Mackie took a year off my life!

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2002 8:34 am

Hi,I was a new Mackie owner in August of 1999 , when I got the 1604 VLZ. At the time I was very pleased and was in need of yet another mixer , so I decided to get the 32 chammel. (4 buss)I purchased one in February of 2001 , but it had diconnection problems the first month ,so I took it for repair. The master fader would not bring signals to a dead silence (still leeking when all the way down)Then I sent (after 3 repairs already) to Mackie. They tried to fix the board disconnection problem by rewireing the whole thing with new wire.That came back with a not working led light on track 16. I was not going to test this thing further for more problems. (I was so angry by this point!)So I sent the damn thing back to Mackieville and demanded a new one. They agreed to do this.
2 weeks later I got a board sent to me (December 27th 2001) and the UPS man said that I had to pay a $2,400.00 bill if I wanted this board. I of course told him that the board only cost $1,700.00. Of course there was nothing that he could do but take the board back to Mackieville.Needless to say I was fumming and had lost all respect for this company...I mean shit does happen , but these people seem to have thier heads up thier butts!!!Wait, I am not finished , I got one left over:So Mackie finaly got me a new 32 channel board that arrived not even a week ago.When I hooked things up everything seemed just dandy , until I discovered that all the channels bleed thru (very faintly I'll admit) when the faders are down and the mutes are on!I just could not believe it! I am stumped. I dont know at this moment what to do.Mackie has stoped studio production here for an entire year and it is still not over!I want to get a more reliable board. At this time I am not concered with a boards pres , I am just useing the board for tape playback.Can anyone suggest a really fine 24 channel board that can wip Mackies ass?NO MORE PLASIC BULLSHIT!Mackie you cheep basterds, I wants my $ back!Cheers,Mad John
Zythum Studios"The present day Composer refuses to die!"
Edgar Varese - 1921

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2002 9:57 am

Unfortunatly you had a hellish experience. I used the original Mackie 24 x 4 live 4 nights a week for 3 years without a problem. However in the studio in that price range the bleed is a common problem usually due to the way things are grounded internally. My Soundcraft Spirit 32 x 8 has the same problem, the tiniest bit of bleed even with all channels muted. There 'may' be something at the same price point that would be better but I don't know of anything personally. You might want to think about something used for a little more money. Depends on what you need. Maybe a Soundcraft 600 (a more pro line console), I've heard good things about the Sountracs Topaz Project series but don't know about the grounding/bleed issue with those, Allen & Heath maybe?

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2002 3:36 pm

Welcome to the delima so many of us have faced along the way.. Yes, the mackie is a gutless wonder and will do fine for certain things... door stops come to mind.If you can find one, I'd highly recommend the A&H GS3000. Decent pre's, musical EQ and the two onboard valves' are kick ass for a B3 or guitar.It's dual signal path and it should be very affordable now that they aren't making it any more...i.e. you might be able to find one as NOS or slightly used. MINE'S NOT FOR SALE!Good luck!

Posted: Tue Jan 08, 2002 9:54 pm

Wow, I've never heard so many people complaining about the service at Makee at one time. Could this be the point of over-diversification?

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2002 8:53 am

Well we shall see how understanding Mackie is by my reqesting a full refund for this shit 32 VLZ Mackie board.These "live" boards of Mackie's are said to work quite well for recording!However if when all of your channels are down , with the mutes on and there is still noticable audio BLEEDING comeing out of the main outs to monitors/headphones from final 2 track destination and noticable (the leeking) on the mix tape , I would say that this sort of ridiculousness is unacseptable!Not to mention that it has been confirmed that the 1604 (which works well with recording) is not the same board with extended channels , but an entirely different animal all together , wired differently and the power section is different.All in all between the 2 the 1604 VLZ Pro is a better mixer (I should know , this was my 3rd 32 channel in 1 year!)I have gone thru incredible setbacks because of Mackies bad design!An entire year wasted with this thing out of my studio and in the repair shop or at Mackieville.My original current thought a year ago was:. Mackie will help me limp along until I can aford something where I can use the on board pres.. Over a long period and as I started to get some substantial new outboard gear , I realized how useless this board really is!. You cant use ballenced gear in the stereo incerts.. The quality of the EQs are harsh and lifeless.. The great XDRs that the company rave about that are claimed to be equal to $2,000.00 pres per channel , have to be bipassed , so as not to degrate the program material that I have recorded with better pres and a Manley Massive Passive EQ (which I think is the bees knees!). Finally I came to the understanding and conclusion that all these boards were good for was to playback tape recorders and nothing else.Want to use a ballenced Compressor with the Mackie? How about main outs of board to XLR in of Compressor to source? Well that worked , but from no help that Mackie offered!The SR32-4 VLZ PRO Mixer by Mackie is a joke!!I gave them every opertunity to correct themselves and they failed.Lets see if they comply for a full refund!Thanks everyone for all your support , it is greatly apreciated!Mad John
Zythum Studios"The present day Composer refuses to die!"
Edgar Varese - 1921

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2002 2:46 pm

If you're going to use a lot of outboard, then the new little Speck mixer may be exactly what you want.

Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2002 3:11 pm

I'm not exactly sure but boards with balanced inserts will likely cost at least 3 times used what the Mackie cost new so keep that in mind when you're shopping. Sounds like you want a Pro level board so the $$$ goes up from there and a used pro console around 4K will need a lot of TLC.On a different note, what I find amazing is how quickly things change. 10 -15 years ago the Mackie 8-buss came out along with the ADAT and changed the recording world. Before that a half decent 8 track studio with a couple good mics was almost out of reach for most of us. Back then it was always Peavey getting bashed and the Mackie came out and most people raved about it "for the money". Now it's time for Mackie bashing, ADAT bashing, Pro Tools bashing.....I wonder what it will be in ten years.....

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2002 7:00 pm

and a used pro console around 4K will need a lot of TLC.
********************************************Not anymore! Have you checked the used console market lately? Its almost a fantasy for any of us old enough to remember used 12x4 desks costing $5K. Not sure how far the original poster wants to go towards a "pro" board, but there has never been a better time to shop. At the low end of the scale, you can find a TAC Scorpion or Soundcraft Delta in perfect working order for well under $2K. Either one of those boards will make the Mackie look like the plastic toy it really is. You just need to wait until you come across the nicest, cleanest board imaginable. In this market you will find exactly what you want at whatever your price point, IF you are willing to look around for a while. These are both boards that people gladly paid $4K or $5K for just a couple of years ago; now yours for $1299 - amazing!If you actually have $4K or $5K to spend, your options are almost unlimited these days. None of the following boards were available anywhere near this price a couple of years ago, most were on the far side of $10K; but now you can choose from:
Trident 65, 70 & 24, Soundcraft TS12 & TS24, AMEK Angela, many varieties of MCI, Neotek Series 2, and at least a dozen other top quality boards. Once again, your only important task is to shop selectively, because there is a huge glut of used analog consoles and you need to cherry pick a winner.
Having the Mackie crap out on you was a godsend; otherwise you might have stuck with that earbleeder for years. Happy hunting!

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2002 8:38 am

Wow!Hollywood Steve that was a great help!You have always been informative and you were the 1st one last year to point out to me the "cheapness" of Mackie parts and I remeber feeling a little defensive , because I thought you were being a wee bit snoby!If you recal Steve, we were post buddies on VG, remeber?Well the one area in our discussions that was the most prominent was the debate on Mackie mixers.Despite past differences of agreement , needless to say, you were right!Thank you for all your wonderful information.I feel confident I can find something great now!Peace & Dreams my friend,Mad John
Zythum Studios"The present day Composer refuses to die!"
Edgar Varese - 1921

Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2002 8:06 pm

I agree with those above, if you need a console and you can afford it, get a used higher end board. However, if you need to stay cheap demo the soundcraft M-Series boards. I just had the rep in for a night on the town and we demoed a few of them in our studio. They are cheaper like the mackies, but use the Ghost pre-amps. Sound great for little $$$. We personaly do not use a board, we are 100% Pro Tools, Pro Control, and Studio Technologies for monitoring, and i wouldn't go back if you paid me in gold! But the M-series is Soundcrafts answer to mackie prices, and it sounds wayyyy better. Wink

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