I am looking for opinions on whether to buy a used Mackie d8b as a desk for my studio. My studio now is based around Cubase SX, 32ch of Tascam DA-78, MOTU 24i,and 2408 mkIII's and a Mackie 8bus 48 channel (24 +24E). I typically use outboard preamps into Cubase via the MOTU Interfaces and don't use the DA's much any more. Since I have been Using Cubase More and more I find having a mix surface would be Ideal. You can pick up a decently loaded( plugins i/o etc) d8b for around $2000 and with the 5.1 software it will be a control surface for Cubase. And you get the functionality of the board with 12 preamps multiple outputs and aux sends for outboard gear and monitor sends in the studio as a bonus. Is there something I am Missing (too good to be true), I have been happy with Mackie products. and a new control surface w/ 24 faders and the rest of the controls is about the same money. I am an old analog guy and don't like point and click mixing.
If anyone has experience with these boards I would appricate your opinions. Keep in mind that I am using outboard pre's for most recording so the quality of the d8b pre's is not that much of an issue. Thanks :?
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I've been a happy owner of d8b for about a month now and I'm lov
I've been a happy owner of d8b for about a month now and I'm loving it. Not only it sounds really good but the eq, aux sends and FULL AUTOMATION makes it worth the investment. I also do not track with it's preamps cause I find them too clean and hmm... 'sterile' soulding? I guess they could be good on snare bottom or guitar neck or similar applications but since my new studio is still not finished I had no chance to test d8b properly. For 2k I think it's a bargain (even though it can't do 96k). Make sure you buy one with apogee word clock card cause it makes a huge difference (unless you already have a great word clock). Converters sound really great on d8b ... don't forget that many platinum albums were done on it... if it sounded great couple of years ago it can still sound great.
just my 2 cents...
btw... many thanx to Cucco for the words of encouragement when I was hesitating before I bought my lovely d8b !
chris