How To Connect Mackie Onyx 1220 Or 1620 With Pro Tools? Options

[theory84]

hi, I m new on this forum, i was searching for my answer on many forums and other sites but whit no answer...my problem is that i want to buy a mackie onyx 1220 or 1640 and work whit pro tools...at the moment i have an m-box mini, but i know that i will need to change to something else.

The thing is that the HD system and c 24 is to expensive for me, so i thought to go whit a digi 003 rack and somehow connect it to the mackie onyx, but how??

maybe i could somehow connect the mackie tracktion in rewire whit pro tools?

is this possible?

or i could record everything in tracktion and than export and import in a pro tools session?


please help

[mortalengines]

or i could record everything in tracktion and than export and import in a pro tools session?


Sure you could but I am not 100% on why you would want to. I own a 1220 and use it with Ableton and it is pretty cool (the pres are great and the converters are pretty good too) and I understand that it is not really for use with Pro Tools. If you are looking for using a mixer with Pro Tools you may want to think about getting PT M-Powered and get the M-Audio 1814 (it think that's the one that is the control surface that is like the 003's). If you want to throw a mixer in with your 003 rack then you maybe want to think about a VLZ 3 (which I hear has some pretty nice preamps as well.....VLZs are broadcast quality...I haev actually seen some in a local TV broadcast studio) or something and use it as a front end to the 003. By the way, I really like the Onyx pres and the converters are nice but keep in mind that it is 18 in and 2 out: meaning, that you really can't use it as a mixdown medium, like going out of your 003 with however many channels it has out and using your mixer as a "summing device" to go back into ProTools with 2 tracks of analog mixed audio. If you go to Sweetwater.com there are some pretty sweet mini consoles that you could use as a really nice front end to Pro Tools LE and they have some good preamps: which is what I assume you want the Mackie for. I also need to add this while I am thinking about it. I bought the 1220 back in the day when I thought that I would be recording bands......It never really happened.....I got too caught up in producing myself so what I have is really overkill. Before you do this make sure you are really up for doing this and have some folks who are REALLY determined to make a recording....everybody I knew never could get it together enough to make it worth the effort. I only say this because you could save yourself some money by buying one or two kick ass, full on professional preamps like a Universal Audio LA 610 (a channel strip that I am currently drooling over and really ought to buy: it has a really good pre, eq and compressor....1499US) and keep your M-box. THAT would kill anything Mackie has to offer. Just my 2 cents based on my personal experience. Good Luck!


www.myspace.com/mortal_engines

[theory84]

thnx for the quick reply

the thing is that i want to open a home studio for demo recordings (for sure not pro rec.), so i will need min. 8 mic lines for drums, and for vox i thought about the gold mik or something else...

i also thought about the m-audio project mic, but is m-audio and i want something better
(u know what i mean)

i se the VL3 as a nice option but how to connect it whit the 003 rack?

i found this on sweetwater http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/n12/ so, i need to give up whit pro tools and work whit cubase? maybe at the end i will end up whit this solution

is sad that pro tools is so limited and so expencive

[mortalengines]

If you were to use a standard mixer as a front end for Pro Tools it would be a matter of using The line outs of the mixer into the 003. Of course you could just use the 003 by itself but the mixer would give you the utility of extra preamps and easier control over monitoring, etc. etc. I did know a guy who used a Yamaha Digital Console with his 001 but those are pricey. Any thoughts for using the full version of the 003? I understand it is pretty good. If you are thinking of switching DAWs there would be a lot going for getting Logic Studio and an Apogee Ensemble.....I hear nothing but good things about that combo and when you need to add inputs you can just buy another Ensemble and chain it to the first.

If you really wanted to go for the Onyx though.....Tracktion does have a good sound, I understand (funny, I have had it for a while and really never used it as I use Ableton Live) and you could record into Tracktion and then import the individual tracks into Pro Tools for further tweaking and final mix.

Oh yeah....that Yamaha mixer does look pretty sweet.

www.myspace.com/mortal_engines

This post has been edited by mortalengines: Wed 12 Mar 2008, 07:34