Their HQ is down the street from me, might have to go take a peek.

Ask them how they count up the "8 x 8 ADAT I/O for ultimate expandability" on the Blackbird. Where do they hide the other 4 optical connectors?

The fiber optic cable is capable of moving 8 tracks at 44.1KHz, 4 tracks at 88.2KHz.

Even in a marketing executive's hyped-up prose, the statement "8 x 8 ADAT I/O" implies 8 ADAT optical connectors. The rear panel photo of the Blackbird shows 2 input and 2 output optical connectors, and there are none visible in the front panel photo.

It can't mean "8 + 8" (i.e. counting input and output channels separately), as the expression should then be "16 + 16", and the Mackie marketing people would never under-sell the unit.

One guess is that the original specification for the unit had the 8 connectors, but it got whittled down to 4 in the engineering design and nobody told the copywriters. The user manual only talks about the 2 input and 2 output ADAT connectors.

Hello everybody, how are things?

I just picked up the blackbird yesterday and set it up last night. My first impressions are that Mackie has made a real strong competitor in the marketplace here. I am very impressed with the performance of this interface. I got the latency down to 5ms on my Macbook Pro. All around big improvement from my presonus boxes.

Nice. Let us know how things go. Post some examples if you get a chance.

Yeah, it is indeed a hot summer here. I have been swamped with work lately which is good, but I do plan on working on several recording projects this summer. I will be sure to post something sometime in the coming weeks. As things sit right now I'm lucky to get one day a week to have fun in the studio.

Cheers!

I'm running 2 blackbirds right now, probably will get a 3rd soon. With the really easy to use monitor mixing and overall good quality for a silly low price I honestly think this model is going to own the marketplace for a while other than for people who are looking for built in FX.

Yesterday I did a session with two really good friends of mine and a brand new EV RE320 mic, the result are in and the Blackbird is fantastic! I did my session at 88.2k and the latency was hardly noticeable. I use a Lucid GenX6-96 word clock and run alongside the firestudio 26 right now. I really don't like the fact that four of the 8 outputs are on the front panel, but other than that I really love the quality of this interface, its a win win for the price! AToE has the right idea, I'm going to get a second Blackbird!

jammster, post: 373715 wrote: Yesterday I did a session with two really good friends of mine and a brand new EV RE320 mic, the result are in and the Blackbird is fantastic! I did my session at 88.2k and the latency was hardly noticeable. I use a Lucid GenX6-96 word clock and run alongside the firestudio 26 right now. I really don't like the fact that four of the 8 outputs are on the front panel, but other than that I really love the quality of this interface, its a win win for the price! AToE has the right idea, I'm going to get a second Blackbird!

You've got 4 inputs on the front? I only have 2. And yes, I agree, I hate that, makes the gear look a lot more amateur (to be fair that is what it is, but still!) and is bloody annoying when trying to run a 16ch snake or something.

I read that as "outputs" in jammster's post. He's referring to the two headphone jacks.

Going back to my previous puzzle about the "8x8" designation of the ADAT I/O (Post #5), I've cleared that up. There are only 8 ADAT channels available in each direction at both the lower and higher rates. At the standard (lower) rates, the leftmost optical connectors only are used (input and output). At the higher rates using s/mux protocol, both jacks of each pair are used.

Oops, yes, my mistake...

hueseph, post: 373481 wrote: Nice. Let us know how things go. Post some examples if you get a chance.

Huseph I would love to post the session from the July 5th but I don't know how I can since its not my song and I need permission to post, however if you would like to hear a high quality MP3 of the session just PM me and I will send it to your email.

Mackie states that the blackbird is a 16x16 interface without disclosing that there are only 2main out x4 , the manual even indicates this to be true and it will not give multi outs for mixdown on my console! I was really counting on this to work, oh well!

Turns out I got the 8 outs to work today after getting on the horn with Mackie. The Blackbird Control software determines how the mix is made for each output pair. You can assign either DAW outs or mic/line outs from the interface before they reach the DAW, that way you have real-time monitoring without any latency. So, its great to finally get things up and running right.

I've heard so many complain about Mackie's support of their products, but they did not seem bad to me?

There's issues with every piece of gear out there. It's a matter of taking the time to ensure that your hardware is compatible and that your software is all legitimate. I would dare guess that 30% of the issues people have is due to their use of illegal software. Not that, that applies to you. Mackie has been good to me in the past. The build quality has been a bit questionable lately but no less than with any other hardware made in (insert third world country here). Which pretty well implicates most of the major companies out there right now.

Glad to hear it's working out for you. Are you a happy owner?

Yes, I am happy with the Onyx Blackbird, it is worth every penny. The issue with the output was due to the Blackbird Control software. By default it is setup for monitoring outputs straight from the preamp and not from the DAW. You have to select the tabs and arrange each mix accordingly so that the desired output is made. Its very open ended, and its intended to be used for individual headphone mixes 1 and 2.

So, yes I will be able to use the Blackbird the way I want, and it does sound better than anything I have used before. I may consider selling the firestudio to get another Blackbird soon.