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Before I get into it, I'm looking at two mixer/usb audio interfaces: the Mackie Onyx 12 and the Tascam Model 12. These both have very similar setups, with some nuanced differences. But essentially, they both do the same thing: you can record onto the mixer using an SD card with zero-latency, record strait into a DAW channel for channel, on-board effects, EQs for each channel, bluetooth connectivity, stereo channels, etc etc etc.

Aside from these similarities and differences, they are the exact same price and they are both fairly new. The Mackie boards aren't available until September and there isn't a lot of information or reviews out there yet. There's a ton on the Tascam Model series--which has been out since mid-2020. So far everyone seems to absolutely love the Model 12.

So, this seems to boil down to the pres, and maybe even the EQ section. Does anyone have any personal experience with either the Mackie Onyx or the Tascam Ultra-HDDA pres? What is your opinion on the British-style Perkins EQ on the Mackies vs the less sexy worded Tascam EQs?

Tascam has traditionally made decent gear. I had a bad experience w/ an Onyx interface going bad on me.

I can't comment on the Tascam, but I have an Onyx 1640 which has Perkins EQ and likely the same or similar pres.

We're not talking high-end 'sweetening' and suchlike, which you won't really get without spending megawonga - but the EQ is probably as good as you're likely to get at this level. Don't overdo it and things will be fine.

Similarly the pre's are decent for the money. They actually overdrive quite nicely on some material when you push them (though some people claim it's only the old CR1604 has that 'magic').

My guess would be that the circuit block of the mic pres are extremely similar on both these units. I've owned a Tascam USB IO and the preamps were pretty quiet and usable, but do not have a lot of dynamic range. I've mixed live on Mackie Onyx boards and found the preamps to be comparable but maybe a little better than the Mackie VLZ preamps but not by any leaps and bounds. They also have very low dynamic range. By this I mean it is very easy to push them into clip, even before you get a good signal to the master bus. My Allen Heath I use at home is similar, but a little better than any Mackie I've used. I usually run the Fader at full and bring the pre gain up a little less. It helps.

For home recording I bet they are both fine and I doubt one is monstrously superior. A friend had a Mackie IO and had a ton of problems with the drivers. And I found Tascam Drivers to be lacking as well. If I was recording with either of these into a DAW, I probably wouldn't use any EQ and just do that in the DAW, but I own too many plugins.

These are great, useful answers. Thank you!