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The 2007 Sturgis Motorcycle Rally drew hundreds of thousands of people from all over world and Mackie was on hand at the legendary Buffalo Chip to support the multiple music stages and up and coming artists. The enormous crowds streamed in for nine straight days to attend the best party in world filled with music, motorcycles and mayhem. The roster of national headliners included Edgar Winter, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Toby Keith, Ratt, Poison, Grand Funk Railroad, Foreigner, Velvet Revolver, Buckcherry, ZZ Top, Seether, Papa Roach, Blue October, Daughtry, Dan Lawson and Charlie Brechtel.
Mackie provided sound systems for five different stages within the 250+acre Buffalo Chip compound.  An area inside the main amphitheater was designated as the Mackie Redhook playground where Mackie sound systems and the Redhook Brewery provided the perfect compliment of Sturgis tools – Beer and Gear! The main Mackie stage was the focal point for talent in the Mackie Redhook playground where the bands (and patrons) provided non-stop entertainment. The stage played host to a variety of artist including national headliners, Dan Lawson and Charlie Brechtel, and special guests Midstokke – winners of the Sound Harley Davidson Rock the Sound Sturgis Bound competition. Additional performers included Laura Lynn, Lucas Hoge, Jason Green, Melissa Fuller, The Burnt River Band, Captain Jack and others. The Mackie Onyx 3280 took care of the FOH mix while an Onyx 2480 ran the monitor position. Both FOH and monitor positions were supported by racks of the Mackie digital Quad Comp/Gates and Quad EQ’s. The FR Series amplifiers cranked out the power for the dual S408 and S410 stacks and C300 monitors which delivered a wall of sound that grabbed everyone’s attention.
The Black Parrot bar was the hot spot outside of the main amphitheater. The inviting lagoon and sandy beach was a welcome site in the 100+ degree South Dakota heat.  The Mackie sound system made sure all patrons were musically inspired. The SA1232z loudspeakers and SWA1801z subwoofers impressed the audience and band members alike. The Onyx 24-4 handled FOH and monitors while the FR Series amplifiers and C300z’s took care of monitor needs. One of the performing bands managers commented “this band has never sounded this good before. What are you doing to make it sound so good?” A member of another band was standing near by and simply responded, “It’s Mackie!”
Another Mackie system was upstairs in the Micro Brew Station, which consisted of an Onyx 1640, a pair of SAz1232’s and SWA1801z’s, FR Series amps and C300Z monitors. The sound system was clear as a bell but barely breathing when the acoustic acts were playing. Once the DJ kicked things in to high gear, the Mackie system sprang to life and proudly showed its true colors as Sturgis partiers rocked late into the night. 
Out in the middle of the 250+ acre Buffalo Chip campground the Pitchfork Fondue stage was the location of the nightly dinner theater where patrons enjoyed a home-cooked meal while listening to a variety of acoustic artists playing through SRM 350 loudspeakers and a CFX12. Back inside the main amphitheater the Jagermeister bar was always alive with music compliments of a pair of SRM450 loudspeakers and CFX12.
Rod Woodruff, owner of the Buffalo Chip, commented on the enormous value that the Mackie sound systems bring to the best party in the world. Mackie is proud to be working with the Buffalo Chip for the second year in a row and we are all excited about what next year has in store.
This post brought to you by Mackoid Keith Medley. All photos except the first one (aerial shot) courtesy of Mackoid Ryan Smith.
…or something like that – to be explained by the end of this post, surely.
Mackie loves summer events… especially summer events involving beer, bands and outdoor movies. Redhook Moonlight Cinema Series is just that, and is yet another of our longstanding Mackie traditions, dating back to the late ’90s. Since the Redhook Brewery is a favorite of many Mackoids, and since it’s right down the street from our home office, many of us would be attending the brewery’s outdoor movie night anyway…so why not show up with a mixer, a few speakers and a sound crew, too? Running sound is what keeps us all ticking, so getting out and doing it is a must for many of us.
Let’s allow Thursday, August 16th, 2007 to be a perfect example of what it is we do at these things:
The scheduled movie was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas – to be shown after dark on a giant, inflatable screen put up by Easter Day Promotions – but said main event was foremost to be preceded by the local, lovable five-piece of musical chums known as Thee Emergency.
Thee Emergency is a seriously kick-ass group of female-fronted, riff-driven “rootiness” that’s both for the masses and from the heart. As the only band to play Redhook this year, Thee Emergency took control of the stage and taught the masses to rock using their unique brand of amplified osmosis. Attendees continued to pile into the grassy knoll of the Redhook “lawn” that hosts this 1000+ viewer event, and as they did they were greeted by not only a great band, but a great band rocking on a modestly massive speaker setup comprised of two Mackie SA1530z loudspeakers on top of two SWA2801z subwoofers per side.
But that wasn’t all we brought.
The band plays on a stage on the west side of the lawn while the movie is shown from the south side, so a SECOND speaker setup is needed as well. For this we ran two SA1532z loudspeakers on top of two SWA1801z subwoofers per side, with just the right splay angle to cover the whole park. The goal is to make no seat a bad seat, which we strive to achieve each and every time we run sound.
So as Thee Emergency wrapped up a rockin’ hour-long set, the lawn’s attention shifted to the big-screen where Fear and Loathing started to spin up. The band at these events typically finishes while the sun is setting, just in time for the lighting to be perfect for an outdoor movie. Some viewers bring chairs, others merely tarps or blankets to lay on while the effects of the delicious Redhook beer they’ve been drinking all evening start to take hold.
What a wonderful tradition indeed.
Redhook has shown everything from The Princess Bride to Beerfest, and these movies are always a great time. The crowd reacts; everyone is in good spirits. The good folks at Redhook scratch our backs – or pour beer all over them, if that’s the analogy of choice – and we scratch their’s in return with as many speakers as we can get our nerdy little hands on. Oh, not to mention the TT System32 that we ran the whole thing from…
So let’s all of us together – you, me and ours – look forward to next year’s Redhook Moonlight Cinema Series in Woodinville, Washington and, if you’re in the area, swing on through to join us for our next series of beer, bands, Mackie, movies and more!
-This post brought to you by Mackie Product Evangelist Matt Redmon
Product evangelist Matt Redmon was live on the scene at Seattle’s preeminent indie fest, the Capitol Hill Block Party, just a few short weeks ago. Following is his account of this cool and unique event.
Blood Brothers rock the Main Stage on Friday, July 27th
Now hailed as the festival that sets the bar for all the other local music festivals, this was Mackie’s 7th consecutive Capitol Hill Block Party where we provided all of the sound equipment and crew for two stages, two days in a row. Of the CHBP, the Seattle P.I. says it’s “one of the most anticipated events among Seattle’s indie elite,” and they’re not wrong. All told, the total body count for attendees exceeded 40,000 fans of both local and internationally successful acts alike.
Hardworking Mackoids handled both the Main Stage and the Vera Stage once again, and hosted such acts as Silversun Pickups, The Cribs, Against Me!, Spoon, John Vanderslice, Blue Scholars, Natalie Portman’s Shaved Head and many, many more.
Brian Aubert of Silversun Pickups interacts with the crowd on Friday, July 27th
At the Main Stage, with an all-EAW rig driven by an Onyx 4080 at front of house, more than two-dozen channels of rock, rap and everything in between blasted the packed streets of one of Seattle’s most colorful neighborhoods. Quad Comp/Gates and Quad EQs were everywhere as well, and helped the 4880 at monitors drive the six EAW NT59s at the front of the stage. Also, several SA1530z loudspeakers over SWA2801z subwoofers acted as delay stacks, as there were several city blocks to fill with sound. Even our newest member of the sound reinforcement family, the SRM150, had a place at FOH as well as monitors, acting as a talkback device between engineers. Forking brilliant!
SRM150 rocks the Block Party as a talkback wedge
Over at the Vera Stage we ran both FOH and monitors with a TT System 32. In fact, our only cable run between the stage and the board was a single CAT-5… well, and one AC cable, but come on! Millennium amps powered S408 Tetrad tops over coupled SWA2801zs on each side of the stage, and monitors were C300z portable passive loudspeakers. Even though this was the smaller of the two stages, we drove this system hard, and there was no lack of a place in the streets to hear music from one stage or the other.
Danny Oleson of Speaker Speaker rocks the Vera Stage while the DS3232 workhorses the band’s ins and outs in the background
Another group of positively committed Mackoids ran the Main Stage VIP Lounge, hosting dozens of artists, local press folks and many other such Somebodies of Seattle. A smattering of food and beverage providers holed up with us in the lounge as well, and truly kept the party going in the Mackie sound crew’s time of need. Not to mention, all the bands that played had VIP access and shared the space with us, serving to make other show attendees excruciatingly jealous of our Mackie Swag… which was only partially our intent...
The lounge just off of the Main Stage was a blessing for artists looking to grab a beer after their set
Most important to us, although this event falls outside of the realm of your typical audio company’s boundaries--as in: “What?!? Get a production company to do that!”--we love doing it, we love using our gear, and hanging out with rockstars doesn’t piss us off, either. After all, if you can’t connect with your buyers, what’s the point of making sweet gear in the first place?
Mackoid meets Musician on the Main Stage
Following is a dispatch from our Running-Man-About-Town (and brand VP), John Boudreau.
Crosspoint Church is a healthy and growing Presbyterian community led by senior pastor, Mike Kelly. The church boasts more than 60 years of history in the greater Seattle area, dating all the way back to a Sunday School and Adult Bible Class in 1939. Not long ago, I came across them in Seattle’s historic neighborhood of Ballard, well known for its Norwegian heritage…and bad drivers. Crosspoint was that day in the process of having their very last service in this temporary location. (They have since moved in a beautiful new permanent home and continue to grow with another outreach program in the neighboring suburb of Lynnwood. You can check them out here: http://www.greenlakepc.org/)
As you can see from the photos, this is a very engaging contemporary service that requires quality sound reinforcement.
In addition to four standard microphone inputs, they have 16 music inputs for their very talented musicians. Thankfully for us at Mackie, Tom Wilson, A/V coordinator, is an avid Mackie fan and has chosen to use splayed SRM450s for left/right mains and SRM350 for monitors, plus a really pro set-up featuring a TT24 digital live mixing console and Aviom personal monitoring system.
The TT24 is housed in a custom built rolling cart with a locking cover.
The cart also houses a PC that runs the TT control application and does multi-track recording via the on-board optical outputs of the console. This connects to a high quality RME Hammerfall PCI card for multi-track recording. The recording is later mixed down and available to the community. Nice!
The members are quite creative—in fact, this cart was designed by Jay Liati, a talented craftsman, who built a total of three carts. The remaining carts are used for their Aviom monitoring system and general storage purposes.
“The TT24 has proven to be extremely easy to learn for our volunteer engineers and has provided excellent sound quality,” said Wilson.
Arthur Laramy, Danny Walter and Adam Wilson agreed. These fellas were happily coordinating the day’s events when I visited.
Arthur added, “The real test for the console was environmental, during our temporary location in Ballard, the console has regularly sat in a locked truck for most of the week, experiencing all of the temperature changes of the Seattle area.”
Tom has worked with Susan Morgan of Morgan Sound on system designs for over 10 years. Morgan Sound is providing a second TT24 for Crosspoint’s new outreach program as well. Morgan Sound rocks!
Thanks so much to all of you at Crosspoint and good luck to you on what looks to be a very exciting year for your community!
In the middle of a hectic 80-hour workweek getting music ready for the Spider-Man 3 mix, Adam Barber did the unthinkable. In most cases, you’d have to be a little nuts to integrate a new technology at this point of a film mix. But recognizing the potential of the new Mackie Control Pro, Barber decided to take the leap and put it front and center in his workflow. How easy was it to make the switch? As easy as plugging in a USB cable.
“I took it out of the box, plugged in the USB cable and—bam—there was my session, ready to go,” he says. “The USB aspect was a huge asset. I could just grab the unit and hook it up to a different computer, swapping back and forth between Pro Tools and Logic. All I had to do was unplug the USB cable.”
While the easy setup kept their schedule on track, it was the capabilities of the Mackie Control Pro that led Barber to integrate it in the first place. “First and foremost was the clarity of the unit. You have a bright background with dark writing which to me, right out of the box, was so much easier to look at and read.”
On Spider-Man 3, Barber was working with composer Christopher Young. They had also worked together previously on Ghost Rider. Barber’s role with Young is to make sure everything in the post music creation process flows to Young so he can do his thing.
“We conform the music and prep all the mock-ups for the recording session,” he says. “That’s stems, sound design and any additional audio we feel may be needed at the stage. It really was a workhorse for all of the above. The only place we didn’t use it was on the dub stage. But it was there for everything else—stemming, MIDI mock-ups, premixes and even some sound design.”
Barber went all out, integrating a Mackie Control Universal Pro (MCU), the additional C4 Pro instrument and plug-in module, and an eight-fader Extender Pro. “I like to have my C4 on the right hand side of the MCU Pro,” he says. “I see the C4 as an extension of the right side of the MCU Pro. When I use the MCU Pro with my right hand and want more control, my hand just moves a little more to the right, lands on the C4 and just like that, there is a ton of control.”
This style of working is also reducing the need to move back and forth between the computer keyboard and the MCU. Instead, he’s doing it all intuitively with the Mackie Control Pro. All together, the MCU Pro, C4 Pro, and Extender Pro comprised a complementary system that helped in every aspect of the scoring team’s post work, Barber says.
“The MCU became my primary interface for manipulating MIDI and track automation. I’d use the C4 to interact with channel strips and plug-ins. I mostly wrote automation on the MCU Pro and Extender for volume rides and instrument pannings. I’m finding new ways to use it every day—like having my MCU Pro manipulate audio tracks and having the Extender just manipulate MIDI tracks. This is a neat trick I figured out in Logic.”
And what about the new faders? “Oh, the faders—those beautiful flying faders, they’re touch-sensitive and they’re just so smooth,” he raves. This also enabled him to take his hands off of a mouse and keyboard and mix the way nature intended. “The whole unit just makes workflow—flow,” Barber says. “Basically my workflow went from using a mouse and keyboard to using the MCU Pro most of the time. Volume rides, switching between midi information, mixing audio, manipulating plug-ins—it all became even quicker then I imagined.”
And this from someone who is no stranger to using control surfaces. He’s logged his share of hours on Logic Control, Pro Control, and DM2000 units, and the original Mackie HUI.
Barber says he’s so pleased with his decision to use the MCU Pro, he’s decided to buy a couple more. He’s recently put in orders for two MCU Pro units, one designed for his new room at the Village Recorder in Los Angeles and another for the road. Of course he’s also added the C4 and Extender as well. After all, it did survive the biggest test of all with Spider-Man 3. “I’m just so happy that it worked straight out of the box for that film. I really love when things like that happen. I wish dating was that simple.”
Whistling Woods International in Mumbai, home to Bollywood, is India’s premier educational institution for film, television and the media arts. Whether their focus is in acting, directing, scoring or something else, people come from all over the country—and the world—to study at this acclaimed institute. And thanks to Mackie gear, including the Mackie Control Universal, these students are getting crucial hands-on experience.
MCU and MCU Pro Control Surfaces are used to facilitate editing, audio mixing and even color correction; Whistling Woods has close to 60 of them installed.
“The MCU is a fantastic tactile control surface which our students use to control [Digidesign] Pro Tools, Apple Logic and Apple Final Cut Studio,” says Chief Technology Officer, Neelesh J. Bhatia. And thanks to the control surfaces, he adds, “students are able to do their projects more precisely, easily and quickly.”
The MCU controllers not only benefit students, they were kind to the budget at Whistling Woods.
“Considering the fact that we wanted to provide the most advanced technology possible to the students and stay within budget, the Mackie MCUs worked out great!” Bhatia says.
Whistling Woods features a full multi-track production studio, and several strictly audio-focused recording rooms as well as editing and mixing suites. All have state-of-the-art equipment, and Mackie gear features prominently. Besides the Mackie control surfaces, Whistling Woods boasts a Mackie 24.8 Console, Big Knobs, a pair of HR824 High-Resolution Studio Monitors, and as Bhatia says, “loads of SRM350s and 450s.”
We here at Mackie are happy to be playing a role in producing the next generation of filmmakers... Mr. Demille, we are ready for our close-up!
Our roving Mackie Product Evangelist Laz Harris was on the scene of TapeOpCon2007, and below he spotlights Mackie's role at the event.
This year's TapeOpCon was an impressive event. Many industry pros turned out —George Massenburg, Joe Boyd, Steve Albini, Don Zeintara, Mitch Easter, just to name a few—and those who came by the Mackie booth were wowed by our great gear on display.
Don Zeintara spent some time with the new HR824mk2 High-Resolution Active Studio Reference Monitors, and Mitch Easter was very interested in the new MCU Pro Control Surface. Lots of folks were digging the MCU Pro, in fact; the analog set appreciates how the controller, with its analog mixer-like layout and ultra-smooth faders, makes working in the digital realm feel like home.
As one of the event sponsors, Mackie provided the sound system for the main outdoor stage as well as all the workshop rooms.
The Women's Audio Mission ran the Potluck Studio, with a number of great engineers sharing their techniques on such topics as “Taming the Hi-Hat” and “Recording Great Lead Vocals.” Mackie happily lent a studio monitor to the cause, which seemed to have been put to interesting use. Mark Rubel and Joel Hamilton were doing a workshop called “Crazy Tracking” in which they demonstrated a variety of inventive, if not a bit strange, approaches and techniques. We think our monitor was used as a kick drum mic, and we were happy to be a part of such… well, creative weirdness.
Many attendees are touting TapeOpCon2007 as the most informative conference in the recording & pro audio world. Mackie is proud to have been a part of the event and wants their gear back now…
Red Bull has been deeply involved with NASCAR for many years, including high-profile team sponsorship. And while most teams provide a hospitality area at the races to feed and entertain guests and sponsors, the Red Bull Energy Station goes the extra mile.
The Red Bull Energy Station, which made its debut at the Las Vegas Speedway, is a two-story steel and glass structure featuring more than 10,000 square feet of lounge areas, stainless steel bars, and high-impact audio and video entertainment.
The Station, which travels to events in four semi-trucks and takes several days to assemble, is outfitted with ten 42-inch Sony LCD displays and a sound system composed of Mackie components.
“The structure is typically set up pretty close to the track, so there was a need for a sound system with a pretty substantial output,” says Scott Ramsay of Broadcast Support, the company behind the structure’s audio and video systems. “In Las Vegas, for example, the front of the Energy Station was thirty feet from the top of turn three. The sound system needed to compete with a bunch of race cars going by at full throttle.”
The system centers around eight Mackie SRM350 Active Loudspeakers. “We had originally specified a larger Mackie speaker, but they were looking for as small a footprint as possible, to maximize visibility from everywhere in the structure,” Ramsay explains. “As it turns out, the 350 was more than capable of delivering the levels we were looking for.”
Low-frequency impact is amply covered by four of Mackie’s SWA1801 Subwoofers. “We went with a pretty substantial subwoofer arrangement, because after the race the Energy Station typically becomes an impromptu nightclub,” says Eric Eastland of All Access Staging. The company worked with Broadcast Support on the project’s design and implementation. “If you really want to connect with this crowd, they need to feel the music. The bottom end from the system is just awesome.”
A Mackie 1604 VLZ Pro Compact Mixer is mounted on the rack’s top.
“The support from Mackie was truly excellent,” adds Ramsay. “We didn’t get the final order for the project until a couple of weeks before deadline, but they put the entire order together in a matter of hours, and jumped through a bunch of extra hoops when it looked like the freight company had lost the order.”
The Energy Station’s unveiling in Las Vegas was, by all accounts, a high-energy success. “Several of the Red Bull representatives from Austria were on site when we first powered the system up,” Ramsay reports. “We hadn’t even dialed it in yet, but their jaws were dropping to see how much sound was coming out of such small speakers.”
Rule Number One in the Book of Cool says the hipper you are, the less you have to try and prove it. The Air Conditioned Supper Club proves the point. The nondescript storefront and innocuous signage marking the newest night spot in Los Angeles’ Venice district would be easy to miss, were it not for the lines stretching around the block most evenings.
The area itself has not been known for its nightlife, and the venue’s unremarkable red-beige exterior belies the retro-modern décor inside, where a chic but casual crowd samples exotic cocktails and shimmies shoulder-to-shoulder on the small dance floor to the eclectic grooves of live DJs and local acts.
What really sets the Air Conditioned Supper Club apart is the warm and welcoming neighborhood feel of the place. The intimate, 3700-square-foot venue holds somewhere around 300 people, but the owners were adamant that the club, like their Air Conditioned Lounges in San Diego and Santa Monica, would sound as good as it looked. San Diego-based Fluid Sound was brought in to design a high-performance system based around Mackie and EAW components.
The main PA is comprised of a pair of EAW MK2364 two-way full range loudspeakers. In the rear, another pair of MK2364 cabinets cover the first fill zone, with two MK8196 two-way speakers comprising a second zone. Under the stage, four EAW SBX220 subwoofers handle the low end. “We used a bit of horizontal steering on the subs to tune the sweet spot inward toward the dance floor,” says Fluid Sound’s Dennis Pappenfus.
A FireWire-equipped, 16-channel Mackie Onyx 1640 handles main mix duties, while the DJs use a Mackie D2 DJ mixer, also with FireWire connectivity. “We can take a dry multitrack feed from the board, allowing us to do live recordings,” Pappenfus explains. “We wanted to make sure that the room would sound good enough for even A-List artists to perform and record here, since they frequently drop in.”
A self-powered Mackie SRM450 two-way self-powered loudspeaker provides monitoring for the DJ area, while a pair of S408 two-way precision passive monitors provide rear fill, pointing back at the stage to bring added presence to the dance floor area. Four more S408 cabinets provide monitors on the stage. The VIP room is served by a pair of S408 speakers and a single S410s quad subwoofer, powered by Mackie M3000 amplifiers.
As Pappenfus explains, the owners have been quite pleased with the Mackie/EAW-based systems installed in the two existing Air Conditioned venues, and were keen to stick with a winning formula for the Venice club as well. “If I’d been asked to try and configure a system around one brand or family of brands, I probably wouldn’t have been very comfortable with the request. But I’ve got extreme confidence in both Mackie and EAW brands, and their product lines are diverse enough to easily fit the bill.”
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