Mackie Onyx Artist 1-2 2x2 24-bit/192kHz USB Audio Interface

Mackie Onyx Producer 2x2 Audio Interface. Purchased on Amazon India from seller Sonotone.Background - I was interested in this product Mackie Onyx Producer 2x2 Audio Interface after getting poor experience with Vault AI SOLO! Vault AI SOLO did not understand Windows control panel sound input monitoring settings and always listened-back on speakers no matter what were the settings on it, in DAW as well as in Windows 10!Pros - At 5999 INR Mackie Onyx Producer is a full featured value for money product. The sound quality is quite good for home recording. There’s no noise in signal. I am an amateur so can’t comment about studio quality. I plug in my electric guitar and use Guitar Rig 5 Amp Sim on Windows 10. I am at 85% gain with Hi-Z on. After 90% it gets to add crackling and noise which is normal.On Windows 10 without drivers the product just gets detected as Input Output device in Windows sound control panel. But it gets its full life after installing the Mackie drivers that are available on Mackie website.At 24Bits 48KHz 128 samples I am getting about 5ms input and 5ms output latency which is quite acceptable for amateur work, on Ryzen 5 with 16GB RAM on Windows 10 64.While Mackies’ own ASIO driver is good, you can also opt for third-party options like ASIO4ALL or KoordASIO as well if required. They also work very well with this interface. The interface obeys the Windows 10 Sound Control Panel settings correctly. I am on 64bit 21H2.While it supports Midi In Out I have no experience with that so can’t comment on it at all.Mackie’s own control panel is good but except selecting your device & adjusting sample size, there’s no real need to do any more adjustments therein.Observations - One thing I find lacking on Audio Interfaces is that they do not have any power on/off button. Most modern desktop PC PSUs these days enter standby mode when you shut down Windows. They still provide 5V to USB ports, LAN and other internal circuitry and hence if you do not turn off mains the Interface remains somewhat powered on. While the USB LED turns off on this device, other indicators like Hi-Z or 48V (If were pressed) continue to glow. So on/off button would have been a great addition.Another observation I have is that the Hi-Z or 48V are not exactly toggle buttons. Though their design is elegant, they return to normal position each time they are pressed. So they seem to be electronically controlled inside like a Latching or Momentary push switch method. To visually know that Hi-Z is engaged is to check the glowing LED. The button remains in same position. So in future if the LED fails there will be a bit of inconvenience to find out if Hi-Z is engaged or not. A toggle push button could have been a simpler option.Also note that while the amazon page says ProTools, it has been discontinued by Mackie. So in your package you will only get Waveform OEM license. (Jul-2023) However I already knew it thru my pre-sales interaction with the India dealer Sonotone.Sonotone & Mackie APAC center have been greatly supportive over last few days for my pre and post sales queries.Verdict - Overall go for it. Great value for money. See various photos and screenshots for further details.

The media could not be loaded. Just got this as a portable, it’s brilliant.. I have used many popular brands but for the price it’s got a very solid build the knobs feel premium too and the pre amp is very decent too, audio quality is Solid too, even the latency is minimal, Just go for it …

Build quality is good. Unable to record dual channel in audacity. Tired all sorts of fixes. Phantom power feels inefficient.

Very Good for recording , replying . I like sound quality and easy to use. It is working most of DAWs

Great Audio Interface for XLR Microphone.Built like a tank. Literally.Has enough bit rate and bit depth.Headphones doesn't sound as good as plugging it directly into the computer. It does sound a bit muffled and bloated.Another issue is most of the gain is at the last few steps of the knob disabling users from micro adjustments and using knob to it's full potential.

I have been eyeing this product for a long time and primarily this is being sold by Sonotone during this time of lurking I have observed that Sonotone tends to first send a defective product betting on the fact that the buyer could be a first-time user of any audio equipment and might not know if they got a faculty product and might not return it. Even I fall into the same category of user but for me the product that they sent to me was very obviously defective, fortunately I was in amazon return window so managed to get a new one (Some of the other buyers in the review weren't so lucky and they were asked to courier the product back) . So Sonotone stop this dubious tactic, Even their support team is not very professional, they would bounce around your call and avoid talking to you and sometimes straight away hang up on your face. They just don't simply care about you.Coming to the product, Built quality is good, all metal construction, knobs are good. it is one of those product that you could use for life. But unfortunately the pre-amps on this is not very strong so they can't drive your Dynamic mic like XM8500, SM58 much. Gain set at knob set just shy away from max you might get only -30/-24 DBFs of audio levels. Hence you have to boost the level at post so forget to use this in online meetings or streaming situations which was my primary use case unless you use realtime effects which is too much work who needs a simple setup. Haven't tested this with a condenser mic but those anyway require less gain.

Excellent product under budget with best quality output I'm using for audio mixing.

Good product