MACKIE 1640 Firewire

james.ca · 14th September 2007

I'm thinking on a purchase of this gizmo actually 2 of them if possibe
How's Mackies support on the item and are you users pleased with buy ?
Wish they had the firewire to going to a 32 channel ONYX mixer would be nice as well or a specail order from the factory would be nice if possibe .

Thanks
James

T. Gundersen · 14th September 2007

I got myself a 4-channel ONYX with the Firewire option and I'm liking it alot except the Firewire option has broken down on me once (got a new one from the store the same day though, so not a problem for me). But all in all, I'm very pleased with my purchase.

mpw · 14th September 2007

I have a 1640 and love it, but it's only a single unit. I routinely follow the posts on the Mackie forum and many people have had trouble running two 1640's. It's supposed to work, but caution is warranted. Some have reported getting two Firewire cards with the same unique internal id, something that they had to solve with Mackie tech support. At the very least, careful software installation is required when you are hoping to use more than one instance of the driver, they DO have such a procedure, which needs to be followed to the letter.

People have had a great many problems with the driver software, most of which are attributable to the underlying 1394 (Firewire) layers provided by Microsoft. So in the case of Windows XP, you need to be sure that you are at SP2 with the post-SP2 Firewire patches installed. I can't comment on Mac prerequisites, though the Mac users have also expressed their own issues online.

The 1640 provides a lot of bang for the buck, you may just want to expect a few bumps along the way to where you'll finally be worrying mostly about the task of making music and not configuring the computer. Mackie support should be able to give you some help though if you need it, people seem to have the best luck on the phone. (versus via the internet forums) I've really enjoyed recording with mine since I got it in 2004, but there were bumps in the beginning for sure.

james.ca · 15th September 2007

Thanks for the replys .

I was trynig to get on the Mackie user form a while back and watch the goings on
I;m Toronto
They do have a comapny doing there repair work for them here wich is a major plus .

What I find a bit odd is not having there firewire port offered in there bigger Onyx boards 32 & 48 channel models rather than having to stack 2 boards up for a 32 channels of recording system .
Seeing you mentioned you bought yours back in 04 hopefully they have managed to do some bug fixes in the last while.
it's not a 100% sale yet but I'm doing my R&D before jumping into next recrding update.
Two big things for me is after sales suopport and if it gets busted who and where does it get fixed
Thanks agian for your info
james

T. Gundersen · 15th September 2007

I would by no means refer to myself as an experienced recording engineer, but I would guess that the reason for Mackie not to have a 32-channel ONYX-system, is targeting groups (I think that's what it's called in English, it's not my first language). I'd think not too many people in need of a 32-channel recording system would be wanting to get something in the ONYX-pricerange. That being said, I'm more than pleased with the quality of the ONYX pre's, D/A etc.

Also, I'm on Mac OSX 10.4.9 and I had zero problems configuring my ONYX system. I plugged it in, and it worked. No drivers, no nothing.

Ironklad Audio · 16th September 2007

i've had an onyx 1640 for about a year and a half, and have had nothing but positive experiences with it. the pres are great, the converters are pretty decent, and i've had no problems with the firewire option, running on win XP.

in all honesty, i can't provide any insight whatsoever regarding the customer service, because i haven't had any reason to deal with them.

14th September 2007	#1
james.ca Gear maniac Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 263 Thread Starter	MACKIE 1640 Firewire I'm thinking on a purchase of this gizmo actually 2 of them if possibe How's Mackies support on the item and are you users pleased with buy ? Wish they had the firewire to going to a 32 channel ONYX mixer would be nice as well or a specail order from the factory would be nice if possibe . Thanks James

15th September 2007	#4
james.ca Gear maniac Joined: Sep 2007 Posts: 263 Thread Starter	Mackie 1640/firewire possible purchase Thanks for the replys . I was trynig to get on the Mackie user form a while back and watch the goings on I;m Toronto They do have a comapny doing there repair work for them here wich is a major plus . What I find a bit odd is not having there firewire port offered in there bigger Onyx boards 32 & 48 channel models rather than having to stack 2 boards up for a 32 channels of recording system . Seeing you mentioned you bought yours back in 04 hopefully they have managed to do some bug fixes in the last while. it's not a 100% sale yet but I'm doing my R&D before jumping into next recrding update. Two big things for me is after sales suopport and if it gets busted who and where does it get fixed Thanks agian for your info james

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14th September 2007	#2
T. Gundersen Lives for gear Joined: Aug 2007 Posts: 901	I got myself a 4-channel ONYX with the Firewire option and I'm liking it alot except the Firewire option has broken down on me once (got a new one from the store the same day though, so not a problem for me). But all in all, I'm very pleased with my purchase.

14th September 2007	#3
mpw Gear interested Joined: Oct 2006 Posts: 10	I have a 1640 and love it, but it's only a single unit. I routinely follow the posts on the Mackie forum and many people have had trouble running two 1640's. It's supposed to work, but caution is warranted. Some have reported getting two Firewire cards with the same unique internal id, something that they had to solve with Mackie tech support. At the very least, careful software installation is required when you are hoping to use more than one instance of the driver, they DO have such a procedure, which needs to be followed to the letter. People have had a great many problems with the driver software, most of which are attributable to the underlying 1394 (Firewire) layers provided by Microsoft. So in the case of Windows XP, you need to be sure that you are at SP2 with the post-SP2 Firewire patches installed. I can't comment on Mac prerequisites, though the Mac users have also expressed their own issues online. The 1640 provides a lot of bang for the buck, you may just want to expect a few bumps along the way to where you'll finally be worrying mostly about the task of making music and not configuring the computer. Mackie support should be able to give you some help though if you need it, people seem to have the best luck on the phone. (versus via the internet forums) I've really enjoyed recording with mine since I got it in 2004, but there were bumps in the beginning for sure.

16th September 2007	#6
Ironklad Audio Lives for gear Joined: May 2006 Posts: 548	i've had an onyx 1640 for about a year and a half, and have had nothing but positive experiences with it. the pres are great, the converters are pretty decent, and i've had no problems with the firewire option, running on win XP. in all honesty, i can't provide any insight whatsoever regarding the customer service, because i haven't had any reason to deal with them.