5
Owner’s Manual
Owner’
s Manual
Introduction
Thank you for choosing the Mackie Onyx Satellite
professional audio interface for studio and mobile
digital audio recording. The Onyx Series computer audio
interfaces are designed for the digital era and offer the
newest features and latest technologies for digital stu-
dio recording in a durable, road-worthy package.
The Onyx Satellite is equipped with two of our new
premium precision-engineered studio-grade Onyx mic
preamps. 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.
The Onyx Satellite is designed to be a transparent au-
dio interface for direct tracking and mixdown, using high
performance 24-bit/96 kHz converters to provide wide
dynamic range and low noise. It works with virtually any
ASIO/Core Audio compliant DAW software application on
a PC or Mac as a 2x6 audio interface.
The unique docking feature allows you to set up the
Onyx Satellite in your studio, and leave it connected to
multiple mic, line, and instrument sources and studio
monitors, while “undocking” the portable pod to use
on location. This gives you the freedom to take the pod
into the field for overdubbing projects or live recordings
without having to constantly patch and unpatch the
cables that are connected to the base station.
The pod features a Neutrik™ Combo input connector
on channels 1-2, which allows you to use either a 1/4"
TRS connector or an XLR connector. A global 48V switch
applies phantom power to both XLR input connectors.
Channels 1 and 2 also feature an instrument select
switch, which lets you connect an acoustic, electric,
or bass guitar directly to the 1/4" input, eliminating
the need for an external direct box. The pod also has a
stereo control room output and two stereo headphone
jacks, each with separate level controls (the Control
Room and Phones 1 outputs share a level control), and a
FireWire connector to connect to your laptop.
When the pod is “docked” to the base station, it gains
additional features and expanded input and output ca-
pabilities. The base station has a separate XLR connec-
tor, two 1/4" TRS line-input connectors, and a 1/4" TS
instrument connector for each channel (channels 1-2),
with select switches for each input source. Insert jacks
are also provided for channels 1-2 to send and return
the signal to an external processor. These are pre-ADC
(Analog-to-Digital Converters) so they work great for
compressors and other dynamic processors.
Six channels of analog balanced line outputs are
provided on 1/4" TRS connectors. Two of these can be
used as stereo control room outputs, with an A/B switch
to route the signal to two separate pairs of monitors
for comparison. The built-in talkback microphone can
be routed to the phones/control room output or to the
DAW for slating. A FireWire connector provides a simple
connection to a laptop or desktop computer and allows
the audio to be streamed to and from your software of
choice.
Both units can be powered either directly from the
FireWire bus (when using a six-pin FireWire connector),
or from the 12V DC power supply included in the box.
As a bonus, Tracktion 2 is included with your Onyx
Satellite, our full-featured music production software
application for easy recording, mixing, and mastering on
a PC or Mac.
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POWER
GAIN
GAIN
ON
TO
PHON
ES
TO
DAW
A
B
1-2
1-6
DAW
INPUTS
2
1
MIC
2
1
MIC
Pod
Base Station
Docked
ON
TO
PHON
ES
TO
DAW
A
B
1-2
1-6
DAW
INPUTS
2
1
MIC
2
1
MIC
OL
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POWER
GAIN
GAIN
