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[Stephen Kirby]

You could get something like a nice Soundcraft Ghost for pretty cheap.

The power of digital SR mixers is not in the sound quality, although it's not bad, especially compared to an old Mackie.  It's in the ability to have more than four aux mixes, dynamics on every channel, multiple built in effects, usually more versatile eq than budget MI analog mixers, recall, and some more sophisticated routing options.  I can't think of any of these being an asset in your use case.

I use a Soundcraft Expression 2 for live sound and love it.  All those things I listed make my old Allen & Heaths very limiting.  But they do sound good.  If I had the space in my project studio I'd be using my GL24 for summing and monitoring similar to how my buddy uses his Gamble.  Now it's just a garage queen and I suppose a backup to the Expression although with some real compromises in capability.  Not worth the $300 I'd get for the hassle of selling it.

[Brian Jojade]

http://forums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/topic,161709.0.html

This is only a 4 bus instead of 8, but 6 auxes instead of 4. It might be an alternative for you.

[Tim Weaver]

Some guy near me is selling a new-in-box Mackie sr56.8.




For 900 bucks.














And its still overpriced.

[Mac Kerr]

Some guy near me is selling a new-in-box Mackie sr56.8.

For 900 bucks.

And its still overpriced.

See if you can get him to up what he's paying you.

Mac

[Wayne Smith2]

You could get something like a nice Soundcraft Ghost for pretty cheap.

The power of digital SR mixers is not in the sound quality, although it's not bad, especially compared to an old Mackie.  It's in the ability to have more than four aux mixes, dynamics on every channel, multiple built in effects, usually more versatile eq than budget MI analog mixers, recall, and some more sophisticated routing options.  I can't think of any of these being an asset in your use case.

I use a Soundcraft Expression 2 for live sound and love it.  All those things I listed make my old Allen & Heaths very limiting.  But they do sound good.  If I had the space in my project studio I'd be using my GL24 for summing and monitoring similar to how my buddy uses his Gamble.  Now it's just a garage queen and I suppose a backup to the Expression although with some real compromises in capability.  Not worth the $300 I'd get for the hassle of selling it.

I just pulled up the block diagrams on the ZED 428, R16, GL and the Ghost (2400..) 'Crash course review- haven't done this in a while.
Comparing functionality of the '8 Bus, closer to the Ghost. They really put a lot of  into it. The routing options, 'alt stereo mix etc are what I would miss going with these SR boards.

Having gone through this, my options would seem to be;
-Open the damn thing up and reseat every one of them, and see how it fairs.
-Press the Onyx 24-4 into service- 'fudge the missing functions.
-Go digi. If I could get a least comparable or better sound, and work out most of the routing and functions -like a few alt stereo phones mixes would be better than I have. A lot of the additional processing would be gravy.

[Stephen Kirby]

A digital mixer would get you more headphone mixes.  I haven't had the need to work it out but I think my Expression would support 10 or 12 stereo monitor mixes using the matrixes along with the regular auxes.  And if you wanted to run out and do live sound with it you'd be set.

A Zed is a nice budge PA mixer.  Not up to the sound quality of even a GL though.  A Ghost gets you into the real deal of pro studio sound quality.  I have a buddy that runs one with a Radar system and while he's a very good engineer, the sound quality of his releases is up there with any small studio with a Toft or new small Neve.  Maybe in a critical A/B you could tell the difference in desks, but you'd be playing in the same leagues.

Just trying to actually look at what you're doing and not just regurgitate the flavor of the month.

[Stan Shields]

I have a good old Mackie 24-8 bus mixer which I'd like to have cleaned up'.
It's basically providing everything I need of it as an audio monitoring platform in my home studio, but as typical with these.. have the sometimes intermittent poor internal connection noises and troubles.
I'm wondering if there might be a good tech that could bring the thing back up to solid clean operation. Hopefully this would need to be in the central / north Cal region. I would rather drive a hundred or more miles (from Sacramento) than shipping it out.

I'm well aware of the 'ribbon connector issues -and I've already been through the replacement' runaround quite a wile ago. So rather than just another 'reseating etc, I'd like to inquire about having them fixed permanently -perhaps the contacts can be improved, heck I wouldn't care if they were soldered on!
So, this is basically a last ditch call. Sonically, feature wise, it does all that's needed, and it would appear -but I haven't done a whole lot of looking into alternatives.. the alt' would be a few $K for a new digi board.
Wayne-I am a factory-authorized warranty repair station for Mackie. Have the ribbon cables been replaced or just cleaned/reseated, etc.?

[Tim Weaver]

Man, if the primary use of this will be studio work, go for broke dude. Big nice analog boards have never been cheaper and they will continue to do so until there is an audio-hipster revival that starts a trend of using those old heavy dinosaurs because analog.

Go get a Soundcraft studio board like a 6000. You should be able to get a great desk for under a grand and pay a guy a little bit to go through it if it needs any repairs.

http://austin.craigslist.org/msg/5887438334.html <---- Great for monitoring
http://austin.craigslist.org/msg/5879351444.html
http://austin.craigslist.org/msg/5873921873.html <---- Probably not enough busses but they sound great.
http://houston.craigslist.org/msg/5858399739.html
http://houston.craigslist.org/msg/5875919956.html


This was just searching "console" or "Mixer". There's deals to be had out there!

[Wayne Smith2]

Man, if the primary use of this will be studio work, go for broke dude. Big nice analog boards have never been cheaper and they will continue to do so until there is an audio-hipster revival that starts a trend of using those old heavy dinosaurs because analog. ...

I really do appreciate the the sentiment- and the fact is not lost on me! It'd fun to go 'there, but given most of the processes here are 'in the box as they say a move to a nice big analog board upgrade' isn't in the cards.

... You should be able to get a great desk for under a grand and pay a guy a little bit to go through it if it needs any repairs. ...

I have to admit, there's potential for some great irony here. Me back again ...'looking for advice refurbishing an old console' .. 

[Ned Ward]

What Software are you using, and what is your I/O hardware? Latency has gotten to where you can build monitor mixes easily in the box with the other tracks and plugins (or outboard set up as inserts) and have it fully recallable. You don't need to patch every output of your DAW to a mixer, and in fact, what you're hearing isn't what you have.

You may want to look at a physical fader controller - give you the physical control of faders and knobs but in Pro Tools, Studio One, etc. Presonus just released their Faderport 8 with 8 motorized faders - Pro Tools Expert just did a review. there are other solutions with more channels if needed.

You may find that with your setup, you don't need the big desk anymore, and your workflow may be smoother. Just a thought.

[ProSoundWeb Community]