You are better off mixing in the box than mixing through the Mackie. There is less headroom in that mix bus than there is with digital, there is much more noise, and much, much, much more phase shift.

Perhaps you should read some books on recording first. What you are asking is very, very basic stuff.

You don't really edit on the HD24 the same way that you would edit in a DAW. You edit by the numbers, which is kind of slow.

When you mix, the HD24 plays through back into the Mackie, which you would want to bring into channel A at this point to get full use of the EQ. B does not give you the full channel strip. Of course you can only do this on channels that aren't having live sources mixed in with recorded tracks from the HD24.

You wouldn't re-record your tracks, nor could you as you monitor and mix. You mix to the stereo bus which would be connected to a master recorder.

ok so it would probably just be easier for me to get an interface and just run it straight in to the DAW bypassing the mixer completely what would be your suggestion on interfaces im using sonar. and another question has anyone used the mackie onyx 16 as there interface im just curious how well it performs as an interface? plus it seems like using an actual mixer would help in the hook up of outboard gear. Right?

Sup?
there is a couple of ways to do this,,,one you will need a Patchbay. You send the 8 bus's to the patchbay, then set it so you send,say,,,bus 1 to trks 1, 9, 17 ,,,bus 2 to 2, 10, 18,,,,and so on. then you run the tape returns from the HD24 back to there respective tracks,,, trk 1> chnl 1 ,,trk 2> chnl 2,,and so on. if you need more than 8 tracks at once you can use the effect sends also.

2,, Yes,,,you can also run out of the direct outs of each chnl, directly to the hd24 then run the tape returns from the HD24 back to there respective tracks trk 1> chnl 1 ,,trk 2> chnl 2,,and so on, then you can use the use the chnl eq and whatnot for your mixdown by flipping the switch so you can use the chanl eq. when you need to bounce tracks,,use the buses and patch them back to the channels/trks you want them to go to.

there are a few other tricks but either one of those should get you up and running.

and remember I'm not just the president i'm also a client.... :lol:

If you have any more ?'s hit me up, hell,,,when your ready to go after your gear hit me up I'll make you a great deal on my 24-8 bus and a practically N.O.S. Mackie MDR 24/96 cause i have my D8B and my DAW.
MOSH ON
DAVE

What you should do is find a local sales person, who can hold your hand through this process and support you after the sale.

I will let someone else chime in since you are talking Sonar. I was using DAWs in the beginnning, when the whole freakin idea behind them was to make the studio smaller, a better listening space, by removing expensive analog gear. I bought into the concept. I don't use a control surface for any of my DAWs. I tried it, but realized that it got in the way trying to replicate the real thing.

But what I CAN say is that unless you have to do the BEST analog gear, entry level digital today will smoke bad to average analog from the entry level companies.

I would put an equal amount of money into each of these: monitors, mics, acoustics. Then round out the rest with your DAW, etc.

The new Mackie Onyx stuff does sound ok for what it is. I would put it several notches above any of their previous mixers. You would need to check their forum to see if the digital I/O has issues. I know that it USED to, but that was some time ago.

sheet, so do u use DAWs or not im just trying to find the best way to go i understand DAWs more and i know how to work them im just trying to do my research on analog i want to go the best way possible.

I would also have to agree with "sheet" though,,,if you are going to be editing in the box,, why go all out of the way with a mixer and a stand alone recorder? unless you are recording live shows where you would need to be portable, you could just skip the mixer and stand alone rec. and put your money into ,,to quote Sheet "monitors, mics, acoustics. Then round out the rest with your DAW, etc. "
I'm also running sonar ,,Snr6 prod. ,,and a few others, and unless you are recording a full band live ,,just get you a nice RME card or something and you'll be fine. but the one thing i dont agree with sheet is on the control surfacefor the DAW,,,,if you are going to stay with Sonar,,or use cubase or nuendo,,,Find a Roland SI-24 control surface,,, and youll never mouse back to mouse mixing! youll still have to use your mouse for some things but the SI-24 just rocks for controlling these three programs.,,,and you dont need the RPC-1 card either ,,unless you want to use it for your audio interface as well,,,it can control everything via MIDI.

MOSH ON
DAVE

ok thats why i was asking i didnt want to make a mistake and buy the wrong thing i dont mind mixing in the DAW i just thought i might be able to get a better sound using the HD24 but if not then i have no prob not getting it that just makes it cheaper (haha) yeah i really like sonar it just makes sense to me and ive got lots of plugins for it and i will def look up that roland SI-24