How The Console Measures and How It Sounds

I’m happy to report that the Mackie plugged in, turned on and ran. It has proved to be generally robust and unfussy, with one caveat: it seems sensitive to start-up sequence, and wants to be the first on the block to be running, any given morning. This isn’t a big problem, but it’ll bag you occasionally when you need to power down the console for some reason and then reboot it. If you forget to power down everything else, it may hang on rebooting, or worse, start just fine but lose some functions that you don’t discover for a while. Makes you think you’ve lost your mind. Beyond that little bit of cyber-temperament, the console seems quite stable and reliable.

Analog I/O

I measured the analog throughput and was very pleased with the numbers I got: essentially flat from 5 Hz. to 22 kHz., with a noise floor close to 90 dB below 0 dBV. Distortion was practically unmeasurable across the bandwidth.

More to the point, the console sounds really good. Effortless, open, transparent and clean. I get a number of people who come into my room for the simple purpose of checking out their masters over my monitors. Nobody has ragged on the sound quality of the Mackie. Nobody has ever asked, “Is the console in?”

Sonically, the console does the job just fine, thank you. End of story.

Digital I/O

The digital I/O has been extremely well thought out and implemented. I have had comparatively few clock woes, and most of what I’ve had can be traced to folks other than Mackie, except for the d8b’s susceptibility to confusion by any device it senses upon start-up.

The sample-rate conversion is a nice touch, as are the Digital I/O cards’ accommodation of both Alesis and Tascam formats.

DSP

The channel DSP is perfectly adequate, easy to use, and quite controllable. I have minor quibbles and preferences, but I’ve got to say, if you can’t produce really good recordings on this console with this DSP, you’re in a heap of trouble and probably should consider another line of work.

With that said, I was underwhelmed by the IVL stuff, and always went for my house reverb over Mackie’s. I enjoyed some of the small-room ambiences I could get, and liked the stereo delays. The in-channel DSP sounded good, was very precise and predictable, and got the job done.

Automation

I didn’t get a lot of time to work with the automation. What I tried worked fine, and I have little doubt that the automation will work as advertised. That said, it is obvious from the manual (OS 2.0 particularly) that a lot of development (and in-studio, in-session) time has been spent on making the automation really suitable for multitrack mixdown production. Integration of snapshot and dynamic automation modes seems to be good, and Mackie has gone to a great deal of trouble to make the automation do the things that it turns out we really need to be able to do when we’re mixing.

Dither

The Digital I/O cards make Apogee’s UV22 dither available at two different levels. The explanation and control of this is less than totally satisfactory, but nonetheless, you can re-dither 20-bit recordings using this system if you desire when mixing down to 16-bit masters. A small difference, but some people really like it. Beyond that, there is no discussion or management of word length issues.

Using The Console in Production

I was able to use the console for a number of production efforts, including some multi-track mixing (including a session mixing surround). I did some educational production in stereo, and a fair amount of your basic testing, critical listening and daily studio work. The console was easy to use, effective and reliable. Its forte is serious pop multitrack music production.

Gripes

This is a really good console, but it is not perfect. Let’s run down some of the things I didn’t like.

• Slating – The lack of slating capability is a startling oversight. Getting voice communication to the buses as well as to the headphones is a critical console function for studio operations. A LF slate tone is also nice, even in this digital age.
• Oscillator – The lack of an oscillator is a serious deficiency regarding levels management. An oscillator is an essential tool for testing, proof of performance and diagnostics. A digital oscillator, with calibrated levels, is a must for digital consoles.
• Meter Flexibility, Ballistics and Resolution – Ah yes, the meters. First off, they only show pre-fader levels. Useful, but sadly incomplete. Makes mixing harder than it needs to be. Fortunately, this is reparable by software revision. Ditto with the ballistics, which are curious. They aren’t the same for the master stereo buses as they are for the channels, and they are neither peak nor RMS. This is not too troublesome during most mixing, but really difficult during premastering operations. What are the peak levels? What are the RMS levels? You can’t tell. You need to be able to.
Finally, although Mackie describes the meters as having 24 segments, in fact they are doubled up, so that there are only twelve different level discriminations between – 50 and 0 dBFS. 5 dB per increment at +4 dBu is too coarse. Unfortunately, I suspect this flaw is hardwired and not amenable to software revision.

The metering leaves a lot to be desired.


• No level verification on channels – There is no level information for the channel levels (it is present, though, for the aux levels). It is nice to know for sure that two channels have identical levels. A related gripe is that the mic preamp trim pots were not in alignment, so that similar settings yield levels differing by up to several dB.

Raves

Those gripes aside, there are some really nice things as well:

• Channel linking – Being able to configure two channels to relate to each other in flexible ways makes the handling of stereo viable, and the inverse muting is a really nice, thoughtful touch.
• Fat Channel Implementation – I found the Fat Channel really easy to use. A and B memories, the flexibility of the pages and the nice screen graphics all help. The ergonomics of hand-flow over the console also seem nicely thought out. In production, this is a key work area of the console. Mackie has really done well here.
• Size – This small console packs in a great deal of capability but doesn’t feel at all crowded. The “split” console format really paid off here.
• Enough I/Os – God bless those 12 analog aux sends and 8 analog bus outs, plus the 24 analog ins! At last, a digital console that will function in an analog world!
• Robustness – As I say, I plugged it in and it ran. Meanwhile, build quality seems excellent, and I have no doubt this console will last for years.
• V-pots – The V-Pots are awfully well done, I think. Easy to use, easy to see in any light conditions, and the little “unity” tally light is great!
• Documentation – The general quality of the documentation is excellent. Comprehensive, well-written documentation is rare, and Mackie did it very well. It makes coming to terms with a complex piece of gear like this, never an simple task, much much easier.

Console Philosophy

This leads us to the issue of console design philosophies. Different consoles reflect the different worldviews of their designers. In the case of Mackie, that worldview focuses on multitrack rock ‘n roll studio recording. By tradition, this approach requires lots of channels and redundancy, really comprehensive signal processing, powerful and flexible automation, reliability and plenty of signal routing capability. Less important are diagnostics, niceties of levels management, and some of the precision required for mastering and premastering operations.

Summary

You can’t build a console like this to a price point like this and BE everything to everybody. Choices gotta be made, compromises considered, costs cut. Mackie focused their vision very well, I think, and came up with a helluva console.

We’re in a rapidly changing world. MDMs have matured. Hard disk recording and robust DAWs are beginning to establish themselves as standards. It begins to be reasonable to ask, “Do I really need a console?” The answer is still yes, I think. DAWs still do not provide the array of production aids and services, I/Os and other essentials needed for most production work.

Meanwhile, the Mackie d8b is a product that successfully straddles the blurry boundary between DAW and discrete multitrack console. With its proprietary operating system and an active and ongoing software development process, the d8b is staying remarkably current and appropriate in the face of a volatile production environment. With the introduction of Mackie’s hard disk recorder, the d8b looks more like a DAW than ever. It also has a VERY good balance of capacity and features for a broad range of work.

So, would I buy a d8b? Sure, especially if I was doing a lot of multitrack production and mix work. As long as you’re not too tweaked about levels management, this console has got it all. Plenty o’ channels, DSP, flexibility and redundancy, nice automation, and above all, it sounds great.