Allen & Heath Wizard Vs. Mackie Onyx

[MarkMohr]

I am about ready to get a board for the recording of drums in my studio. I will then run the direct outs from this board into the back panel of my 828MKII. I have been recommended everything from the Allen and Heath Wizard 16.3 to the New Mackie Onyx 1620 board, while others are saying to just get a Presonus Digimax LT. Any thoughts or suggestions?

[sdfalk]

I'm sort of in the same boat at the moment.
I have a 2408mk3 and other various outboard gear
I'd like to tie it all together with an analogue
console.
I have had a look at the new Mackie Onyx 1640
(or I should say the smaller 2 bus version as I have
not seen the 1640 in Canada yet)
I then came upon an Allen & Heath MixWizard3 14:4:2
whilst working in the Theatre department at the Banff Centre
for the Arts as an Audio workstudy.
To sum it up, I prefered the sound of the Heath but the
Firewire option of the 1640 Intrigued me greatly.
Mind you, all of the direct outs on the Heath where quite
nice as well.
My boss has nothing but disdain for Mackie mind you.
"Cheap boards, when they break..replace em..don't bother fixing em" quote un quote.
So to sum up, I'm looking for a decent project studio board
with decent mic pres on the front end.
The Allen & Heath have a reputation for being noisy, which
didn't seem evident to me.
Any other opinions between the two boards?

[kazuya]

Hi,
i use the A & H 14:4:2 in my (project) studio. I like the sound and the handling. Can‘t say much about the micpreamps because i just record linesignals as all my mic‘s get into external preamps.
Maybe try to get a 2nd hand A&H. I paid 800•‚¬ for my mixer.
The A&H got 100mm faders, the small Mackie just 80mm...???
I like my mixer.

[sdfalk]

Actually the Mackie has (eeek) 60mm faders.
Thanks for the perspective.

[jr213]

I'm considering a Digimax LT for this same purpose. I haven't heard any earth-shattering reports of the onyx series, so I would assume they're not significantly better than the VLZ-Pro. At least, as far as the preamps go. Maybe the EQ went from bad to decent.

[MarkMohr]

Yeah, for lack of a positive response from the brand new Onyx line, I am now kinda torn between the A & H and the Digimax. The things that I like about the Digimax is the headroom and ability to EQ the drums going in, this could save on processing power. I just wonder which pre-amp will sound best between the two?
Mark

[ronmac]

Have you considered a used Yamaha 01V? They are not that expensive on EBAY

[sdfalk]

Certainly like the sound of the O1V, I just never
liked the interface.
Besides I have enough outboard gear (fx etc) that all the internal processing would be a bit redundant for me anyway.
They are very nice boards though.
If I could get a cheap deal on one, it would be tempting.

[Jim]

I have a Digimax LT and an 01V. My Digimax has no EQ, just pad and phantom power. I have thirteen mics on my kit. Yes, I know that's ridiculous, but it gives me tons of options on mixdown, and I end up doing a lot of automation, muting the mics that aren't being used.

I run the cymbals, kick and snares through the LT, and I run the toms through the O1V. I sum the toms to a stereo pair, and sometimes I use the gates in the 01V to keep the spill down on the tom tracks. I don't EQ at all while recording. I get fairly good results with this setup. I go out the 01v lightpipe to a 3208.2.

My biggest gripe about the Digimax LT is that you can get a sunburn from the power button. It's huge.

[studiodog]

I have the Allen & Heath Mix Wizard 16 Channel.
If any of you guys want it, you can have it...

When you pry it out of my cold dead hands...

If it's an A&H it's probably going to sound good. I'll take their preamps over Mackies any day of the week.

[LaptopPop]

Just to be clear - Mackie has a bunch of different models of preamps. To just say "Mackie preamps" is like saying "car" -- there's a lot of variation.

The Onyx boards have great sounding preamps, definitely in the same league as A&H. They are better than anything Mackie has ever made. Better than A&H? That's a personal opinion that each person has to make.

The two Onyx mixers I have are built like tanks. They are heavy solid units that instill confidence.

I am using Onyx mixers into a MOTU 24i/o and have gotten several compliments on the sound from various artists. I think it sounds great, and am very pleased. YMMV.

-lee-

<small>[ December 06, 2004, 06:49 AM: Message edited by: LaptopPop ]</small>

[MarkMohr]

I would have to agree with you. I was the one that started this whole thread of discussion. I ended up going with the brand new Mackie Onyx board and have no regrets.
Mark

[studiodog]

True. It has been years since I used Mackies in the studio. I hope they improved what was in the original 8 bus cause those were pretty weak. Once again, years ago, I'm sure they're better now. As for the Allen & Heath, my Mix Wizard is one solid piece of gear.

[Brian Middleton]

I have both an A&H MixWizard 16x2 and a Digimax LT in my studio. The MixWizard is used for a rehearsal PA, the Digimax is in my recording rig. If all you're concerned about is preamp quality, and you won't be needing any of the other routing features in the board, I'd go with the Digimax. The pres are nothing special, but decent. A little bigger-sounding than the A&H, for lack of a better word.

But the A&H pres are not bad either--pretty quiet for board pres, and reasonably clean/open. You could certainly make usable recordings with them, though it would be good to have at least one better preamp in the house for featured tracks (actually that applies to the Digimax as well).

I have no idea how the A&H pres compare with the Onyx pres, but they're certainly a small but audible step up from the old Mackie pres. And the MixWizard in general is a very nice little board. It looks, feels, and acts solid. The EQ is usable and there's a respectable amount of headroom.

HTH....

[LaptopPop]

The Onyx preamps are actually several steps up from the older Mackie recording desk preamps. (which were good enough for a ton of hit records, but that's another topic)

Here's the steps:
1) Original Mackie preamps
2) VLZ preamps
3) VLZ Pro preamps
4) Onyx preamps

With each step they have improved high end, rf rejection, bandwidth, SNR, dynamic range, distortion, etc.

What I know for sure is that the Onyx preamps sound great. A&H has a great reputation as well, but I have not compared them head to head.

-lee-