You don't get that with some mixers but I think it's a good feature that more mixers should have. I really like that the eq is british style. Specs can be found on the Mackie site but basically it's a 16 channel mixer with 4 aux sends, firewire, and full eq on each channel. That means(unless you can buy the mixer and the card together), finding a place to get the Firewire card for this model will be difficult. Incredible versatility with multitudes of output options If you can't find one of those within your budget that will suffice for your project, go old skool and find one of these. This is an older model, however, and I'm sure that the newer Mackie Onyx mixers have upheld the same incredible standard. I'd highly recommend it to anybody who needs a board for any purpose. If I am working in my studio, this is undoubtedly being used. This is constantly doing something in my studio. Dial it up to unity, adjust as needed, but it only takes a couple seconds to reach the perfect gain. The sweet spot on this one is pretty much everywhere. Once learned, it can easily be reproduced for every occasion. With any preamp you sort of have to find it's sweet spot. No hissing or 'electronic hum' from the unit. With the detail that can be achieved through the E.Q., everything is easily dialed in. When used in a live setting, however, it is just as simple. I've used it in studio for the most part. The manual is straight to the point and provides diagrams of suggested set ups for most common uses. With so many output options it is also extremely versatile. It has no frills to get in the way and is extremely straight forward. The Firewire card turns this kick ass analog mixer into a bad ass digital interface. Analog tape ouputs, main line outs, main XLR outs, control room line outs, and an optional Firewire card.

It is equipped with Aux sends and returns that can be used for bussing premixes or effects to or from or through whatever-wherever. Once the desired frequency is found, you can then adjust the volume of said frequency in the usual way. This knob controls the center frequency for the E.Q. sections on each track have an additional frequency control knob. controls(high,high mid, low mid, low), but both mid E.Q. From there, it is equipped with Perkins E.Q., which is phenomenal. The inputs run through Onyx microphone preamps(one of the best mic pre's on the market is built into this board!).

The remaining eight inputs are solely Hi-Z line ins. Eight of them can be used as either Bal/Unbal line ins or XLR3 microphone inputs. The Mackie Onyx 1620 has a total of 16 inputs.

Mackie onyx 1620i firewire driver