Hi
Well, I managed to install Win7 64 bits Ultimate on a motherboard with an I 9 9900K. What a nightmare!
Everything works.
The drivers and the Mackie Onyx 1640 I are well installed.
Manual
https://fcac.org/sites/default/files/Onyx 1640i User Manual.pdf
There are inserts for external hardware. One per channel, in fact.
and DB 25 connections. And FX sends. So I could buy some old second-hand gear for live use. I've already got a few pedals.
A delay (I have a mono pedal)
A reverb (I have a mono pedal)
A compressor (I have a mono pedal)
A flanger
Phaser (I have a mono pedal)
Rotator
saturation (I have a mono pedal)
I can also plug in mics for a guitar amp, for vocals, and a pedal that handles loops.
Okay, now I'm a little pissed off and tired of my sleepless night. Maybe I'm talking nonsense.
What do you think? What would you do?
I'd still have a little pc with firewire that I found second-hand to launch loops.
Actually, I want to play with faders. Microphones. Real effects.
See images below. Thank you.

Rear:

Front

 

Last edited: Jun 10, 2025 at 9:45 AM

Effect pedals meant to be used with instruments will not be impedance adapted to your mixer's effect loop. You're supposed to use a reamp box or inverted passive DI. Anyway, it will work without it but you need to carefully watch the levels you're sending. You need to be low, at -30 dB or something. If you plan to use them as channel inserts, be aware that the insert is located after the preamp.

 

Yes, I know that now. Thank you. So I'm going to buy a reverb and delay hardware second hand for the fx sends subgroups and use plugins for the other modulations.

 

What you say is generally true, but I have pedals with instr/line input option (Strymon). The good part of Strymon pedals is that now they have an app to edit settings: no more crazy button sequences to memorize. I'm quite sure Eventide pedals also have instr/line switch

 

Interesting. I didnt know about those pedals with line/instr switches.

 

Thanks for the Eventide pedals. But they are very expensive. I've already invested in a lot of equipment over the last 15 years. I'm going to buy simple things like analogue delay :
https://www.leboncoin.fr/ad/instruments_de_musique/3003849269

 

Yamaha E1010 is a (not so) analog delay - 300ms. There are no tape loops inside and it uses a solid state circuitry. At that time (70s) they use to call it analog because of the distortion added on output, but it is 100% digital.
You know what? Vintage gear from 70 and 80 is becoming too old, delicate, problematic, expensive for what it is: I’m starting to step back from it. Also, if you’re not into soldering and stuff, you are forced to periodically spend extra money for assistance. I’ll never sell the vintage gear I already own, but enough with it: from now on, no more vintage shopping for me

 

I don't remember opening my E1010 when I owned it some 20 years ago, but I'm pretty sure it's 100% analog, Bucket Brigade Device (BBD) delay.

It doesn't have to have a tape loop inside to be analog.

 

Ok: if you want to split hairs, the Bucket Brigade device is an emulation of the tape echo, made with chips. Here’s an In -depth explanation on the topic:
https://thatdelaypedal.com/2019/01/08/what-are-bbd-chips/

 

@ptepper is right : this is analog. There's no digitization, just discharge of capacitors in series. This is explicitely stated in the link you quoted, @Dom_Perignon. This is some kind of sampling if you want, but without any conversion to numbers. There's a clock involved, but only for the delay time. Solid state analog delays were a blessing compared to the wear and mechanical problems encoutered with tape delays.