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inverseroom
on a wing and a prayer
Joined: 07 May 2003
Posts: 5022
Location: Ithaca, NY
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 Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 7:35 pm Post subject: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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OK, so I gave this thing a whirl. Let me say right out that it isn't really something I turn out to need, and I'm gonna give it to a friend, who might also post here, so Mackie gets a freebie.
My impressions: it's a solid piece of kit, and there are people out there for whom it's gonna be perfect. But IMHO it's a bit of a dog's dinner.
The pluses: it's very solid and heavy, much more solid and heavy than I anticipated. It feels more like a piece of studio gear than other stuff like it. Also, the pres sound very good. It also is probably the smallest equivalent product that has a talkback control. And there are inserts, too.
HOWEVER, it seems to me that somebody who is going to need a talkback control is not going to need the whole removable-section thing...and the removable-section thing is kind of a dumb gimmick IMHO. It isn't like, once you remove the pres, you can just use them like that...it's not as if it's wireless...you still have to connect up cables/mics to record into it. And it's bus-powered, but you're not going to be recording in the field with a desktop computer...you'll likely be using a laptop, and not many laptops have six-pin firewire, and even if they do, your battery will drain very fast. So you'll need a power adapter anyway. So it's almost exactly like unplugging and then re-plugging a conventional firewire interface.
Of course it would be really nice if you were a home studio person and it was your only pres/interface...but then you'd probably want it to be a MIDI interface too, and it doesn't have MIDI. So if you want to, say, sequence hardware from your computer, or use the synth you already own to control softsynths, you have to buy another product.
So, my verdict, upon an afternoon of experimenting, is that it's a very well-made, good-sounding item, and the free tracktion is a nice inclusion. But since I already have some nice outboard pres, I'm happy with what I have: a simple firewire interface with MIDI that never moves from its spot on the desk (and hooked into the patchbay), and a portable laptop interface that doesn't require bus power or an adapter (ie., pcmcia card). The Satellite is a fairly impressive product that is in search of a niche to fill.
Thanks to mackie for letting me give it a try!
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Electricide
dead but not forgotten
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
Posts: 2066
Location: phoenix
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| Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:20 pm Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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h8r
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"Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines"
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joel hamilton
TOMB Moderator
Joined: 19 May 2003
Posts: 8863
Location: NYC/Brooklyn
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| Posted: Mon Oct 16, 2006 10:25 pm Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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I havent seen it yet.
I am looking forward to trying it out. i think it is amazing, and cool, that mackie would subject this piece of gear to the "wolves" and simply give (more than) a few of us a satellite to have for our very own...
You are the first one to weigh in on it, inverse.... I look forward to the whole crew getting some say on this! should be fun to see how it fits into each of our recording lives....
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cdbabel
gettin' sounds
Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 114
Location: Santa Fe, NM
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 12:11 am Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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| inverseroom wrote: | OK, so I gave this thing a whirl. Let me say right out that it isn't really something I turn out to need, and I'm gonna give it to a friend, who might also post here, so Mackie gets a freebie.
My impressions: it's a solid piece of kit, and there are people out there for whom it's gonna be perfect. But IMHO it's a bit of a dog's dinner.
The pluses: it's very solid and heavy, much more solid and heavy than I anticipated. It feels more like a piece of studio gear than other stuff like it. Also, the pres sound very good. It also is probably the smallest equivalent product that has a talkback control. And there are inserts, too.
HOWEVER, it seems to me that somebody who is going to need a talkback control is not going to need the whole removable-section thing...and the removable-section thing is kind of a dumb gimmick IMHO. It isn't like, once you remove the pres, you can just use them like that...it's not as if it's wireless...you still have to connect up cables/mics to record into it. And it's bus-powered, but you're not going to be recording in the field with a desktop computer...you'll likely be using a laptop, and not many laptops have six-pin firewire, and even if they do, your battery will drain very fast. So you'll need a power adapter anyway. So it's almost exactly like unplugging and then re-plugging a conventional firewire interface.
Of course it would be really nice if you were a home studio person and it was your only pres/interface...but then you'd probably want it to be a MIDI interface too, and it doesn't have MIDI. So if you want to, say, sequence hardware from your computer, or use the synth you already own to control softsynths, you have to buy another product.
So, my verdict, upon an afternoon of experimenting, is that it's a very well-made, good-sounding item, and the free tracktion is a nice inclusion. But since I already have some nice outboard pres, I'm happy with what I have: a simple firewire interface with MIDI that never moves from its spot on the desk (and hooked into the patchbay), and a portable laptop interface that doesn't require bus power or an adapter (ie., pcmcia card). The Satellite is a fairly impressive product that is in search of a niche to fill.
Thanks to mackie for letting me give it a try! |
The base station thing would really help me, because I do a lot of mobile recording. My biggest annoyance is that everytime I go on the move, I have to take my PreSonus FireBox, making me unplug all of its outs (to my monitors in my home studio.) While it isn't the biggest deal, it would save me a lot of time when I get back if I didn't need to reconnect all of the outs.
In an ideal world, I'd have a seperate audio interface for the studio and for the portable, but the Mackie, if it was cheaper, would be a great compromise.
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joelpatterson
carpal tunnel
Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 1723
Location: Albany, New York
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 9:05 am Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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I think the Onxy is on the ropes, folks... almost time for the Round Two bell... this crowd in the arena, they want blood, you can feel it...
This crafty gadget has one very slender, slim, market: me as a teenager. It's a first-piece-of-"serious"-gear for a kid with a brand new laptop. And not just any kid--someone who's kind of nuts about recording audio and mixing music and doing, like, soundtrack and sound effects and sound dreamscape stuff. All that it does is provide the Holy Trinity of inputs (Mic Pre, Line Level and Instrument Input) for a laptop, and it will work with ANY AND EVERY SINGLE DAMN AUDIO PROGRAM YOU CAN IMAGINE OR HASN'T BEEN INVENTED YET, which is great.
And me as a teenager, what I would do is set up my pathetic bedroom studio and record stuff onto my laptop, and take it to school and work with whatever audio interfacing business the school had, and take it over to my crazy friends and do stuff, and then set it up late it night with the mics hanging over the next door neighbor's fence and....
Like a gamer with the latest and bestest Gameboy, I would be with this Onyx Satellite--going nuts that I had absolutely pristine first rate mic pres, which I can monitor, I agree the talkback is a goofy salute to the Phil Spector figures of tomorrow, but hey, you're only a teenager once.
Which, for me, was long ago, even if it seems like yesterday.
I don't even have a laptop, but I've found this thing very useful, and full of promise. Since I always monitor out of the back of my HHB CD burner--so I am hearing exactimento what is going onto the CD--I've set up the base station as a preamp for my powered speakers. Way cool. And there's lights telling me the levels! And it blinks red when it clips! Did you ever want to talk one-on-one with your teenage self, I feel like I've got so much to tell mine. And then the pod, I can take it and my Alesis HD-24 to a concert, and if two channels will take care of it, that's all I need. Two dyno-mite pres, I can MONITOR it, and somebody ELSE can also listen in if they want, and I just saved myself carting in hundreds of pounds of gear, that up until now was my barest bones setup. This-- this is
invisible bones!
Thanks, Mackie, you kids are alright.
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joel hamilton
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Joined: 19 May 2003
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joelpatterson
carpal tunnel
Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 1723
Location: Albany, New York
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:12 am Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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• Audition
• Cubase
• Digital Performer
• Final Cut
• Garage Band
• Live
• Logic Express
• Logic Pro
• Nuendo
• Tracktion
• Tracktor
• Reason
• Samplitude
• Sequoia
• Sonar
• Soundforge
• Soundtrack
• Vegas
• Wavelab
...and more!
(but hey, honestly... this may not be the thing for the guy who has EVERYTHING.)
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~The Peak of Perfection~
Petersburgh NY 12138
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ckeene
suffering 'studio suck'
Joined: 12 May 2003
Posts: 417
Location: Cambridge, MA
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inverseroom
on a wing and a prayer
Joined: 07 May 2003
Posts: 5022
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:32 am Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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| joelpatterson wrote: | | And me as a teenager, what I would do is set up my pathetic bedroom studio and record stuff onto my laptop |
This teenage laptop of yours....it looked like this then?
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mjau
genitals didn't survive the freeze
Joined: 29 Sep 2003
Posts: 3918
Location: Ithaca, NY
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 10:51 am Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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I'm sure I'm disqualifying myself from any future prizes, but lacking a firewire port and not wishing to mess with my already unstable system, I've opted to sell my satellite and donate that money to the Surfrider Foundation, as well as some to Joel's thing.
Sorry Mackie, but at least know that, in some abstract way, you are helping make our beaches cleaner and more accessible while educating people on the need for conservation and awareness.
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helmuth
steve albini likes it
Joined: 23 Jun 2003
Posts: 319
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 11:58 am Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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| cdbabel wrote: | | While it isn't the biggest deal, it would save me a lot of time when I get back if I didn't need to reconnect all of the outs. |
I thought about this when we adressed the sattelite earlier.
Cause after all, that's the whole idea of the thing, not having to unplug a load of cables.
But then I thought, why is this? It's not like it takes much time. Switch to velcro and you make up for the timeloss not having to tie you shoes.
You still have to put mic stands up and connecting mic cables, you still have to record - move mics - record - move mics. You still have to tune your toms/guitar/whatever. The time it takes to unplug/replug cables is nothing. Yeah, you don't stress the connections as much but is that really an issue? A TRS input should take shitloads of pluggin/unplugging before breaking (insert mom zing).
IMO, and sure I haven't tried the thing out, they're creating a problem that doesn't really exist in order to being able to sell the sollution. |
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Electricide
dead but not forgotten
Joined: 17 Jul 2003
Posts: 2066
Location: phoenix
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:12 pm Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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I went ahead and used the satellite at a wedding reception this past weekend (my brother's, in my parent's back yard).
The intent of this product definately seems to be recording. I used only the Satellite portion for this weekend. I only needed one mic pre for a wireless mic, and I ran the outs to my av receiver. So, for this it was good to have a small, portable pre. However, Input 1 goes to output 1, and in 2 to out 2, with no blend or mix. So, I was only getting the mic output in one side of my PA speakers...I got an RCA-y cable to split the signal to two. Otherwise, I'd need a mixer, and that defeats the "easily portable" selling point.
IMO, there is a definate target for this product. Home recorder with a few mics, a guitar or keyboards, and maybe an outboard sound generator (like a 1080) and outboard compressor. That IS essentially me. I have one mic, a guitar, some amps, an multi-effect pedal, a keyboard. You can have the pedal, keyboard, and mics all hooked up, permanently, and just switch to the one you want to record. You can't use them all at the same time, so this isn't for multi-tracking.
The Satellite portion would be ideal for stereo tracking, maybe a choir or jazz ensemble or location recording, directly to laptop. The point isn't saving time during setup, but saving time at home disconnecting all your own instruments. I can appreciate that. Or if you're doing an album but need to go over to a friend's place to overdub bass or something. It has its uses.
What baffles me is the talk back mic. Any engineer in a studio with separate tracking spaces is going to have better gear available, or a mixer with talkback already setup. And if you're multitracking multiple musicians with cans on, you won't be using this Onyx because it only has 2 inputs. So yeah, the talkback is a strange inclusion. I would have replaced that with MIDI capability, because the home recordist IS the focus here, and this is supposed to be an all-in-one easy-to-use solution.
I have yet to compare the pres to my current mixer, or A/B using the analog outs to my Emu1212m vs. Firewire out. I hope to do that in the next few weeks and post some samples for you guys to compare.
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joelpatterson
carpal tunnel
Joined: 10 Jun 2003
Posts: 1723
Location: Albany, New York
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 2:52 pm Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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| inverseroom wrote: |
This teenage laptop of yours....
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My friend... in my day, laptops came in two colors, denim and corduroy.
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Petersburgh NY 12138
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dwlb
zen recordist
Joined: 31 Jul 2003
Posts: 6615
Location: criticizing globally, offending locally
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:01 pm Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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bell-bottoms or boot cut?
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JASIII
george martin
Joined: 26 Dec 2003
Posts: 1418
Location: On the Tundra
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| Posted: Tue Oct 17, 2006 3:12 pm Post subject: Re: OK, OK, Here's yer Mackie Satellite thread |
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Hmm..a thread that's both extremely insightful and entertaining....how odd. wonder why that is??.......
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