I have owned a few Mackie mixers over the years, from the VLZ workhorses to the ProFX series V2. The only problem I had was using one for home recording. They had to sit in front of my Lexicon audio interface adding more noise. I wanted to use the Mackie preamps and eq going directly in, not just eq it in the software. (note: the v2 series have USB available on the 8 channel and up but monitoring with headset is not easy to do on those when recording)
This new ProFX10 v3 series does it SO well. The channels are dead silent for perfect quiet passages like acoustic guitar and vocals. The 3-Band eq is very nice sounding and the compressor is a nice touch to have added. I can really hear the difference in the new GIGFX effects, plus there are more of them! The Onyx mic pre's with 60db of gain let you record with almost anything you plug in. I recorded a few vocal tracks with my old SM58 for testing and it sounded amazing.
For me the main reason I switched to this new v3 model is the monitoring ability while tracking. They built in a "blend" circuit and knob to allow you to record a new track while a previously recorded track is playing back, just like in a "real" studio. The blend knob lets you hear exactly how much of your live recording you want in your headset and how much of the recorded track playback you want. There's also a separate "control room" volume knob for studio speaker monitoring.
Finally, on this model (as well as the ProFX6) they have gone with level knobs instead of sliding faders. I personally never liked sliding faders on small boards, they are hard to fine tune while sitting at a desk. Plus they collect dirt much easier. This also makes this 10 channel mixer very compact on the desk! (I'm looking forward to taking this out to mix a live show too)
Highly recommended!
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