[Editor’s note – we recently held a giveaway promotion with the good folks at Mackie to put the new DL32S mixer in the hands of a working band. We ended up selecting Adam and the Flood, who shot a series of demo videos using the DL32S on our YouTube channel – so we definitely suggest you check those out, as well. They’ve also provided their final thoughts in the review below. Enjoy!]
A few months back Adam & The Flood was chosen to be the lucky winners of a brand new Mackie DL32S digital mixer, thanks to Performer Mag and Mackie! We received the package in the mail and immediately started diving into learning the brand new software: Master Fader 5, which is now available for both iOS and Android devices. Perfect for our band since we have a mixture of both.
At first glance the mixer is a tiny stage box that is built very well, not much bigger than a lunchbox. It comes with rack ears so you can mount it into a standard road case. An impressive 32 inputs and 10 outputs, which makes this thing a beast that can handle large bands and all sorts of applications. The built in Wi-Fi-router is a great addition making connecting the app much easier and the range is nice and has been very reliable so far.
The new software is very intuitive for both the musicians and experienced sound engineers. We rolled it out and had everybody using it seamlessly within minutes. It has the ability to connect up to 20 devices at the same time. The app has everything that you would need and all of the features of a console much larger in size. We found it extremely easy to navigate around and find everything that we needed. The four on-board effects processors are really great sounding, and with built in presets it’s very easy to find the right sounds and tweak them as needed, all from the stage.
We immediately got to work and did a live in studio recording/video session to put the DL32 through its paces. We wired up the whole band and easily multi tracked everything right into our DAW on our computer with one USB cable. We also used multiple outputs to be able to each have our own monitor mix, that we controlled from our own devices – awesome! This was a great moment as we sound checked, everyone was hyper focused on dialing in their own ears. The individual mixes enhanced our ability to concentrate on the music and put each person in a position to deliver the best performance they could.
The DL32S is current living in our rehearsal space, with a saved scene for practice it makes it super easy to set up and go. Going forward we are all transitioning into getting set up with in-ear monitors for live shows. We plan to bring this to every show with a split snake, so we can have a consistent on-stage mix each night, and have the ability to control our mix from stage.
