Mackie ProFX16v3 16-channel Mixer with USB and Effects

I hate writing reviews, but I felt that the Mackie was worth it. In the past, I owned at 1202 vlz pro- not ever turning it off for about 25 years. Yeah, I’m stupid that way. But the point is – the 1202 still works other than having a little bit of issues with one channel but that’s hardware that holds up! The Mackie profx16v3 has surprised me in many ways. I use the aux sends and subgroups way more than I thought I ever would. I have outboard compressors and EQ’s so I’m a bit of a power user but not a pro. I have been making music for over 25 years in that entire time I have only owned mackie mixers, but I’ve also owned universal audio’s stuff, motu, and Behringer audio interfaces. The reason that I bring up other gears that I kind of understand what sounds great, and sort of deduced that it kind of doesn’t matter what you have as long as it has a good noise floor as long as you can use other gear to beef it up. The mackies do with the new Onyx preamps. I looked it up & I think it was like 65dB headroom, it can cost thousands on other better mixers and be only 75db sometimes…so in that regard, another win. The crazy part is, I really like the onboard effects. There’s like no control over any part of them and that’s why I like them. They come really quick in a mix when you just need a little reverb or just a chorus or a stupid echo- I use it a lot! Good job on that too. The reason that I picked the PROFX16V3 was because of the eight channels of inserts. I love inserts on mixers because of the way that you can compress or EQ or put effects on single channels, but still remain in the mix. What I’m messing with now a little bit is that you can use an insert cable that has TS on one side and one TRS on the other side and route every Mackie insert channel to your multi channel audio interface and effectively make it into a tascam 12. … it can do that! I would love to have something like the SSL BIG SIX, but since I can’t afford it, I use this and with some silly pirated plugins on top of this, I sound great enough with the mackie. It’s not audiophile quality but it’s great. The onyx preamps on channels 1-8 can be saturated nicely! When I run out of them I feel sad when I just use the other channels haha. I would buy this again! It’s built really solid and it’s a comfortable mixer for my small studio.

I used to own a Mackie 1402 Series mixer, which was the smallest offered by Mackie that still had faders instead of pot dials. The build of this one is similar, maybe 80% as rugged as the old 1402 series (and subsequent updates) which has been consistently been $450 for over 20 years. My budget was a little lower this time around and opted for this model after pouring over reviews. It was around $300. I trust the brand. I like the included USB interface, but feel like it could have been updated to USB 3 or 4, but it works just fine as is. No driver needed for Mac. The included FX are very basic but handy since I don't own any outboard FX units or pedals. The Onxy Mic PreAmps are very good for a mixer at this price. It was a little tricky finding the rack ears for this model (because of the delay in shipping from non-prime sellers, I purchased from Sweetwater). Once installed in my rolling tilt rack (see my other Amazon reviews) I found the OSHA power cable and the USB cables stick straight out the back / top and interfered with the patch panel I had installed above it, despite the 1 RU space I left for access. After confirming which type of 90 degree replacement cables I needed- it was just 2 simple (under $10) purchases to get the mixer to fit properly. That was VERY specific to my config- but something to be aware of if the mixer is going to live in a rack vs desktop. I RECOMMEND this mixer for Quality and Value. I expect to own this one at least as long as the previous model.

I love my Mixer, I use it for my speaker monitoring system to get the maximum levels out of my recordings. I feed my interface to the mixer and I can easily see how hot my levels are. perfect for live recording and live streaming audio. easy to use works with my Mac, easy to transport, as it is light weight.

Excellent studio mixer. Ideal for poscasting or home producers. Very sturdy, well made, and the knobs and faders are very easy to use. The only issue I have had is making sure you have the correct drivers so that you can use the CJ sole with DAWs. You have to set up the midi routing for each DAW used, and the presets cannot be saved, so you basically have to configure it each time you load the software you’ll be using it with. I have always been pleased with all the Mackie gear I have in my setup. This console is very similar to the Tascam model 12, which costs 2x as much. The main difference between the two is that the Tascam can be used as a standalone recording suite, whereas the Mackie must be connected to a machine and a DAW. All in all good purchase.

Good compromise of features versus portability!

Really good so far, I use it to connect my ddj-sb3 to M-Audio speakers and sounds great

A great Interface for any in the world of voice over. This is my second one!

I’m a professional drummer and use it for click tracks, backing track feeds and personal monitors. It works great. I’ll add a picture of it at a gig later.