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Introduction
O w n e r ’ s M a n u a l
1. Introduction
About the Digital 8•Bus
Thank you for choosing Mackie Designs’
Digital 8•Bus Mixing Console. If you are
unfamiliar with digital mixing consoles, rest
assured you made the right choice. With the
Digital 8•Bus’s easy learning curve, you’ll
quickly realize the benefits it has to offer over
other similarly priced digital consoles. Mackie
didn’t do affordable digital mixers first—we
just did them right!
When Greg Mackie and his handpicked
team of digital design engineers sat down to
design Mackie’s first digital console, they
immediately realized that our digital mixer had
to be extremely user-friendly. With Greg’s track
record in analog mixing design, he knew the
Digital 8•Bus would have to work—and feel—
just like an analog mixer. Experienced audio
pros can sit down in front of any analog mixer
and understand its capabilities very quickly. We
think you’ll find that the Digital 8•Bus reveals
its abilities and assets almost as fast.
Take a look at the D8B. Along the top is the
meter bridge, the channel strips have Input
Trim controls and Mic/Line select switches,
and at the bottom of the strip is a fader. Just
like on an analog console. Between these
beacons of familiarity are a few buttons and a
unique knob that performs multiple functions.
The knob with the LEDs around it is a V-Pot™.
A single V-Pot controls the D8B’s aux sends
and pan, replacing a slew of controls that you
would normally find on an analog mixer.
What about EQ parameters? Equalization
for every channel — all 48 of them — is
controlled by the four V-Pots in the upper-right
section of the Digital 8•Bus’s control panel.
Again, very few V-Pots replace what would
have been a whole lotta knobs.
Back on the channel strip you’ll find mute
and solo buttons, and of course, the inevitable
fader. The D8B’s faders are just like analog
faders. However, because the audio signal is in
digital form, they act as digital controllers that
set the output level from the channel to the
digital mix bus. They’re also motorized for
automation. But aside from their advanced
digital abilities, they’re basically faders.
There’s a whole lot more to the Digital
8•Bus. But the point is, it’s laid out in a way
that makes it as easy to understand and use as
an analog console. You’ll spend much more
time being creative than you will trying to learn
how to operate this digital mixer. Which is
exactly how it should be. You won’t have to
tear through a fat owner’s manual, dig through
a serious nest of computer menus, or perform
tedious command rituals in order to use the
D8B. All you’ll have to do is that creative thing
you do.
The Digital Advantage
So why change? Why go to the trouble of
learning how to use a digital mixing console
when analog has served you well for all these
years? It’s all about choices. Digital technology
provides more flexibility and allows you to be
more creative in less time than with analog
alone. The number of channels and the sheer
magnitude of operations that can be performed
with a digital console would require more than
twice the space in the analog world. In other
words, digital gives you more power in a
smaller package with fewer parts.
Imagine the number of components it takes
to build a 4-band parametric EQ in an analog
mixer. (If you can’t, we’re talking upwards of
100 resistors, capacitors, and integrated
circuits.) Then multiply that by 48 channels. In
the digital domain, this can be accomplished
with a few digital signal processors (DSPs),
more accurately, and at a lower cost. You can
dial in precise frequencies, Qs, and boost/cuts
rather than guessing according to the numbers
on the knob. Or you can click and drag in the
EQ control panel and shape the EQ curve
graphically in real time to achieve the sound
you want.
Affordable Technology
Digital technology is now affordable for
nearly everyone. The Digital 8•Bus has a built-
in 166MHz Pentium
®
-compatible computer that
is dedicated to the powerful on-board Mackie
Real Time OS™ automation system. It has 25
DSPs dedicated to Fat Channel processing
(parametric EQ, compressor, gate), which
together are capable of executing 1 billion
instructions per second (1 gigaflop).
The D8B’s computer supervises all
automation operations. You can automate a
mix, save it, then go back and make changes to
it as many times as it takes to get it right. Save
it to the hard drive or a floppy disk, and you
can recall and repeat it weeks or months later.
All the fader levels, fades, mutes, EQ, dynamics,
and effects settings are stored for future use.
Very handy and efficient.
This much power in a digital console cost
upwards of $200,000 only a few years ago.
Today, it’s available from Mackie Designs for a
whole lot less. A whole lotta less!
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