Product Description
The Mackie ProFX8 is designed to get your live performance up and running. It’s an 8-channel mixer featuring 4 high-headroom, low-noise mic preamps (for hooking up microphones for vocals, acoustic guitar, etc, into your performance), 3-band EQ on each channel (for tweaking each input to fit better in the mix), a built in DI (for directly connecting your electric guitar or bass), in-built FX, a 7-band Graphic EQ, and more, which I hope to tell you about in this blog entry. Plus, all these professional features sit inside an immensely strong outer casing to protect it from life on the road, and it comes at a truly remarkable price. With all the features you should need to get your performance set-up quicker, make it sound better and run smoother
If you take a look at the back of the Mackie ProFX8, as well as the power lead connection and the two Balanced Left and Right outputs, you should also be able to see a single USB connection. Why would you need a USB connection? Well, you can use it to record your performances/mixes in real-time, by routing the audio to a connected laptop! This gives you the opportunity to listen back to your performance and revel in your awesomeness (or cringe when you relive the moment you hit 14 wrong notes in a row), or build up a library of live performances to release a live CD! Even better, if you don’t already own a piece of professional recording software (such as a DAW), then there is no need to go out and buy some… the Mackie ProFX8 ships with a copy of Traktion 3 Music Production Software, which gives you all the tools you need to get recording straight away! And the USB connection even works the other way, allowing you to stream music from your laptop to the connected speakers during breaks!
The Mackie ProFX8 also features an additional ‘USB Thru’ switch (found on the front panel above the monitor section), which allows for an innovative live/recording set-up when using performance software such as Ableton Live or Reason. This control allows you to stream the output of your live performance software (or any other software such as iTunes if you so desire) into the ProFX8, combine it with any signal from a connected mic or instrument, and then send everything back to your computer for recording! This makes recording your full live performances easier than ever before, and is something I can guarantee that you will appreciate if you perform with software/hardware combinations.
