MAckie Onyx mixing consoles ,multiple studio monitors , Vol.128/129&vol.130 +helix

MAckie Onyx Mixing Consoles
I had wanted to investigate the new Mackie onyx mixing consoles as people have raved about the new Mic pre amps and in fact they have a rackmount unit without mixer offering 8 onyx mic pre's which is interesting. Well, as it turns out the onyx mixers have a flaw which make them great live mixers but lousy for recording if using the firewire option. It is that it bypasses the compression and Perkins' eq's, so you get the mic pre amp and thats it. Also, people have have had horrible latency issues with using the firewire option to their PC's. Perhaps, they would work ok a a traditional mixer without the firewire option. they seem to be priced expensively as well.
Hm,, more investigation is needed. For now, I Will stick with the MAckie 32/8buss.

Picking tracks for Modern Rock Guitar vol.128, vo.129 and vol.130
I am in process of picking tracks for my 128,129 and 130th albums. These are tracks I have already recorded and completed. Most for vol.129 and vol.130 were recorded with the mackie 32x8 and the tracks for vol.128 are tracks not used on vol.125,126 and 127. It is really hard to come up with a line up that flows well and ha themes for the albums. There is no question the mackie 32x8 recorded tracks have their own sound and it is better. So far, I have the line up for vol.129 completed and am listening to a draft. I am agonizing over the first track though, as it has a sample that runs throughout the tracks and it is somewhat overbearing, but it seems to fit the album decently. I have to say the mackie 32/8 makes it sound as if I went into a pro studio and rented some time on it and it is just very different than even volume 128 which were the last recordings using my 14ch mackie mixer.

Multiple Studio Monitors
I use the MAckie HR824 powered near field monitors and they sound very very good. I had gone through a set of behringer truth and MAckie's cheaper tapco s8 monitors. Both were weak in comparison. However, I also hae a pair fo JBL bookshelf speakers and I often find myself mastering my tracks on the hr824's and then would get a "Second opinion" on the jbl's as a hme spekaer. So I may move the jbl's to the studio room for this purpose. IT helps me guide the bass repsonse a bit better. Though it is starting to get crowded in the studio room.