I read with interest Jason Chaffee's article (July 2006) about modifying his Mackie ONYX 1640 to allow post-EQ recording from the direct outs. Jason seems to think it is a "serious design flaw" that the signal was pre-EQ from the factory. Personally, this is one of the main reasons I purchased the 1640. I play in a blues band in the Atlanta area and like to record our performances from time to time. I use a setup very similar to Jason's. I have struggled for years trying to use the direct outs of other mixers for recording while mixing the band live on the same board. I would rather record the signal as clean and unaffected as possible and make any adjustments (EQ, compression, etc.) in the mixing stage. When in a live situation, you must mix for the sound of the room, number of patrons, quality of loudspeakers, etc., not what is being recorded. I have found it much too difficult to correct over or under EQ'ing once a signal has found its way to the recorder and this is definately going to happen using Jason's approach. I think most of us semi-pros would be better served using the simpler approach.

Thanks for letting me put in my 2 cents worth. Oh, yeah, great magazine, too!