Mackie Onyx Firewire Card

For those who record and produce music on computers, we’ve given Onyx mixers another “world’s first” – an optional user-installable 24-bit/96kHz FireWire I/O card with the ability to send up to 16 individual channels of high-quality digital audio direct to any FireWire-equipped computer (Windows XP or Mac OSX.3 or later). The FireWire card also sends a Left/Right stereo “quick mix” to the computer, with a level trim control that boosts or cuts the mix by ±10 dB as it is sent to the card — again letting you set levels independently for the live L/R mix and the recorded tracks.

Better still, the FireWire interface returns two channels of audio from the computer to the mixer, letting you monitor your computer through the control room/phones matrix (pictured at left). So with FireWire, Onyx mixers can record everything from live gigs to studio sessions, with higher quality and lower latency than many dedicated computer audio interfaces. (In fact, an Onyx 1640 mixer with FireWire rivals the specifications and performance of dedicated studio A/D converters costing more than the entire Onyx 1640 mixer. Not to mention giving you waaaay more channels and flexibility.)

FireWire I/O Specifications

Model # Ch. Output Mix Output # Ch. Input
Onyx 1220 12 Stereo (L/R) 2 (Stereo L/R monitor from computer)
Onyx 1620 16 Stereo (L/R) 2 (Stereo L/R monitor from computer)
Onyx 1640 16 Stereo (L/R) 2 (Stereo L/R monitor from computer)