Mackie 24.8 gain distortion tutorial

[@maximilianhf3896]

10 years of gabber kicks in 10 minutes. excellent. you gave a real in depth demonstration how artists used distortion during the 90's. thank you a lot

[@Hoptronics]

2 videos from over 10yrs ago.. thank God for not deleting stuff .

[@trsctr]

We have the same mixer in our lab. this video encouraged me to try distorting some dnb bassline and breaks, been using them a lot in our tracks over the last two years. thanks!

[@B1SCOOP]

This is so much pleasant to ear than these bright digitally clipped kicks in Gabber post 2005. Cool thing about this trick you don't actually need an actual TR-909, you can overdrive sampler or even PCM sound module with 909 kit on board (like Boss DR-770). I had fun with processing MFB Tanzmaus this way.

[@LouisSerieusement]

This video showed me how to make great saturated kick and was share to me by a french named Raoul, in an obscur french forum years ago Never looked back ever since Thank you a thousand times !! Cheers from France !!

[@owenthesoyboy]

I can only imagine the tracks you could SLAY with a few more drums routed like this and two synths, hell you've got room on that 24.8, what a beautiful thing of nasty sound!

[@gregbrookman]

This is fucking awesome! I'd never think to come from the direct out of one channel into the next! Really useful tool. Thanks for uploading. Respect to your cat!

[@migraine516]

I like how you randomly give the cat a closeup. lol. Thanks for making this, I feel like I have a lot to learn with my board. It's a small Mackie, 1202 vlz, but I always wanted to try stuff like this, and wasn't sure how. This making me want to spend a lot of money on a bog ass board !!

[@emmettogrady3085]

That’s absolutely filthy! 😮😮😮!!! Never realized stacking eqs was the secret to that sound

[@Kollapz3000]

better than any distortion pedal

[@andyphil666]

oh my god this is genius. Never have i thought of this. I need to go drive my mixer now...

[@Hoptronics]

What a whole new world of mixing..

[@lukebussey5218]

I never thought to route the channels like this, gives a lot of control

[@nomadjames]

Good stuff...I just won a 16.8.2 at an auction for a radio station that went under here...Haven't even hooked it up yet...Very exciting.

[@djniel2325]

16.8 is one of the best, due to its compact size but still having mix-B for up to 32 channels.

[@jonison6847]

Brilliant - exactly the info. I was after. Thanks for sharing.

[@thedoublek4816]

Some people say that 303s also sound the best when simply put through an overdriven Mackie 8-Bus, no guitar pedals needed.

[@Mindprinter]

7:46 thumps up for the cat

[@johnnybagwash2456]

good video ive been using this method for yrs but good other people are doing videos how to show others well done dj neil for doing video I run my 909 through an old pioneer mixer with same the boing boing bang bang results feeding audio back In again to a separate channel

[@mkm0901003]

Best kick distortion ever

[@wackerburg]

*FUNtastic* - I really enjoyed listening to this.

[@909Junkies]

@LunarEmissions a Mackie 1604 vlz does the same job as well ! it doesnt have to be that one you see in the video! i route my 909 through 2 mixer to fuck up the bassdrum in a bad way! i also use an external noise gate/Limiter in that case Alesis 3630 to get rid of the noise after the kick stops!!! there is also a cheap way to get a mixer ( Behringer ) ! sounds are almost the same!

[@ТёмаМакеев-т4ъ]

are you talking about cr1604 vlz, 1604 vlz pro or 1604 vlz3?

[@johnwalterhowell-sayers3051]

I’d buy you a 12 pack if you showed me how to do this on my 3630 + CR1604 ;)

[@djniel2325]

This a legit method indeed, I used to have 2 or 3 gates between channels to cut out the noise, when I was still distorting my kickdrums live.

[@Ganchan_]

nice, i'll try with the insert of my 1997 mackie vlz1402 tomorrow... :D

[@ASH-ou4cg]

I wish the newer, smaller Mackie, had direct outs, EQ disable buttons, sweepable mid EQ, etc.

[@ASH-ou4cg]

@@becomenothing Thank you for this. I had actually learned this outside of this message, but I still appreciate you taking the time, in case I didn't already know this. Perhaps it will help someone else out.

[@azzaggax]

killer routing! I tried with Mackie CR1604 and it does the magic! no parametric eq but it's very close to your Mackie 24: 8. On the other hand with my Soundcraft GB4 no way.. really crap distorsion. Thank you man

[@CurtisGabrielMusic]

From what I understand they have the same preamps so should sound the same :) barring the eq of course

[@AnalogFlava]

I am actually thinking to get either a Soundcraft (preferably spirit studio if you know it?) or this Mackie or similar old analog 90s mixer with decent to good eqs just for a bit of touch. What do you recommend? For tracking synths and sampler mainly. If getting 24ch. then maybe also to mixdown from DAW as well (summing). Cheers!

[@azzaggax]

@@AnalogFlava for my personal experience, I've a Soundcraft GB4 for tracking synth, modular synths, sampler, etc. Much more flexible than Mackie, better eq and the whole mix sounds good to me. For "overdrive" saturation of preamp the Mackie works better. the higher price of the Soundcraft GB4 is worth the difference. The Spirit also sounds good but I prefer the GB4

[@basiledaudet5774]

How did you do it with a 1604 ? I have the original and it doesn’t have direct outputs ?

[@azzaggax]

@@AnalogFlava I have used a spirit from time to time, decent pre but I''ve not tried the kick trick. For my synths and sampler and other stuff'm happy wth my Soundcraft GB4 (great eq, 8 aux, etc) but if you want to go further in quality I recommend Midas, Amek, Trident etc

[@slacr]

beautiful piece of music, Bach would enjoy it

[@chronicaldistortion5711]

Thnx heb ze opgenomen. Dikke sound van vroeger. Zou mooi zijn op F#

[@Caramel_Chameleon_]

mindblowing!!!! thanks man :D

[@ciddax754]

Thanks a lot for sharing this!

[@vboy13]

i feel like i just ate like a great meal man. i've never enjoyed listening to just a kick drum before-well done and clever as fuck very aphex/skinny puppy-ish! it's truly incredible how many timbres you have tweaked by channel stacking!

[@aeciodesouza]

nice lesson, very good sound and awesome cat. thanks :)

[@Crptc]

We need a revised version. GIVE US MORE

[@N1h1L3]

And ..... not just mackies, maybe some soundcrafts, behringers and others aswell ?

[@djniel2325]

I will later this year, I have a whole bunch of mixers lined up just for this exact purpose.

[@Crptc]

@@djniel2325 can't wait

[@CurtisGabrielMusic]

@@djniel2325 Can't wait to see this ! :D Subbed

[@Archi2g]

@@djniel2325 Can't wait :D !

[@LAPOTHICAIRE_23]

Quel talent, merci des tuyaux ! Je veux m'acheter une Mackie maintenant... 🤗

[@dpalaoro]

Ok best to read the text on video for explanation. Just saw that Thanks for the work!

[@DarkSentinel52]

this is awesome

[@ShiftaelV2]

Goddamn if i had the time I could play with this all day holy fuck.. then totally switch genres and try to attack 90's hip hop!!

[@cpake3198]

IT WAS THE CAT ALL ALONG :0

[@Bkoded]

i didnt expect the preamps to be that fit for purpose and i have no clue why

[@4gabberz587]

thank you so much for sharing this ，but im wondering if other Mackie machine like sr24-4 could do the same effect？

[@pablokoelo4549]

In thist way you'll destroy preamps in your mixing desk. This technique is good for preamps with transformer (like lundahl) in big and expensive consoles (for example ssl, neve, harrison...). Yes, you do it for your own risk... With cheap desk I would use guitar distortion box... not clipping preamps...

[@N1h1L3]

Expensive consoles often have way more headroom, so not easy to distort as the cheaper mixers.

[@djniel2325]

I haven't destroyed a single mixer in 25 years of using gain distortion. This includes mackie, behringer, soundcraft, fostex, yamaha, tascam, allen & heath etc. The biggest faillures I did experience where on a component level, outside the audiopatch, like powersupply caps, mixer midi computer locking the mutes and in general, bad quality components and solderjoints on budget oriented mixers.

[@AnalogFlava]

@@djniel2325 Hey Neil, dope vid!! I am actually thinking to get either a Soundcraft (preferably spirit studio if you know it?) or this Mackie or similar old analog 90s mixer with decent to good eqs just for a bit of touch. What do you recommend? For tracking synths and sampler mainly. If getting 24ch. then maybe also to mixdown from DAW as well (summing). Cheers!

[@pasid8497]

@@djniel2325 would you have some cheaper table models with which it is possible to do this kind of routing? thank's for you vidéo

[@positronicpimp]

@@djniel2325 Have desk shown in video,i have damaged it twice using this technique and also damaged the newer (crappier) version too.I guess how often you do it and for how long plays a big part,but be warned anybody reading this,that you can absolutely do damage to your desk.Side note,the newer versions of this desk sound nowhere near as good as the old ones.The eq in particular is complete crap. Preamps are far less aggressive too.

[@didierjoomun]

Great tutorial thanks!

[@myxanoz9742]

Very nice!

[@nacasatv3v056]

You're my hero!

[@LSabot-dv6rq]

Vette shit! Ik heb hier nog een oude 1st gen Mackie 1402 VLZ Pro liggen, maar eens kijken of die ook zo klinkt .

[@reptilespantoso]

Niet helemaal maar komt in de buurt. :-)

[@Scienide1995_Deep_and_Dub]

Wicked!

[@jakesmolinsky6389]

What parameters are being tweaked on the keyboard @6:45 that make the screech sound?

[@robbieswain]

Very sick

[@hardcorecap]

from what i hear, a lot of guys do this same process in kontact so they don't have to buy the board. personally, i just use a lot of sends in cubase.

[@diamondstudiosorocaba]

Thanks for the video man, I Have one Mackie 32.8 and EURODESK MX9000, i prefer the sound of a MX9000, But the sound of MACKIE is moore '' CLEAR '' the MX9000 have some '' COLOR '' maybe you don't like that, but for me its the other side....i realy realy like the '' color '' of MX9000 ...... you show me 5 years of study in 10 minutes.....congrats....LOL ....

[@VikerTurrit]

nice, thx. what speakers in the background? Bose 101?

[@gstoelen]

Sounds great! Picking up a Mackie SR24.4 tonight - hopefully I'll get similar results with a Roland TR8-S as sound source :)

[@Persik2405]

hey! how are you getting on with it?

[@gstoelen]

@@Persik2405 Sorry for the delay ... holidays period and such ;) I gave it a quick try and I'm getting close to a decent kick I suppose :) kzbin.info2OfUeGyZVgg

[@justinsantana7891]

Currently using a 1604vlz with my tr8s and it’s sounds pretty fucking dope

[@Puppetnation71]

A true gabber hammer!

[@LavLab]

👍👍 Gabba Gabba Gabba!

[@theprstc]

fuck, this is a choon!

[@boymatmat]

so basically this how they were actually achieving this kind of stuff back then ?

[@gstoelen]

I have a Mackie 32.8 and using 3 channels for gain/distortion. I'm trying to get my kick to sound like the one in 3 Steps Ahead's track "Believe In Me", or the one in "Gangster". But I'm getting nowhere near the punchiness of his kicks. Perhaps 3 channels just isn't enough, or else he used other equipment still (such as guitar stomp boxes).. ?

[@CatenationIndustrial]

... yummie ... so ... good ...

[@itconnects6693]

how do you do this with a 1604 vlz

[@johnvcougar]

Do the same patch, should be similar. Drive the ph#ck out of each channel and get tweaky! 🎉

[@AnthonyDavid94]

NICE!

[@Yotunen]

kitty approves

[@vhlam]

Wooow!!!🔥

[@streglof]

add a little delay and you've got Pitch Hiker ;)

[@guillaumedestrebecq6821]

This is kick distorsion

[@IndustrialTrauma]

is this also possible with a Mackie Designs CR-1604 16 Channel mixer?

[@N1h1L3]

Not completely since you miss the parametric EQ on that mackie mixer.

[@dpalaoro]

Ahhh so is this how Cajual/Relief records got that 909?

[@FluxTrax]

Christian Alexander and Tyree Cooper before that

[@dpalaoro]

@@FluxTrax yoooo. Please, which tracks in particular? 👍 Thanks for replying!

[@FluxTrax]

@@dpalaoro The first track with distorted 909 that I heard was Christian Alexander "Body and Spirit" from a Deep House compilation containing tracks by Frankie Knuckles, Keith Nunnaly, and Blake Baxter to name a few. Many early hip-house tracks also had slightly distorted kicks (Turn up the bass). DJ fast eddie distorted the drums on some tracks too, most notably 'Git on up'. Then you have Steve Poindexter (& Mike Dunn) on "Born to freak". But I guess there was a dude in Frankfurt having similar ideas at the same time

[@FluxTrax]

@@dpalaoro kzbin.info/www/bejne/hIesioiHgd2Gjdk this is a banger!

[@dpalaoro]

@@FluxTrax Nice! You dropped some names I like. 👍 I know Git on up. Dope jam. Classic. I can't remember "born to freak." though. I'll check it out. So, who's the frankfurt dude you're referring to? Or you mean in general how the sound developed? Ohh, are you talking about Gabber? 😂

[@jordantistetube]

Now this is the kinda sound I want to make! Any ways to reproduce this is in Reason? The scream distortion plugin doesn't give me satisfying hardcore

[@djniel2325]

It's harder to create these kind of sounds inside a DAW, especially Reason, but not impossible. The trick when using a scream is to use multiple instances but only distort a bit per scream unit and only use the models that do not cut out the low frequencies too much. Also don't use screams build in 3 band EQ, it sounds bad if it is the last scream in the chain and very limited imho. Put parametric EQ's between the screams so you get the dist-eq-dist-eq-dist-eq-etc chain going. That's like the same method used in this video. Also don't use the m-class eq in the rack if it is the last EQ in a chain. It creates that "reason sound" people complain about. But you can use it in the fisrt steps if you want, because it is very cpu light. For better EQ's inside the rack use rack extensions like uhbik-Q or the great rack extension EQ's from Lab:One like REQ131 or Red Queen. It will improve your production sound in a big way. It will take you some time to get the happy accidents, working 3 days on 50 kicks from which maybe 8 are ok and 1 or 2 are usable for a track but from gaining experience you will be able to do this faster over time. Since we can use rack extensions your options are now almost endless. RE's I like are u-he runciter which has a nice drive and fuzz build in, RP distort re and faturator re. These 3 can also be found as vst pluggins for other daws. And talking about vst, tone2 filterbank 3 is highly recommended aswel as Ohmforce Ohmicide and all the other well known pluggins used in other tutorials. I've made kicks with only Predator rack extension using 3 osc, 2 notch filters, EQ- dist-amp inside the 3 FX slots in one preset. (For example Omkara Techichi - Hardcore Republic). The possibilities are endless, but it takes a lot of time to create new good kicks from scratch (or get lucky in your first attempt). Save and keep your best presets and build on from there. That way you can create good kicks from just adjusting tiny settings from your last best kickdrum. You'll have a preset bank with your own kicks in no time.

[@djniel2325]

I do feel a low budget (under 90 euro's) mackie gain distortion tutorial coming up .....

[@jordantistetube]

DJ Niel Thank you so much for your help! Here's what I attempted for the moment on soundcloud: /incertain/noisetek

[@jordantistetube]

DJ Niel And yeah I have a long way to go, but I feel I'm on the right track now at least!

[@SkilZftw]

Pcp style

[@ThisIsBMND]

04:59 holyshit this one would be a great start of a hardstyle kick

[@artoffighters]

Hardstyle kicks are basically superedited versions of Hardcore kicks :)

[@ThisIsBMND]

Art of Fighters True story :p It always feel easier to have a good hardcore kick rather than a good hardstyle kick

[@mnb1290]

This is Bluemind Edited doesn't always mean better.And you can't compare Hardstyle with Hardcore,because "Hard"style is fokin lightweight .l.

[@djniel2325]

***** If you put a good hardstyle kick through some extra distortion you can get some great mainstream hardcore kicks.

[@djniel2325]

Revealer Those are the kicks I'm talking about ;)

[@johnnybagwash2456]

another method I run my 909 through a eq guitar pedal an ashdown eq that sounds mental tooo

[@Febovideo1]

Lekker!

[@lunaremissions1859]

Hi, I am write from Italy. I bought a Roland TR 909 to make gabber music live. I don't know choose which distortion pedal for guitar or mixer it's better to create a very hard hard-core kick. Unfortunately the Mackie 24.8 it's too expensive for me. Thanx

[@xdeville1]

just sell your tr 909 and you can buy 7 Mackie mixer ; )

[@jujuledruide6385]

hahahah true

[@djniel2325]

Try the older Behringer models, the cheapest on being MX2004 with parametric EQ. Also MX3284 or even a big MX8000, MX9000 which are almost a direct clone from the mackie 8 bus mixers.

[@pasid8497]

@@djniel2325 you have same preamp in the MX8000 ?

[@Embrionyc]

💓💓💓

[@Its303AcidBass]

900 kick, compression processing, mixer gain

[@dianemckimmy5701]

Let's do 130 BPM Kick Drum

[@merryhampter]

This fucking rules.

[@zk351]

Fuck yeah 😎

[@user-qo7qt3wq7h]

I do not understand how could I make that in Ableton.. have multiple track with the kick and senf it to the master and play with individual tracks ?

[@6884]

you can't do it like that purely in digital, when stuff goes above the level there you get a scary shit sound rather than this. If you want to try, you put the kick in track 1, send the out of track 1 to track 2, the out of track 2 to track 3 etc etc and then turn up the volumes...but you'll be disappointed

[@Squeeky42069]

Holy shit

[@klinkske]

Hey, heb je al opamps opgerookt met deze truc? Ik heb vermoedelijk al prijs en was nog erg mild… Mackie rook stinkt.

[@djniel2325]

Nee, in de afgelopen 20 jaar nog nooit meegemaakt, zowel niet met tascams, behringers, mackies als soundcrafts.

[@agua9362]

Dj, whats your mission? :D

[@isellcrack3537]

can you perhaps share what would be the most practical way to recreate this with software? (I`m assuming that doing the same thing 1:1 won`t have such pronounced effect).

[@djbonne1]

I imagine a tr 909 knocking on the table

[@Nightfunk]

what's a similar mixer I can buy today to mix this kick through ? (hope a bit smaller)

[@MrVacicak]

Basically any with dedicated outputs for channels. Behringer makes some cheap stuff. In the end if you do not have any mix to do rhis it might be cheaper to get guitar pedals. Or run your 909 through software.

[@N1h1L3]

Get a secondhand behringer with mid sweep EQ, like the MX2004 or simular. Might find something like that for 50 euro's (i did).

[@gstoelen]

@@MrVacicak most guitar pedals tend to mess up the lower frequencies, at least the ones I tried...

[@kevindebroux9918]

Pitch-Hiker

[@bluntsanddiscussions]

Hello, any idea of why my digital inputs suddenly sound distorted? It was working fine, but now there is a distortion happening.. I'm new to this board, and I have checked everything I thought it could be.. Nothing... I use a brand new scarlette 18i20, and through the headphones I don't hear any distortion, only through the mackie's digital inputs..

[@N1h1L3]

These mackie mixers are 100% analog, nothing digital about it. Imho nobody should ever distort the digital parts of any mixer or interface.

[@bluntsanddiscussions]

@@N1h1L3 respectfully, I don't think you know what you're talkin about in regards to "nothing digital about it". I found out what the problem was for me, I was at 44khrts opposed to the digital 48khrts. I have 24 and analog tracks, and 24 digital tracks. I hardly use the analog tracks because they have air in them

[@IHSisable]

Is there something that you should not/never do --- i mean, can you destroy a mixer in this way???

[@pablokoelo4549]

yes you can destroy a mixer. Red lights are there for some reason....

[@N1h1L3]

Someone on Gearslutz mentioned you can not exceed the maximum output of the powerrail that feeds the channel, so limited risk even if you do distort. I have never seen a mixer being destroyed by gain distortion. Unlike other stuff like using contract sprays, dusty/sandy environments, poor build quality (older behringer mixers). Red lights are there to notice the user your sound may be distorted (clipping).

[@djniel2325]

I haven't destroyed a single mixer in 25 years of using gain distortion. This includes mackie, behringer, soundcraft, fostex, yamaha, tascam, allen & heath etc. The biggest faillures I did experience where on a component level, outside the audiopatch, like powersupply caps, mixer midi computer locking the mutes and in general, bad quality components and solderjoints on budget oriented mixers.

[@dxtrs_mnpltr]

Painkiller

[@djniel2325]

Multiple !

[@davidgeppert5763]

OK, BASSQUAKE

[@i-never-look-at-replies-lol]

I'm about to put this technique to use on my 32 channel Mackie, except instead of distorting the shit out of a kick drum, I'm going to run all my drum machines through the channels and back out so I can record some creamy samples...

[@DavidProuty]

Ha! Use all 32 channels.

[@djniel2325]

@@DavidProuty use all 64 channels xD ! (mix-B)

[@Havrosmusic]

Is something similar possible with the allen & heath zed 14?

[@Blahdnb]

I'ts possible on every mixdesk, but it won't sound that great.

[@djniel2325]

@@Blahdnb I agree partly, you will be suprised some other brands do sound very good aswell.

[@3039-m9o]

And has somebody a opinion about the zed?

[@6884]

@@Blahdnb as long as you can route each channel individually into another channel..

[@DirtleTilbury]

3:41

[@WackyJackyTracky]

I bought a Mackie VLZ16, but the distortion doesnt sound as good. Does somebody know which MACKIEs Rack Mixers have a nice overdrive like the 24.8???

[@Strafuzz]

None of newer Mackie mixers distort like this I’m afraid. Try the Analogue Heat from Electron

[@WackyJackyTracky]

@@Strafuzz Ok thanks, did you try the Electron Heat? Does it have this "magic" interaction of EQ and overdrive?

[@WackyJackyTracky]

@@Strafuzz Do you know about the older SR24-4 series? www.ebay.de/itm/Mackie-SR-24-4-SR-24-4-Mixer-Made-in-USA-Mischpult/184250159069?hash=item2ae62a4fdd:g:b0MAAOSwlsVekupa The 8 Bus is so bulky

[@Strafuzz]

@@WackyJackyTracky I own an Analogue Heat and and a Mackie 32:8. The AH has excellent distortions and great for mangling sound. If you wanted to recreate this video where there are multiple in channels in series with diffirent eq settings then you could only do this with the AH by resampling.

[@Strafuzz]

@@WackyJackyTracky Not sure about that model but there is a 24:4 version of the 32:8 . Get that if you have issues with space.

[@gordonkennedy323]

Great fun!! However shortly after really getting into it with a Behringer Xenyx 802 and a Particle guitar effect and a volume pedal, I lost the preamp section on my Marshall Amp. Thankfully its under warranty but I was wondering does anyone know about the potential problems if there could be an impedance mismatch?

[@N1h1L3]

Why are you using a marshall amp ???? (and a guitar effect aswell ...)

[@WackyJackyTracky]

can this be done with Soundcraft Mixers too?

[@djniel2325]

Yes, check out my facebook page for a soundcraft 200b gain distortion session from a few years back.You can use almost any mixer with a parametric EQ, as long as you can route separate channels to other channels before going to the master channel. I'm preparing a video tutorial on that subject.

[@StoneColdFin]

DJ Niel What's your FB page?

[@djniel2325]

facebook.com/pages/DJ-Niel/419351844834679

[@AnalogFlava]

@@djniel2325 how is this soundcraft 200b for 90s UK trance??? Too much 80s vibe, is spirit or mackie 24 8 better??

[@dianemckimmy5701]

3:42

[@pawetorski8123]

☣

[@alfiekennedy1657]

9:15

[@Lennuh1]

4:30

[@adissabovic]

So that's is how it's made? No wonder I never liked that shit.

[@djniel2325]

It is definitely a required taste xD

[@OperationChicago]

wtf

[@JAMPROSOUND]

Seriously one of the dumbest ways to destroy your console.

[@djniel2325]

I haven't destroyed a single mixer in 25 years of using gain distortion. This includes mackie, behringer, soundcraft, fostex, yamaha, tascam, allen & heath etc. The biggest faillures I did experience where on a component level, outside the audiopatch, like powersupply caps, mixer midi computer locking the mutes and in general, bad quality components and solderjoints on budget oriented mixers. Distorting music equipment has been a part of the music industry for decades, even far before any house or dancemusic was created.

[@nkogliaz]

Just because you don't understand what is going on, does not make it dumb, I also have used this method for over 25 years and never damaged a single desk console with it.