Firewire Mixer, Need your experience... Options

[jce44]

Greetings,

I have a need for live performance mixing for a setup of guitars (3- lead, bass & rythym) & vocals (2) and have also researched to purchase my first audio interface.

I'm looking at the Alesis MultiMix 12 channel Firewire Mixer.

My Mac G4 is fully upgraded with a Sonnet 1.8Ghz CPU and 2GB Ram. I'm running OS X 3.9 on the 2nd hard drive- 115GB, and OS 9 on the original HD. Just installed a Pioneer DVR-111 DVD/CD RW drive. Our gigs and my studio would be classified as "friendly" as opposed to "professional".

There's little information or feedback on Alesis Mixers in this forum, especially the newer MultiMix Firewire models. The lower price for the Alesis is hugely attractive to me (it's half what a Mackie would cost), and the fact that it comes with Cubase LE is quite a bonus. (500 bucks is more than I can afford, but am willing to spend to do both mixing and recording). I like manually controlling the mix with physical controls vs software.

Does anyone out there have experience with Alesis firewire mixers and could you provide some information regarding quality, customer service, and compatibility with my computer system?

Thank you for all comments.

[pandabeatz]

to be honest. i feel where you are coming from but i went for the mackie and i did not regret it. i bought mine second hand and the are great value second hand. got my 1620 with firewire card for 750€. ive seen one in ebay.de go for 650€ if you live in eurpoe. the build and quality of most other mixers are not worth the money and they are aware of this so they offer things overpriced below the"good quality" level. if you can save some more and get an investment where you have something more robust, sounds good and has a tested standard build and performance, ie. less like to get damaged AND, if damaged, repairable.sounds like you could use the mackie1220. imo, better second bargain than first hand expensive.

[Drummer519]

The Mackie Onyx (firewire) boards are well worth it. I've used on and my friend has one. I work at a music store that sells both the Onyx boards and the Multimixes and we get so many returned or work ordered Alesis units back. They just don't hold up like the Mackie gear does.

[mortalengines]

Man, I love my Onyx 1220 & I would say it is worth every penny I paid - The performance is ROCK solid & the sound is great. If you really need a mixer then I would suggest it. However, in retrospect I would have probably bought the Onyx 440 FW interface (not available at the time I bought my mixer & is a little more expensive) due to the fact that it is a bit more flexible in its routing options (particularly on the output side, as I would like to start using hardware effects & analog summing now & technically, the 1220 has only 2 outputs.....this is a minor gripe though).

This post has been edited by mortalengines: Sat 19 Aug 2006, 19:25

[jce44]

The Mackie Onyx (firewire) boards are well worth it. I've used on and my friend has one. I work at a music store that sells both the Onyx boards and the Multimixes and we get so many returned or work ordered Alesis units back. They just don't hold up like the Mackie gear does.

Thanks! to all that replied with your experiences and wisdom! I spent the last week (since my original question), researching and just purchased my new Mackie Onyx 1220. Can't wait till it gets here to get started! I got the FireWire I/O separately. So I'm all set to go for both live and studio...

FYI to those who shop for used gear- Mackie will continue the original warranty IF you get the ORIGINAL (or copy of original) sales receipt from the seller.

This was a huge concern for me while shopping for used on eBay, and one of the reasons I decided to go for a new 1220. The registration for the included software is a problem with second-hand also.

Thanks to all!