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Old 05-05-2017, 11:25 AM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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Default My Recent Mackie Experience: A review, of sorts.

Hi folks,

I've been busy futzing around with amplification equipment, which is almost as fun as actually making music. My partner in crime, and part time psychiatrist Cuki, has been talking me off the ledge a few times. Fortunately, I've been able to do the same for him, as he chases elusive amplification perfection.

The backstory

The backstory is always the best part. Last year I started playing electric guitar again. It's been fun! When I made the decision to play electric again, I didn't have any electric guitar or associated gear. I was, at the time, amidst my Line 6 adoration phase. So, naturally, in MartinGitDave fashion, I bought the "whole farm," in the form of the Line 6 Variax package including the FireHawk FX controller. Nifty stuff. I was playing it through the L2t speaker I purchased. The sound was great.

The problem was that the FireHawk is ridiculously large and I was (literally) tripping over it rehearsals. Also, at 40 lbs and slightly awkward, the L2t is an excellent PA speaker, but it's not a great substitute for a quick and dirty small practice amp for rehearsal.

Things fall apart and get put back together

Unfortunately, that speaker started causing me some problems, which is probably why I found it used so cheaply. I was able to return it to the store I bought it from (a year later) in the form of a trade in credit. After some trial and error, I settled on a JBL Eon One, which I am satisfied with. Of course, the original model needs a mixer to be fully effective. More on that later. Also, the JBL Eon One is not a great practice guitar amp substitute either.

Face Palm!

Then, a light bulb (albeit dim) went off in my head. I'll use this as an opportunity to get a new speaker that can work as a practice electric guitar amp and also serve my acoustic singer songwriter needs! (I know. Those of you with experience are thinking "Fat chance Dave!") I started some threads about this very topic. I researched about 20 products. What I learned was predicable based on my penchant for making mistakes . The best product for that very application is the Line 6 L2t. Doh! Nonetheless, he persisted. The primary issue is that the needs are different enough that standalone products are either heavily tilted to electric or acoustic guitar and vocals.

Honey, I shrunk the PA! A solution?

I decided that I do like the FRFR modeling for the Variax electric guitar. I just didn't like the iPad integration and the huge bulky pedal system. I also decided that I liked the full range PA speaker, with integrated mixer, like the L2t, I just wanted something smaller and lighter.

So, after trying and returning a few guitar processors, I landed on the Zoom G3Xn. This is a very nice unit that can be used in dumb simple stomp box format. I really like that. And, I found the perfect small form factor speaker.

I also purchased an XR12 Air mixer system that sounds absolutely dynamite. More about that later.


I thought this thread was about Mackie? Would you get to the Mackie Part Already? Sheesh!


Ok, here goes.

Mackie DLM8

The good: I found a speaker that would work well with the XR12 Air mixer and the JBL Eon One. Its called a Mackie DLM8. This is a tiny little box with a 1,000 watt RMS, Class D amplifier, and who channel mixer with effects. I love the look of it, and how it tilts back on a stand as a monitor/guitar amp.
The tweeter is coaxial and makes the package light and transportable. The onboard EQ is necessary because the default setting is really warm. I suppose they want to warm up the sound you'd get from a traditional 8" speaker. This works wonders with the electric guitar FRFR rig. It needs a high end boost with acoustics and vocals. They have an internal EQ setting for singer songwriters to take care of that.

The bad: Mackie did something very strange with the design of the pre-amps on this unit. It is supposed to function as a singer songwriter all-in-one unit. Channel one is a fully functional channel with mic pre-amp and pad switch for TRS line operation. Channel two does not have the mic pre-amp. It's way too quiet, and the manual calls for TRS input. I don't know too many people with balanced TRS pickups in their guitars. So, channel two is effectively worthless for anything that isn't pre-amplified before hitting the speaker. Nonetheless the the unit works very will with stuff in front of it, like the Play Acoustic, or a mixer. See DannyG1's comments below. If you are considering this speaker for use with a larger (mixed) system, be warned that the pre-amps are problematic in that situation. For single speaker use, I think it's great. Otherwise, beware, per below.

Mackie ProDX8

Evidently, I like Mackie stuff with "8" in the model name. This is a little mixer. Why did I need another mixer? Because I am a dinasour when it comes to using technology while making music. The electric guitar pedal thing was hard enough. But, I could not get the hang of using an iPad with FireHawk FX, or with the wonderful Behringer AR12 Air mixer I purchased. The XR12 is a great mixer, but you MUST use a computer or iPad for EVERY function. There are no physical knobs.

I wanted to try and retain the nice features like effects, sweepable mids, HPF, low shelf, and high shelf EQs. And, I wanted knobs. But, I also didn't want a huge mixer board. I stumbled on the Mackie ProDX8 mixer and won one with a low ball bid in an auction. Meh... I'll give it a shot.

The good: It has 6 mic pre-amp channels and, two TRS balanced outputs, and two aux buses for monitor mixes. It includes all of the EQ above and some basic effects. Unlike the XR12, you can only use one effect at a time, which is a bit of a bummer. What it does have is physical buttons. Once you've set your channel EQ and effects parameters, you can control the levels of the mix with the physical buttons on the front of the mixer! You can put away the iPhone. Nice.

The bad: The guy who is designing Mackie's digital pre-amps/mixers needs a spanking! There is a fixed 20 dB pre-amp gain for each channel. Most quality mixers will go up to 60 dB gain. Honestly, this sucks. There is barely enough gain from the mixer to overcome the poor prea-mps in both the Mackile DLM8 and the JBL Eon One. I'm returning it. If they had fixed the gain higher, or made it adjustable, I would recommend it for light use. As it is, I cannot recommend this device.

Next steps

I'd prefer to have an XR12 mixer with the controls on the front, but they don't exist. So, I think I will use what I've got until something compelling gets released.

Comments and suggestions are appreciated, as always.

[EDIT]

As a result of this thread I got some advice to check out the QSC Touchmix 8. It's a bit dated in terms of technology, but it has all the features of the XR12 mixer with more pre-amps and a physical interface. It should be here next week. Thanks eBay!
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Last edited by martingitdave; 05-05-2017 at 03:21 PM.
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  #2  
Old 05-05-2017, 11:59 AM
dannyg1 dannyg1 is offline
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The mixer you're looking for is a Behringer X32 compact or a Presonus 16x2x4. Both are mildly compact digital mixers with full channel strip controls on their faces. The QSC touchmix 8 will also work. If expense is a primary concern, Tascam makes a large full digital recording desk that has full strips on it and it can be found for $350-400. Never used it so can't say much about it other than it will work.

Finally, I've got to post the point again that the DLM8 does *not* in fact, play well with a mixer in front of it. If you plug in any tried and true PA speaker to one side of a stereo mixer and the Mackie to the other, you'll find that out very quickly.

I'm so sure of it because I own one (a DLM8), I've tried it and I reported it here. Prospective buyers need to be aware of this and it's it important that the issue is reported correctly.
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Old 05-05-2017, 01:08 PM
martingitdave martingitdave is offline
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Thanks Danny, I appreciate the advice. I think you're right about the DLM8. However, I have the benefit of only needing one speaker and don't use it in conjunction with others. The Line in gain is too low in comparison to industry standards. However, it seems to be enough for me based on my use and the gear ahead of it.


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