MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK REVIEW
Posted on Thu 14 April 2011 in entries
Remember those little black liquorice flavoured chewy sweets that used to be available for a penny from your local corner shop? They were the ones you used to buy as a kid as a last resort if all the Fruit Salads and Apple flavoured ones had run out, and they turned your tongue, teeth and gums a dark black/purple colour so your mum could always tell that you had blown your pocket money on junk yet again! They were called Blackjacks as well, and as far as I’m aware they still make them… although of course their price has now risen, and they don’t feature that little sweetie-man cartoon on the paper! Well, yeah, not too sure where I was going with that… just went into reminisce mode and started writing… never a good idea! But I guess you’re more interested in learning about the Mackie Onyx Blackjack rather than retro sweets? So that’s what I’ll fill you in on… although if anyone else wants to join my nostalgic look back at sugary treats from the past, feel free to post your suggestions as a comment at the bottom of this blog (anyone for Nerds, Runts or Opal Fruits? Or this advert....)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2EA8MhCBTp4
MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK – WHAT IS IT?
The Mackie Onyx Blackjack is an extremely compact 2 input/2 output premium USB recording interface that is on the market for a truly fantastic price. Incorporating the same quality preamps as other high-end products in the Onyx range, the Mackie Onyx Blackjack with it’s miniature design, is the perfect solution for the budget home studio. Other features of the Blackjack include high-end AD/DA converters, built-in DIs, phantom power and true analogue hardware monitoring of inputs for hassle-free zero-latency tracking, in either mono or stereo. With a single USB connection, the Mackie Onyx Blackjack can be powered from (and communicate data with) the computer. What’s more is that it is compatible with both Mac and PC platforms, and can work alongside most major DAWs (e.g. Logic, Pro Tools 9, Cubase, Ableton, SONAR, etc etc etc), so whoever you are, and whatever setup you have, you should be able to get up and running with the Mackie Onyx Blackjack in no time.
MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK – UNBELIEVABLE PREAMPS
Quality preamps are key to professional recordings… and with the Onyx Blackjack you will not be disappointed. At this price point, you won’t find anything with better preamps than the Blackjack… as I have already mentioned, they are exactly the same as the ones featured in the much more expensive products in the Onyx range. Mackie state that they put a lot of time and money into researching the preamps for the Onyx range, and that they came up with something that meets (and sometimes surpasses) expensive, esoteric standalone mic pres in terms of fidelity, headroom and transparency, and they also feature improved radio frequency (RFI) rejection and ultra-wide dynamic range. Plus, the Blackjack preamps give you a massive 60dB range of gain! Again, this is ridiculously good for such a budget interface!
MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK – HIGH-QUALITY AD/DA CONVERSION
What would be the point in having amazing preamps and poor converters for recording? The answer is, there wouldn’t be much point! Luckily the Mackie Onyx Blackjack is fully equipped in this area as well then, featuring Cirrus Logic converters, which offer 114dB dynamic range (A-weighed). The built-in analogue-to-digital converters are linked seamlessly with the professional preamps to give you the most headroom and lowest noise and distortion possible, which all contributes to the quality of the overall sound, and is something that you will not find on many budget interfaces. Again, for this level of quality to be featured on such a highly affordable interface is extraordinary!
MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK – GOODBYE LATENCY!
Yes, that’s right, the Mackie Onyx Blackjack features zero-latency recording. Latency (a delay in the signal) is often a problem in digital recording, caused by the signal having to pass through the digital circuitry, and if you have ever had latency problems before, you will know just how annoying it is! To get around this problem, Mackie have completely eliminated the cause of this problem, the digital signal path, and replaced it with a completely analogue one, going all the way from the preamps to the studio monitors and headphones! So now, when you strum your guitar or speak down a microphone, you will hear it instantly in the headphones/monitor speakers with no delay! Plus, since the monitoring is all being dealt with within the Blackjack, you are free to adjust your computers buffer settings to maximise your computers performance, without worrying about increasing the latency! Now that’s what we like to hear!
MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK – PROFESSIONAL FEATURES
If you want the tools to produce a professional recording, then you will not be disappointed with what the Blackjack has to offer as it gives you everything you need to carry out the job. For starters, the Mackie Blackjack supplies each channel with a dedicated Gain dial that ranges from -20dB to +40dB, and so gives you a huge range to configure the levels of your incoming Mic/Line/Instrument signals (you can switch between line level and Instrument/Hi Z level (for guitars) by pressing the toggle button next to the specific channel). Each channel also features a dedicated bi-polar LED, which lights up green if the channel is receiving a signal and red if your signal is clipping – this is a fantastic quick reference tool, and means that you don’t need to keep glancing at your computer when setting levels.
The Mackie Onyx Blackjack also features an input monitor section, where you can use a toggle button to select whether you would prefer to monitor in mono or stereo, and adjust the mix between any audio being played back from your computer, and the signals being received at the Blackjack's input. As I’ve already mentioned, this section follows a pure analogue signal path! Finally, the Blackjack features a Phantom Power button (with LED indicator), and those separate monitor and headphone dial controls that I mentioned earlier. Plus it even comes with Mackie’s Tracktion 3 Music Production software (for Mac and PC), so you can get recording straight out of the box without having to make any additional software purchases!
MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK – THE BUILD
The build of the Mackie Onyx Blackjack has to be one of the most impressive things about this budget interface, because it really is amazing! I have worked with, and reviewed a number of budget interfaces in the past, and the majority of them have obviously cut corners in this department to reduce costs, because I’ve experienced flimsy plastic cases, wobbly dials, loose buttons... the lot! In fact I can honestly say that the Mackie Onyx Blackjack has the best build for a budget interface that I have ever come across! With it’s all-metal outer body, this thing is about as sturdy as you can get! In fact if you watch the short video below, you can see the Mackie guy actually batter another interface with it (0:52)! However I would probably not recommend doing this with yours… if all you want to do is cause carnage by taking out your anger on poor helpless audio interfaces, then a hammer is a much cheaper option!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmB5qlSrBJU
And the second great thing about the build of the Mackie Onyx Blackjack is it’s tilted design. Even on one of my favourite budget interfaces, the Alesis IO2, it (like most cheap interfaces) has a design flaw in that when it sits on your desk, the controls point upwards towards the ceiling. Whilst this becomes less of a problem with time once you learn to feel your way around the interface, it really is nice to see what you are doing without having to lean forwards to peer over your desk. The design of the Onyx Blackjack allows it to sit neatly on your workstation with it’s controls all tilted conveniently towards you at an angle of 25 degrees, so you never have this problem!
MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK – CONNECTIONS
The Mackie Onyx Blackjack delivers the bare minunimum connections required for a budget 2 × 2 interface, but then again, for a product of this size, price, and quality, you cannot really expect any more. On the front panel you have your stereo headphone output, and on the back the Mackie Onyx Blackjack gives you a USB socket, two balanced/unbalanced monitor output 1/4" jack connections, and 1/4" jack/XLR combo input connections to hook up microphones, guitars, or other instruments!
MACKIE ONYX BLACKJACK – SUMMARY
If you are after a small, 2 × 2 budget interface then you simply have to consider the Mackie Onyx Blackjack. After experiencing it myself, I may well have found my new favourite budget interface! First and foremost, it sounds absolutely amazing, and you can tell that this thing employs quality pre-amps. Secondly of course is it’s build, which makes it a real treat to work with. In fact, in terms of build this thing blows many far more expensive products out of the water. I own a MOTU Traveler Mk3, which is absolutely phenomenal in terms of audio quality and features, and retails for around £800, but in terms of build I have to admit that the budget Mackie is superior!
However, with all these positive things to say about the Mackie, I have to balance out the review by telling you the down-sides to the Mackie Onyx Blackjack. Firstly, there are no MIDI connections. This thing is purely an audio interface, and for that reason I think that it will unfortunately put a lot of people off buying it. In terms of connections, the Mackie is also lacking in S/PDIF inputs and outputs, although I envisage this to be less of a problem for most people. There is also no pad feature for when you are recording unusually high signal levels, and the Mackie Onyx can only record at 44.1kHz and 48kHz sample rates. However, this shouldn’t be a problem for most home studios, as 48kHz is still superior to CD quality, and using a bit depth of 24, you can still achieve professional sounding recordings. Also, please note that the Mackie Onyx Blackjack is USB 1.1 powered, which is significantly slower than Firewire and USB 2.0. I’m guessing that Mackie chose to do this to cut down on costs, and whilst I can’t see this being too much of a problem, I for one would have preferred it if they had made the Mackie Blackjack a little more expensive and implemented USB 2.0 technology… although you may disagree!
So, the decision is in your hands. If you desperately need MIDI or S/PDIF connections, or more inputs/outputs, or of course an interface capable of recoding at higher sampling rates, then the Blackjack won’t satisfy your needs, and you should look elsewhere. However, if you only require 2 inputs and 2 outputs to route audio, then I cannot think of anything better than the Mackie Onyx Blackjack… and don’t just take my word for it, check the customer reviews under the ‘Reviews’ tab on the product page and see what others have to say on it! And if you want to, why not add your own review to let people know of your experiences?
I’m Joe, you have been reading my Absolute Music Mackie Onyx Blackjack review… over and out! For more information on the Mackie Blackjack, click the link below: