Mackie 1640i I/O diagram

[OutbackStudios]

I just purchased a Mackie 1640i and was wondering if anyone had a diagram for the I/Os or know where to find one.

[Darryl Ramm]

You after a schematic? Mackie usually put those in their documentation. There is nothing there?

[OutbackStudios]

I bought it second hand.

[OutbackStudios]

Any idea where I can find a schematic. I found a manual online but it just shows to hook the Mackie up physically and not internally into pro tools.

[Darryl Ramm]

schematic on page 33.

I am not following what more you need. What exactly is the problem you are trying to solve? You are trying to use this mixer as the interface in Pro Tools? You have the driver installed and the correct playback engine selected? And have defaulted all the IO?

If defaulting the IO in Pro Tools does not create what you need, everything you need is in that schematic, with maybe a little playing around for you to create/tweak your own IO settings.

BTW Mackie generally get failing grades for their drivers with this series mixers, so what exact issues are you having? Does it work at all?

[OutbackStudios]

I'm about to try it tonight. I was just wondering how to set up my I/Os on pro tools so I can have external hardware and what not. I don't know what number every output is on the 1640i is.

[OutbackStudios]

I was just wondering how to set up my ins and outs on pro tools. That's all.

[Darryl Ramm]

I forgot these mixers don't have/need drivers for OS X and I doubt Mackie provides IO templates. But everything you need is in that schematic diagram. These are just 16x16 interfaces. In the simplest form the 16 FireWire inputs on the mixer go to the FireWire ins on each of the 16 track inputs, and the 16 FireWire outputs come from each track. You get to change this on the mixer to steal track 1-2 inputs for main bus or control room out, or to send aux bus outs instead of some of the channel outs. You don't even need the schematic, the FireWire button labels all over the front of the mixer tell you exactly what IO channel they are affecting. You can name this stuff in your own IO setup if you want, but Pro Tools has no idea what you actually set any of the FireWire routing/configured buttons in the mixer to.

[OutbackStudios]

I just needed to know how to hook up external effects and headphone outs through Pro Tools.

[Darryl Ramm]

... and you have everything you need to know right?

You need to do some work to understand the circuit diagram and play around confirming things work as you expect. If you have a specific question like where something there is not working as you expect then ask away. The way all this works is very straightforward once you've played with any mixer like this.

And I don't want to flog this dead horse any more but you've mentioned "external effects", like effects in the rack or external effects boxes? Your firewire inputs on the rack goes into the head of each channel just after the mic preamp, you select them with the little firewire button at the top of each channel strip... and look at that schematic, the first thing the signal goes to is a hardware insert. That's normally where you'd plug outboard effects boxes using a special three way "insert cable". These mixers don't have a whole row of dedicated firewire outputs, the outputs are inputs to each track (and two 1&2 can be stolen for control room and/or main outs), but that is pretty much standard fare.

Start by just connecting the mixer, selecting it as system audio output and playing a iTunes or similar to the device. That music will arrive on Firewire IO channel 1&2 and either go to the track 1 & 2 inputs or the Main Outputs and/or Control Room Outputs depending on how you have the 1&2/monitor buttons pressed. Headphones on the mixer are hardwired to the control room outputs. You have lots of additional flexibility with software and hardware monitors/cue mixes by working in Pro Tools and aux busses in the mixer and driving outboard headphone amps.

Don't get too carried away with thinking some random outboard effects box is going to be great. Most users are likely much better off dealing with plugin effects. Gorgeous outboard preamps and compressors on an input chain... sure I'd argue they can be great.

I hope you purchased this mixer for real live use, band practice or whatever, they can be great for that, but not *just* to use as an interface. Dedicated audio interfaces are frequently a better choice for that.