Best Audio Mixer for Mac Pro

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DP StrangeLove

Well-known member
Can anyone recommend a good audio mixer for the Mac Pro? I primarily use the Mac Pro as my Final Cut Editing system (as well as listening to music), so it would be great to finally get balanced audio. I just got a pair of KRK speakers, which can accept XLR, TRS, and RCA.


Are there any recommended mixers that can work directly with Final Cut Pro?

Here are a couple that I have been curious about...(posted in an earlier thread I started)


http://www.apogeedigital.com/products/duet.php
(looks like a great piece of equipment, but no XLR, or Firewire)

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produc...l_Digital.html
(I would rather have the cheaper 10-channel version, but this has Optical I/O)


http://www.alesis.com/multimix8firewire
(It is looking like this has everything I need, and the biggest bang for the buck)
 
I have the Alesis Firewire 16 and it's been great - but I don't use it with Final Cut. I use it with Boom Recorder for cart-based recordings for film/tv/Web stuff. It works great, sounds great and it is a really good value. It is only missing a tone generator and a talk-back/slate mic. Both are easily added externally.

Phil
 
I have the Alesis 8 and it works well. One possible catch for playback is that it only sends two channels from the computer. MOTU makes some boxes, not really mixers, that will send a bunch in and out for not a whole lot of $. FCP uses core audio so anything with a core audio driver will work with FCP. So the Alesis will work fine.
 
DP StrangeLove said:
What do the mixers drivers for FCP do? I was only planning on using the mixer to monitor audio while editing, and possibly as a production mixer.

And do you know anything about this mixer?
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/502483-REG/Yamaha_MW10C_MW10C_10_Channel_USB.html
Click to expand...

For many devices to show up under core audio you need to install a core audio device driver. It's not a FCP thing it's an OSX Core Audio thing. If you don't install the driver core audio will not know the device exists so neither will the Mac. You can use the mixer as a mixer but the firewire connection won't be seen by the Mac as an audio device so no FW I/O. This will be true for 90%-100% of non Apple devices.
 
Noiz2 said:
For many devices to show up under core audio you need to install a core audio device driver. It's not a FCP thing it's an OSX Core Audio thing. If you don't install the driver core audio will not know the device exists so neither will the Mac. You can use the mixer as a mixer but the firewire connection won't be seen by the Mac as an audio device so no FW I/O. This will be true for 90%-100% of non Apple devices.
Click to expand...

Ahhh, got it. Do the Mackie's have Mac drivers?
 
I recently found a used Mackie Onyx w/the firewire card locally for about the same price as a new Duet.

Which route would you take?
 
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Provided it hasn't been totally trashed, I'd go with the Mackie board. If you've found even the little Onyx 1220 with a firewire card for that price, its a deal. The firewire board alone retails for the price of the Apogee. The Onyx will give you a lot more functionality.
 
JordanBlock said:
Provided it hasn't been totally trashed, I'd go with the Mackie board. If you've found even the little Onyx 1220 with a firewire card for that price, its a deal. The firewire board alone retails for the price of the Apogee. The Onyx will give you a lot more functionality.
Click to expand...

How about in terms of audio quality? I heard that the makie is limited to something like 96khz? How does that compare to the Duet?

I actually found a used Mackie w/ firewire for $550, and a barely used Duet for $340, which would you pull the trigger on?
 
I haven't personally used the Duet, but it looks like a pretty limited little device in comparison to the Mackie. Mackie preamps are nice and clean and their boards are pretty indestructable. I think you'll get many more years of use out of the Mackie than you would with the Apogee.

I wouldn't consider 96kHz to be a real limit, you probably don't need to record at that high a sample rate (fwiw, the duet is also 24bit/96kHz).
 
Mackie vs ???

Mackie vs ???

Mackie aka Loud Technologies is in deep financial trouble. Yes, they are a decent mixer albeit not great. If I were you, I would not buy a Mackie now. It may be one favorable choice on here, but I wouldn't do it. Just too risky of an investment.

If you're looking for an entry-level mixer with Firewire that is very stable with the Mac and PC, extremely low noise for the price and reasonably good preamps for the price, I recommend the Phonic Helix Boards. I know, go ahead and flame away. I have been a sound mixer for 30 years now and this is the first time I have found a sub-$1k mixer that is acceptable.

The pre's are flat. (The same pre's used by Yamaha, incidently.) So, you're not going to get the warm sound of a higher dollar british mixer. But, the bottom line is that while other sub-$1k firewire mixers may have warmer sounding pre's (read-Mackie) the Phonic range of mixers and FW interfaces are the most stable connecting with the Mac or PC. If you really want very good pre's you need not consider a sub $1k mixer.

If you're needing only the mix output to go to the computer, choose the Allen & Heath ZED mixer. USB (2-channel) output and british pre's. This is a good sounding mixer. Too bad they don't offer multi-channel firewire i/o.

Stay away from Alesis Multi-Mix boards.

Just my 2-cents.
 
No flaming...

I wouldn't be that worried about buying a Mackie. I mean even if they folded the day after your new mixer showed up (and you tested it), it's not that big a deal. Does anyone ever send an inexpensive Mackie back for repairs? And they are built like tanks. I will say this is the first time I have ever heard anyone call Mackies pre's "warm", usually it's more like "sterile".
Also I haven't had or heard of any big problems with the Alesis boards and Mac's though I think they had some driver issues with PC's. I would be curious as to why the "stay away". Any specific problems?
The Phonic boards look like they are pretty similar (features) to the Alesis. But metal and it sounds like they may have the option to send prefater levels out the FW bus. But they don't send the mix out the FW bus so that kind of offsets the usefulness of having the channels go prefader.
So I'm curious about a comparison between the two, since they look pretty similar in features and cost.
 
I've run phonic boards a couple of times in the past for live gigs, so I didn't experiment with the firewire on them. The boards sounded fine, but the layout felt cramped and the pots had a fairly cheap feel to them.

I would have no trouble going with the used Mackie board.
 
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