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Author Topic: MACKIE ONYX FAMILY FIREWIRE  (Read 7740 times)

30SecondHERO

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MACKIE ONYX FAMILY FIREWIRE
« on: June 06, 2006, 08:49:14 PM »

WOW - I have just been 2 months of sheer hell with Mackie trying to get this to work with my Fujitsu N Series laptop. (2.8Ghz P4 with HT, 60Gb/512 RAM/Radeon 9000)
Afetr all this time I find out not only will it not ever work due to IRQ conflicts, but MANY if not MOST PC laptops actually will NEVER work with the ONYX firewire.

I have to sell one or the other or build another PC to support the ONYX 1220. The problem is, MACKIE has no idea what motherboardds or chipsets will support their ASIO driver...so there is a GREAT CHANCE you will run into the same problem over and over! They have NO hardware compatability list, whatsoever!
It is strictly hit-or-miss, even by their own techs advice.

the short of buying the ONYX firewire interface is to have a MAC laptop, even though it is freely advertised to work with ALL PCs. They absolutely refuse to release any sort of HCL for PCs, which has to be taken as a VERY BAD SIGN.

The ONYX in reality only works with a very few PCs, and MACKIE will not release which manufacturers these are. On their forums, I have seen that DELL, Toshiba, Fujitsu are qll makers who have hardware that will NEVER work with the ONYX. There are no workarounds, including PCMCIA. Their driver is really, really crappy/unstable is my gut reaction...Mackie blames the laptop makers...I really dont care whose fault it is, I just wish I would have known - BEWARE - check your device manager and see how many devices are on the same IRQ or risk $$$!!

They bury this info VERY DEEP and it is almost impossible to find.
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Kurt Foster

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Re: MACKIE ONYX FAMILY FIREWIRE
« Reply #1 on: June 08, 2006, 07:24:02 PM »

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you can find a resolution for the problem. There used to be a guy called OPUS 1 who was a mod at another site who really knew his way around this stuff. If I recall, he works for Apogee. His real name is Gary Brenner. Perhaps you can look him up. IMO he's one of the best in the country for that kind of thing.

I have noticed that a lot of hardware drivers seem to have issues with pre configured PC from companies like Dell, Compaq, HP etc. This is because the turn key systems are not configured for music aps in most cases even though they sometimes claim to be.

On another note, I am not surprised that Mackie is of no help to you. My personal feeling is that their whole business from the start was built on stretching the truth. Yes, their stuff is built like a tank and is very road-able. I think it is great for PA work but the sonics have never been there for recording applications.

They continue to release a new line or upgrade every couple years touting it as, "Comparable to boutique products costing 3 times as much". My ass! When pigs fly. I have become so disgusted by them I'm not even willing to waste my time listening to or using any of their new products. They can take their "Perkins EQ" and the "Onyx" and put it where the sun don't shine for all I care.
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30SecondHERO

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Re: MACKIE ONYX FAMILY FIREWIRE
« Reply #2 on: June 08, 2006, 08:08:21 PM »

BRAVO! Sounds remarkably similar to my last few emails to Mackie's "technical support" dept. oh well ... live and learn yet again ... it just gets tiring when it turns out to be the same lesson, over and over. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR .. usually...unless of course, we are talking about musical equipment manufacturers. "They probably wont make it anyway, so who cares - its just a hobby, anyway"
I wonder how many times their marketing depts sit around and rationalize blatant ripoffs with statements like these
If I ever do make it big I fully intend on bleeding them out in full view of the public eye
It may be that these firewire issues are the PC maker's fault, it still doesnt excuse Mackie from marketing how PC-friendly and "one-touch" they advertise everything even on the Mackie home page is what I told them and they told me I was "over the line". Barred me from their forums and wont return my emails because I continued asking for a HCL. They say there are none. So I still have no idea what PC to build to support it, as in, what MB and chipset will support it. They should state that it requires its own IRQ with the processor, its that simple.
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db

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Re: MACKIE ONYX FAMILY FIREWIRE
« Reply #3 on: September 10, 2006, 05:37:24 PM »

I've had no problems with the Firewire Option in an Onyx 1640 on an old Dell laptop nor any problems with a Sony Vaio.  I did download the newer control panel (driver) from Mackie (why is the new driver version 1.0 ?), and also am using the Traction 2 software rather than the 1.6 that came with the option card.

I have had some lock-up troubles when tryng to use SONAR. It's only SONAR that's locking up, the OS is still fine.  Cakewalk Tech Support tells me to change the driver modem from WDM to either MME or ASIO, but I've not had a chance to try that with 16 tracks.
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diblasio

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Re: MACKIE ONYX FAMILY FIREWIRE
« Reply #4 on: December 14, 2006, 07:54:25 PM »

I haven't had any problems on my IBM R40, my Dell D600, nor a amd athlon setup with the dreaded via kt600 chipset. I should note that I did have to disable my wireless cards on all of those systems to make the dropouts, beeps go away. I have an onyx 1220 with the firewire expansion.
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jaybee

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Re: MACKIE ONYX FAMILY FIREWIRE
« Reply #5 on: January 23, 2007, 01:11:30 PM »

might want to take a look at CEntrance.
They have a replacement driver.

www.CEntrance.com/store

seems like the ppl over at the mackie forum are quite happy with its performance

forums.mackie.com
search: CEntrance

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Daniel Jackson

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Re: MACKIE ONYX FAMILY FIREWIRE
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2007, 11:32:09 PM »

I've got the satellite.
It's not everything I thought it would be, but it does its thing very well.
No real problems with firewire for me, I've used a Dell laptop, an Acer tablet (long story...), a custom built system with an Asus MB, and I've been happy.
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