really want to. It looks awesome.

Idk the presonus just seems to make sense. I think the Roland has a much steeper learning curve. Took me 3 years of frequent use to really learn all of its ins and outs.

 

[Munjibunga]

You're the first person I've ever met that hasn't acknowledged the learning curve on the Presonus. Have you ever used the Mackie?

The Presonus isn't that difficult once you spend some time pushing some buttons. I really like mine, especially for recording. I have to assume though, that the Mackie is more user-friendly. I wonder how it compares to the Line 6 Stagescape.

 

[nutdog]

The line 6 looks neat. A whole lot more capability but a much bigger price tag. I've lusted after the presonus for a while but it came down 1. Size, 2. Price, 3. Simplicity.

The gigs where I'm running sound don't require a lot of fanciness. I want to minimize the setup, have fun playing, load out quickly and pay for braces for 3 kids.

 

[4Mal]

I don't understand when they say the presonus has a steep learning curve. What's so steep about it? I played with one for 15 minutes and had a basic mix put together...

Basic mix in 15 min sure. find the eq's, Save scenes, effects mixes, rout effects to individual monitor mixes, delay on outputs, capture integration, ipad remote (ok, that part was pretty simple), create channel presets... In 15 min... Wow, you must be smarter than me...

Dude... Seriously, 15 min is about enough time to fully investigate the fat channel... The SL is a fairly complex system... Once you grasp the underlying logic, things come together quickly. If you are going to get the most out of it, there is still a learning curve. Well worth the effort IMO...

 

[4Mal]

The line 6 looks neat. A whole lot more capability but a much bigger price tag. I've lusted after the presonus for a while but it came down 1. Size, 2. Price, 3. Simplicity.

The gigs where I'm running sound don't require a lot of fanciness. I want to minimize the setup, have fun playing, load out quickly and pay for braces for 3 kids.

I have 2 bands. Play a half dozen rooms. Once I got it with the SL, i Created presets for each room,each band. Now I unpack the board, plug the mics and dI' in accordingnto the stage plot and I'm back where I was last time. doesn't get much easier than that...

 

[KingRazor]

Basic mix in 15 min sure. find the eq's, Save scenes, effects mixes, rout effects to individual monitor mixes, delay on outputs, capture integration, ipad remote (ok, that part was pretty simple), create channel presets... In 15 min... Wow, you must be smarter than me...

Dude... Seriously, 15 min is about enough time to fully investigate the fat channel... The SL is a fairly complex system... Once you grasp the underlying logic, things come together quickly. If you are going to get the most out of it, there is still a learning curve. Well worth the effort IMO...

Never tried the delay on outputs (the board at my church doens't even have that feature). Didn't get a chance to play with capture since there wasn't a computer hooked up. Didn't play with scenes or presets either.

But gain, EQ, Compression, gating, HPF, that stuff took mere minutes to figure out. The fat channel is extremely simple.

Like I said, the Roland took me 3 years to figure out. THAT had a steep learning curve. Comparitively the Presonus was simplicity personified.

 

[Keithwah]

Hmm....I need to learn how to do that, then...

Good thinking!

 

[Keithwah]

Yeah, been reading FOH for years and have been watching the transition into digital with great interest, the certification process for selling of some of the higher quality manufactor's products has been going on for quite a while and as you know is prevailent in lots of other fields as well (Cisco certification for their phone systems as example). I think dealing with analog 'everything' for all these years helps one appreciate the incredible versatility that digital brings, back in the day we were going for fidelity at any cost, seems we've finally arrived at the point where it's a given, convienience and ease of set up seem to have become the focus which is amazing yet still difficult to get used to -back in the day we'd cart around racks of high fidelity Crest power amps weighing hundreds of lbs. -now you can get that type of power and fidelity for a small fraction of the previous weight & size, when combined with the current state of the art in digital mixing/processing it's enough to make you laugh in amazment. Anyway hope you have a wonderful new year and a great day.

Agreed!

Happy 2013 to you as we'll my friend!

 

[4Mal]

Never tried the delay on outputs (the board at my church doens't even have that feature). Didn't get a chance to play with capture since there wasn't a computer hooked up. Didn't play with scenes or presets either.

But gain, EQ, Compression, gating, HPF, that stuff took mere minutes to figure out. The fat channel is extremely simple.

Like I said, the Roland took me 3 years to figure out. THAT had a steep learning curve. Comparitively the Presonus was simplicity personified.

Ah yes... i see. Roland. I am allergic to Roland. Too many menus and layers... Never have gotten along with them and I can see where an SL would seem a lot more simple as it is. Moving up from Analog with racks of outboard gear where every knob & slider is exposed, it's still a learning curve...

 

[KingRazor]

Ah yes... i see. Roland. I am allergic to Roland. Too many menus and layers... Never have gotten along with them and I can see where an SL would seem a lot more simple as it is. Moving up from Analog with racks of outboard gear where every knob & slider is exposed, it's still a learning curve...

And I've only ever used digital boards...lol

Started on a Mackie TT24 and moved to the Roland. The Roland has a steeper learning curve, but overall is a better board (Mackie had nicer vocal delays though, and sub-groups with the Roland doesn't have).

 

[Munjibunga]

Never tried the delay on outputs (the board at my church doens't even have that feature). Didn't get a chance to play with capture since there wasn't a computer hooked up. Didn't play with scenes or presets either.

But gain, EQ, Compression, gating, HPF, that stuff took mere minutes to figure out. The fat channel is extremely simple.

Like I said, the Roland took me 3 years to figure out. THAT had a steep learning curve. Comparitively the Presonus was simplicity personified.

Capture is ridiculously simple. On the computer, arm the channels you want to record and push record.

 

[MNAirHead]

And I've only ever used digital boards...lol

A few notes back you'd questioned why the Presonus has a "steeper" learning curve.

Many of us are comparing to an analog setup.... the Mackie seems to be programmed so my wife could figure it out... in a pinch she can run an analog... not a presonus... never a roland.