Garageband/Logic and a Mackie Board

OK, I haven't used the Onyx, but it's a fairly straightforward affair, basically, the audio from the desk is streamed to the mac via FireWire, where it turns up as 18 individual inputs in yout recording app (which rules out Garageband BTW, as that will only record 8 independant tracks simultaneously) I suggest you take a look at Logic Express or even better, Logic Pro, Cubase SX or Digital Performer 4.

Once the audio streams are recorded the FW interface allows 2 track to be sent back to the Onyx to be sent to speakers or headphones, so all the mixing needs to be done in the computer, not on the desk.

This is the drawback, you'll be using the desk as a set of inputs only, and not as a mixer, which is no real problem, but it puts a lot of strain on the Mac, so you'll need something fairly hefty.

As the 1620 has no physical "buss" outputs you'll be unable to send multiple audio tracks to the Mac, you'll need a 1640 (4 buss) or an old 24-8-2 Mackie for that, and an audio interface like MOTU's 828.

You really don't need the desk for what you are attempting, a copy of Logic and a MOTU 896 will do the job, mics connect to the 896, everything heads for the Mac, audio comes out the 896 to headphones and speakers.

However, 18 channels of audio is a goodly number, and if you are going to be using that many mics I think it's a decent solution.

AtHomeBoy_2000 said:

Thank you so much for the input. I should also mention that one fo the reasons I am looking into this board is because it can be used as a stand alone mixer which i am also in need of. So, i can kill two birds with one stone.

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Good idea, the Onyx works as a live mixer well enough, it's a good sounding desk froom all reports.

AtHomeBoy_2000 said:

I wont be recording a LOT of channels at once. Only 4 vocals at a time and the instraments would be 4 as well. So, at any given point I would only be recording 4 tracks. However, when recording vocals I would be playing back 4 while recording 4.

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OK, then Garageband is back in the frame.

AtHomeBoy_2000 said:

Down the line I would love to just be able to hook it up to a Powerbook or iBook. But I am not sure it would be able to handle it. (Until then, I would be using a powermac I am buying for video editing. i would just have to move it out of my office and into the sanctuary for recording.) Any thoughts on that?

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I use a 17" PowerBook for a lot of audio stuff, mainly with ProTools and an M-box, I see no reason to worry about the capabilities of the PB's for main recording, but you might want to invest in a big external FW800 drive for the audio and video, it's not a good idea to use the system drive as a media drive.

Your PM will have more grunt currently, unless there's a G5 PB around the corner🙄

AtHomeBoy_2000 said:

I was also thinking of taking the "studio" outputs (with the FIrewire routed to them) and plugging them directly into an unused stereo channel so i can route them to monitors for the singers.

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I think the desk has a specific monitoring matrix that allows you to do that anyway, plugging a desks outputs into it's inputs is a quick route to feedback, not fun for anyone...

You'll find that the stereo mix from the Mac will be routable to the headphone Cue mix and the speaker outputs as well under indepandant control.