Mackie Onyx 1640 - right side louder? wtf

RockManDan · 28th June 2011

Ok, so I have a Mackie Onyx 1640 Mixer and its been great for a few years. Recently thought I have been noticing that the right side of the mix coming back from the computer is louder. Like I'll play a mono track from my DAW and it sounds like its panned right. Naturally I check all physical components, such as my monitors, etc and when i play a regular source through the mixer's analog side, pans work as supposed to. Indeed, when playing back anything from the computer's main firewire 2bus, everything is panned about 30% to the right. Even the main LED's light up high on the right side, whereas they are straight up the middle when just straight monitoring of the mixer's own channels. I have to pan a mono track in my DAW about 30 percent to the left in order to get it to sound centered and look centered (via the main mix LED's)

This isn't specific to my DAW either (Reaper). Its even in WMP, Itunes, youtube, etc, so its got to be somethign i guess either with the audio driver or the firewire option card in the mixer. Ive been using the most recent driver since it came out..v1.7. Im on Win7 64bit. Anyone else had this problem? Ive been searching all over and can only find one other person on the internet where this happened, and he never got or posted a solution.

Tanks for any ideas,
Dan

shudderingnoise · 29th June 2011

Happened to our Onyx at work too. Ours ended up failing completely, and had to get recapped, as the capacitors were drying out (according to our repair guy). Since that time its never been the same - it actually works fine as an analog desk for routing when I do ISDN sessions in my studio and for talkback, but the firewire capability is fuxed. The signal coming back via firewire has the same panning issue yours is displaying, and it got bad enough that the louder channel was constantly distorting.

Good news is that we got an Apogee Ensemble at around that time. Stepping it up a notch or two with respect to the ADC/DAC was an eye opener - helped my mixes so much. This could turn out to be a good thing for you, as it was for me.

At any rate, good luck - I hope you get to the bottom of the problem.

RockManDan · 29th June 2011

well that's not exactly encouraging....thanks anyway though

RockManDan · 6th July 2011

bump in case anyone has any ideas... I ended up compensating by just bringing down the volume on my right monitor using its own pot, and while this seems to be the bleedingly obvious solution, i can't tell if there is any other audio disortion or alteration to the sound of the left channel other than volume drop, so id like to be able to fix the problem if possible.

enzodrum · 23rd November 2011

I have the same problem on my 1620 mixer :S does anyone know if this can be repared?? it's kind of annoying.

havanagilaboy · 24th November 2011

I haven't had this problem with mine yet. I hope it doesn't start anytime soon, but I'm glad I've got my ensemble handy...

A little bit off topic though, please excuse my stupid question, but how do I process stereo effects from the Aux sends (for live stuff)? What I have done so far is just use mono reverb, or use Aux 1 and 2 returning to Aux 1 but I want to learn how to do it right as stereo adds a lot more. I can't find specific instructions on how to do this anywhere. is the Aux Send stereo or Mono? Do I use a Y cable to send the Aux Send to the reverb processor? Any hints or links to other threads would be helpful.

28th June 2011	#1
RockManDan Gear addict Joined: Jan 2007 Location: Durham, NC Posts: 382 Thread Starter	Mackie Onyx 1640 - right side louder? wtf Ok, so I have a Mackie Onyx 1640 Mixer and its been great for a few years. Recently thought I have been noticing that the right side of the mix coming back from the computer is louder. Like I'll play a mono track from my DAW and it sounds like its panned right. Naturally I check all physical components, such as my monitors, etc and when i play a regular source through the mixer's analog side, pans work as supposed to. Indeed, when playing back anything from the computer's main firewire 2bus, everything is panned about 30% to the right. Even the main LED's light up high on the right side, whereas they are straight up the middle when just straight monitoring of the mixer's own channels. I have to pan a mono track in my DAW about 30 percent to the left in order to get it to sound centered and look centered (via the main mix LED's) This isn't specific to my DAW either (Reaper). Its even in WMP, Itunes, youtube, etc, so its got to be somethign i guess either with the audio driver or the firewire option card in the mixer. Ive been using the most recent driver since it came out..v1.7. Im on Win7 64bit. Anyone else had this problem? Ive been searching all over and can only find one other person on the internet where this happened, and he never got or posted a solution. Tanks for any ideas, Dan

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29th June 2011	#2
shudderingnoise Gear Head Joined: Nov 2010 Posts: 42	Happened to our Onyx at work too. Ours ended up failing completely, and had to get recapped, as the capacitors were drying out (according to our repair guy). Since that time its never been the same - it actually works fine as an analog desk for routing when I do ISDN sessions in my studio and for talkback, but the firewire capability is fuxed. The signal coming back via firewire has the same panning issue yours is displaying, and it got bad enough that the louder channel was constantly distorting. Good news is that we got an Apogee Ensemble at around that time. Stepping it up a notch or two with respect to the ADC/DAC was an eye opener - helped my mixes so much. This could turn out to be a good thing for you, as it was for me. At any rate, good luck - I hope you get to the bottom of the problem.

6th July 2011	#4
RockManDan Gear addict Joined: Jan 2007 Location: Durham, NC Posts: 382 Thread Starter	bump in case anyone has any ideas... I ended up compensating by just bringing down the volume on my right monitor using its own pot, and while this seems to be the bleedingly obvious solution, i can't tell if there is any other audio disortion or alteration to the sound of the left channel other than volume drop, so id like to be able to fix the problem if possible.

23rd November 2011	#5
enzodrum Gear nut Joined: Oct 2011 Posts: 93	I have the same problem on my 1620 mixer :S does anyone know if this can be repared?? it's kind of annoying.

24th November 2011	#6
havanagilaboy Gear interested Joined: Sep 2009 Location: Curitiba, Brazil Posts: 21	I haven't had this problem with mine yet. I hope it doesn't start anytime soon, but I'm glad I've got my ensemble handy... A little bit off topic though, please excuse my stupid question, but how do I process stereo effects from the Aux sends (for live stuff)? What I have done so far is just use mono reverb, or use Aux 1 and 2 returning to Aux 1 but I want to learn how to do it right as stereo adds a lot more. I can't find specific instructions on how to do this anywhere. is the Aux Send stereo or Mono? Do I use a Y cable to send the Aux Send to the reverb processor? Any hints or links to other threads would be helpful.