Each input is equipped with its own trim pot, 48V phantom power switch and 20 dB pad switch conveniently located on the front panel for easy access. The preamp on each input provides over 60 dB of boost.

V-Limit™ hardware limiter

All analog inputs are equipped with V-Limit™, a hardware limiter that helps prevent digital clipping from overloaded input signals. With V-Limit enabled, signals can go above zero dB (where limiting kicks in) to as high as +12 dB above zero with no distortion due to digital clipping.

Soft Clip™

Additional protection can be applied to the mic/guitar inputs by enabling the 896mk3's Soft Clip™ feature, which engages just before clipping occurs and helps reduce perceptible distortion.

896mk3 Comprehensive I/O

The 896mk3 allows you to connect a wide variety of studio gear, including microphones, guitars, synths, keyboards, drum machines, effects processors and more.

Front panel I/O

In addition to the eight analog inputs, the 896mk3 provides two independent headphone jacks with independent volume knobs, one of which also controls the XLR main outs on the rear panel. Alternately, this "Master Vol" knob can be programmed to control any combination of outputs (analog and/or digital). For example, it can control monitor output for an entire 5.1 or 7.1 surround mix.

Discrete inputs and outputs

The phone jack below the MASTER VOL knob labeled "(MAIN OUT)" is hard-wired to (mirrors) the XLR main outs. In all other cases, inputs and outputs are discrete. For example, the main outs do not "steal" an output pair from the bank of eight XLR analog outputs. Even the second headphone jack operates as an independent output with its own volume control, although you can program it to mirror any other output pair.

Rear panel I/O

Eight 24-bit analog "combo jack" inputs and ten XLR outputs can operate at sample rates up to 192 kHz. Two optical banks provide 16 channels of ADAT optical at 48 kHz, 8 channels of S/MUX optical I/O at 96 kHz or two banks of stereo TOSLink at rates up to 96 kHz. The banks operate independently, allowing you to mix and match any optical formats. RCA S/PDIF connectors also supply independent stereo digital I/O. XLR AES/EBU connectors provide another independent stereo digital I/O.

* The phone jack below the MASTER VOL knob is hard-wired to (mirrors) the XLR main outs. The other phone jack operates as an independent stereo pair.

† The two optical banks provide 16 channels of ADAT optical at 48 kHz, 8 channels of S/MUX optical I/O at 96 kHz or two banks of stereo TOSLink at rates up to 96 kHz. The banks operate independently, allowing you to mix and match any optical formats.

Control room monitoring

Powered monitors can be plugged directly into the outputs of the 896mk3 and you can attenuate the output from the software or the front-panel MASTER VOL control. Main out volume is not limited to stereo operation: quad, 5.1, 7.1 and even user-defined configurations are available. You can even program the 896mk3 to control all 32 outputs with the MASTER VOL knob.

896mk3 Mixing and effects

The 896mk3 is an audio interface, but it's also a 16-bus digital mixer, complete with EQ, compression and reverb.

The 896mk3 is really two devices in one: an audio interface plus a 28 x 16 digital mixer. In fact, you could even think of the 896mk3 as a digital mixer in a double rack-space form factor.

Operating as either a computer interface or stand-alone, the 896mk3 provides DSP-driven digital mixing with effects processing (reverb, EQ and compression) for all 28 inputs. You can connect all your gear and then mix, process and monitor everything from the 896mk3’s main outs or headphone jacks.

A 28 input by 16 bus digital mixer with effects

All I/O is routed to the on-board 16-bus (8 stereo) digital mixer driven by hardware-based DSP with 32-bit floating point precision. The mixer allows you to apply no-latency effects processing to inputs, outputs or busses directly in the 896mk3 hardware, independent of the computer. Effects can be applied when the 896mk3 is operating stand-alone (without a computer) as a complete rack-mounted mixer. Input signals to the computer can be recorded wet, dry, or dry with a wet monitor mix (for musicians during recording, for example).

Complete mixing at your fingertips

All of the mixer settings in the 896mk3 are accessible from the programmable front-panel backlit LCD. You can also launch the CueMix FX™ control software for Mac OS X, Windows XP and Windows Vista. CueMix FX provides complete on-screen access to the 896mk3's on-board, hardware-based mixing environment

896mk3 CueMix FX software

CueMix FX gives you comprehensive graphic control over your mix.

CueMix FX is a completely new software front-end with attractive graphic mixing, graphic editing of parametric EQ and a convenient tabbed interface for quick access to all 896mk3 mixing features, digitally controlled trims and other settings.

CueMix FX can be operated side by side with any host audio software for Mac or Windows, and it can be controlled from the Mackie Control Universal Pro automated worksurface.

One window with convenient tabs

Three separate tabs show inputs, mix busses and outputs. Click the "Focus" button on any channel or bus to edit its settings in the area on the right-hand side, which provides separate tabs for graphic editing of parametric EQ, compression and other effects. Each channel strip displays a graphic thumbnail of EQ curves, compressor settings and other channel specific parameters. There is also a section for talkback and listenback.

Eight stereo buses

The 896mk3 supports up to eight separate stereo mixes assigned to any eight digital or analog output pairs. For example, you could set up separate monitor mixes for the main outs and headphone outs, while two additional stereo buses could be used for send/return loops to reverb units or other outboard gear. Each mix can support all 28 inputs (8 analog, 16 ADAT optical digital, stereo SPDIF and stereo AES/EBU digital).

DSP resources for mixing and effects

The 896mk3's flexible effects architecture allows you to apply EQ and compression on every input and output (a total of 60 channels), with enough DSP resources for at least one band of parametric EQ and compression on every channel at 48 kHz. However, DSP resources are allocated dynamically and a DSP meter allows you to keep tabs on the 896mk3's processing resources.

Each input, output and mix bus provides a send to the Classic Reverb processor, which then feeds reverb returns to mix buses and outputs, with a selectable split point between them to prevent send/return feedback loops.

Talkback and Listenback

CueMix FX provides Talkback and Listenback features. Talkback allows an engineer in the control room to temporarily dim all audio and talk to musicians in the live room. Conversely, Listenback allows musicians to talk to the control room. For Talkback, you can set up a dedicated mic in your control room and connect it to a mic input on your 896mk3. For Listenback, you can set up a dedicated listenback mic in the live room for the musicians and connect it to another mic input.