The Satellite FireWire Recording Pod
The Satellite Pod is the brains of the team. Enclosed within its brushed aluminum skin is one of the finest two-channel Firewire interfaces available. With two premium Onyx preamps specially designed for bus power through FireWire, and top-notch 24-bit/96kHz capable A/D and D/A converters, the Satellite brings sound quality in force. In addition to the highly acclaimed dual Onyx mic preamps, the Satellite Pod offers two headphone/control room outputs with individual level control. And for those with four-pin FireWire ports that don’t support bus power, the Satellite Pod can be plugged in and powered traditionally (unlike our competitors’ boxes). With its compact, rugged design, professional mic pres and converters, the Satellite Pod is a convenient way to get great sound anywhere you record.

All Your Base Are Belong To Us*
The beauty of the Satellite system becomes clear when the Satellite Pod is docked into the optional Base Station. The Pod snaps right into place to give you A/C power, additional I/O, talkback, and monitor switching—without connecting or disconnecting a single cable. In this way, you can quickly disconnect the Satellite Pod to go record some guitar or vocal overdubs at a friend’s house, for example, then bring it back to your desktop studio without any hassle. But the Base Station is not simply a place to park the Satellite Pod on your desktop. No, this is where system becomes a two-input, six-output Firewire audio interface with an advanced input-patching matrix, Talkback, Monitoring, and Surround Speaker control. When docked, both inputs can be switched between four sources: mic, instrument, and two balanced line level signals. So you can plug in a microphone, guitar or bass, and a couple of synths, and switch between them as needed—confident that you won’t have to unplug them till the cables rot or you quit making music, whichever comes first.

* The proofreader thought this headline was a typo. Just kidding... Mackie doesn’t have a proofreader.

Talkback, Monitoring and Surround Control
The Base Station’s Talkback section has a built in mic, so you can talk to talent over one of the two headphone outputs, or go old-school and use it to slate your DAW takes. The Control Room section allows you to select between two monitor outs for multiple monitor speaker setups, and as an added caveat, you can switch between monitoring your DAW outputs, or switch to monitoring the inputs—so you can plug in to jam or listen to your iPod without having to boot your DAW software. Lastly, the Satellite/Base Station combo allows you to control the volume of six outputs for surround sound with a single volume knob—a feature that would cost you around $700 if you had to buy it separately!

Tracktion Recording Action
The Satellite system comes with Mackie’s popular Tracktion 2 Music Production Software. Tracktion 2’s hallmark single-screen interface and intuitive workflow make it the perfect audio and MIDI production solution for both novice and seasoned DAW users alike. T2’s feature set is immense: unlimited track count, VST and ReWire support, a high-definition 64-bit mix engine, QuickTime video import, external synchronization, MIDI controller mapping, integrated Mackie Control Universal and C4 support, and Mac and PC compatibility, just to name a few. But more importantly, Tracktion 2 does it all in a way that never gets in the way of your creativity. But wait, there’s more. We’ve also included a full complement of Mackie Mixing and Mastering tools plug-ins, plus an easy-to-use sampler. These powerful and great-sounding plug-ins round out the Satellite’s Tracktion 2 software bundle and make it the perfect out-of-the-box solution.

* Note that this bundled version of Tracktion 2 does not include the additional plug-ins from LinPlug, IK Multimedia, reFX, etc. that are available in the standalone boxed version of T2.