5
Owner’s Manual
Owner’
s Manual
Introduction
Thank you for choosing a Mackie Onyx 1200F profes-
sional audio interface for live or studio analog or digital
audio recording. The 1200F is equipped with twelve
of our Onyx Series precision-engineered studio-grade
microphone preamps, designed for the digital era and
offering the newest features and latest technologies for
live sound reinforcement and analog or digital studio
recording in a durable, road-worthy package. Its selec-
tion of analog and digital output options provides the
flexibility to connect in almost any application (includ-
ing an HDR in standalone mode).
Mackie is renowned for the high-quality mic preamps
used in our mixers, and the Onyx mic pre’s are better
than ever, with specifications rivaling other stand-alone
boutique mic preamplifiers at twice the price.
Channels 1 and 2 have balanced send and return in-
sert jacks for connecting to an external signal processor.
Channels 11 and 12 feature an unbalanced instrument
input jack and select switch, which lets you connect an
acoustic, electric, or bass guitar pickup directly to the
preamp, eliminating the need for an external direct box.
Channels 1-12 have Neutrik™ Combo input connec-
tors, which allows you to use either a 1/4” TRS connec-
tor or an XLR connector. A 48V switch is provided for
each channel and applies phantom power to pins 2 and
3 of the channel’s XLR input connector.
Two pairs of balanced control room monitor outputs
are provided for connecting to powered monitors (or
power amplifier/monitor combination), and can be
sourced from the audio streams for any adjacent pair
of analog outputs, stereo headphone outputs, or the
S/PDIF or AES/EBU outputs.
Eight channels of analog balanced line outputs are
provided on a DB-25 connector. Two channels of digital
inputs and outputs are provided on two S/PDIF RCA-
type connectors and two AES/EBU XLR connectors. Up to
30 input channels and 34 output channels of digital I/O
(at 44.1/48 kHz) are provided on the FireWire connec-
tors (see chart below). There are two FireWire connec-
tors so the Onyx 1200F can be placed in a daisy-chain
FireWire connection. Two pairs of ADAT optical con-
nectors are included, which provide up to 16 channels
of ADAT formatted digital I/O (16 channels at 44.1/48
kHz and 8 channels at 88.2/96 kHz). Two sets of MIDI
IN/OUT connectors are provided for sending and receiv-
ing MIDI information.
The Onyx 1200F is designed to be a transparent audio
interface for direct tracking to a DAW recording applica-
tion on a PC or Mac. All 30 inputs are directly available
to the DAW application over the FireWire connection
(when operating at 44.1/48 kHz). The Console software
application allows you to route any input to any analog
or digital output on the 1200F, along with a pair of out-
puts from the DAW. This provides you with the choice of
direct monitoring, without going through the FireWire
connection and DAW software (zero latency), or moni-
toring through the DAW application.
You can provide a separate mix for each of the four
headphone outputs from any of the inputs and from two
of the outputs from the DAW. A talkback mic can be
routed to the four headphone outputs, operated from a
front panel button or a footswitch.
The Onyx 1200F Console Settings tab allows you to
choose the sample rate (44.1, 48, 88.2, 96, 176.4, or
192 kHz) for the internal A/D and D/A converters. You
can select the clock source from an external clock con-
nected to the external word clock (WordClk) input con-
nector on the rear panel, from the S/PDIF or AES/EBU
input, from the ADAT 1 or ADAT 2 input, or from the
internal clock. You can turn the DSP Mixer on and off,
which allows you to operate the 1200F as a matrix mixer
with digital streams to a computer (DSP ON), or as a
standalone digital audio interface with digital streams
to and from a computer (DSP OFF). You can select
which inputs are routed to the Control Room outputs,
and whether the S/PDIF I/O is formatted for consumer
or professional status. You can adjust the buffer size
(latency), and select which I/O audio streams are active
on the FireWire connection.
Qty
Inputs
ASIO/Core Audio Stream
12
Mic/Line Inputs
1-12
8
Digital A Inputs
13-20
8
Digital B Inputs
21-28
2
S/PDIF/AES Inputs
29-30
30
Total Inputs
Onyx 1200F Input/Output Chart
Qty
Outputs ASIO/Core Audio Stream
8
Analog Outputs
1-8
8
Digital A Outputs
9-16
8
Digital B Outputs
17-24
8
Headphone Outputs (4x2) 25-32
2
S/PDIF/AES Outputs
33-34
34
Total Outputs
Note: The ASIO/Core Audio Stream assignments shown here apply when 44.1/48 kHz sample rate is selected.
At higher sample rates, the digital outputs are multiplexed using the S/MUX format, which reduces the number of
ASIO/Core Audio channels available for streaming. You can choose the inputs and outputs that are streamed to the DAW
at the higher sample rates in the Console’s Settings window.
