Fits and Starts Productions will be holding a HOW-TO Church Sound Workshop on November 22, 2008 in Louisville, Kentucky.The HOW-TO Church Sound Workshops™ focus on both basic and advanced gear and techniques that will help your volunteer staff do a more effective job of running and recording your worship services. Whether you have a single pulpit microphone with speaker, or dozens of mics with a live band and choir, these hands-on workshops will help your volunteers get the best sound for the entire congregation.

Any Mackoid who registers for any of the HOW-TO Church Sound Workshops can register for 50% off the regular price.

All you need to do is go online to www.howtosound.com/register and enter the coupon code mackie-50 in the coupon box area. The price will automatically be updated to show the Mackie discount once you hit "update".

Posted by Mackie at 4:32 PM | Permalink

The Singapore Zoo opened its doors in June of 1973. Since then the animal population has surged to over 2500 different specimens. Set in a rainforest environment, Singapore Zoo’s world famous ‘open concept’ offers the opportunity to experience and be inspired by the wonders of nature. Animals here live in spacious and landscaped environments simulating that of their natural habitat. The Singapore Zoo takes this concept even further by evolving into a learning zoo. Instead of just observing the animals, interactive, educational content is a feature of all exhibits. These interpretive activities aim to effectively convey facts about the animals and messages about wildlife conservation.

Asia/Pacific Market Manager, Laz Harris, recently visited the zoo for the completion of the 2^nd Mackie install at the zoo. The zoo has used Mackie gear for quite some time. In fact, they have had a CR1604-VLZ in service for the past seven years. Most amazing is the fact that this particular 1604 has been in a non-air conditioned environment the entire time! With Singapore’s average temperature of 89°F coupled with 80% humidity, there is no doubt that the 1604 is “Built-Like-A-Tank”. There are also a ton of SRM350s and SRM450s in service as portable and backup sound solutions, but the install of a complete Tetrad system is the first Mackie “main” PA for the zoo.

The gear list for the install included an Onyx 24.4 at FOH, with a pair of MR5 studio monitors being used to reference the mix. The system is feeding a full Mackie Tetrad system that includes two S408s for tops and a pair of S410s’ as subwoofers. Senior Sound Director, Mike Hassan, had the following to say regarding the high-end new system.

“It’s amazing to me that this [Tetrad] system sounds clearer and more evenly dispersed than our Adamson line array!”

One thing that surprised all involved was that while speaker placement was far from optimal for presenters due to space limitations posed by the surrounding animal environments, the amount of feedback was amazingly low. What little feedback was encountered during tuning was easily tamed with the most minor EQ adjustments on the Onyx 24.4. The rest of the system EQ remained virtually flat. “The sound is full and pleasing,” remarked Hassan. The low end was particularly impressive and the punchy character of the S410s was perfect for the hyped-up New Age and Afro-pop “safari-textured” soundtracks used in the shows.

“Mackie is very pleased to play a part in the zoo’s ongoing commitment to visitor education. We are sure that the new PA system will serve the zoo well, helping to educate and entertain visitors for years to come,” comments Harris.

Posted by Mackie at 9:52 AM | Permalink

MusoTalk is Germany’s leading video website for musicians and producers, streaming more than 60,000 shows every month to the German-speaking audience. The site features reviews, interviews and articles written by musicians and producers and is a significant forum for the German music scene. The founder and host of MusoTalk (Non Eric) has a long history both as a producer and as a member of the musical instrument industry. He has released more than 60 club tracks on his LunaTec Trance music label alone, selling a total of more than a million albums worldwide.

There is more than a fair share of Mackie product reviews on the site, but Non Eric really had some great things to say about  the MCU Pro family of control surfaces.

“I am using the Mackie HR624mk2s for my work. These great-looking speakers have an excellent sound quality and gave me a very accurate and natural sound. They are easy and fun to work with,” concludes Eric.

Mackie would like to thank MusoTalk for support Mackie products over the years and look forward to providing more excellent products for review.

Posted by Mackie at 2:04 PM | Permalink

By Matt Redmon, Mackie Product Manager

AES attendees this year, all 17,892 of them who made their way to San Francisco, CA, came away with something – especially those who swung by the Mackie booth.

AES has traditionally been a very recording-focused group, and the show certainly lends itself to that with tons of boutique brands and products.

Our own homerun in this department may very well have been the illustrious Hotwire VT-12. Users tired of “digital modeling” amps, or of having to drive the bejesus out of their power tubes to get their tone, were more than impressed with Hotwire’s veritable Swiss Army Knife performance. An all-tube front-end that physically rewires itself all the way to the output stage – without DSP even engaged – is a guitar amp technology that none but us have achieved to date (hence the “patent pending” note on the product page). Being able to drop your output wattage from 120 watts all the way down to 1 watt and not sacrifice an ounce of tone is nothing to shake a pick at either. A 30-watt amplifier for the on-board compression driver – for full range PA-like audio – and a built-in 60-watt amp for the external EX-12 speaker can get you into those upper echelons of performance audio when you need it. And when analog isn’t enough, you’ve got DSP for days with 96 fully-customizable onboard presets. There’s no end to what this amplifier can do, and just about everyone that visited the Mackie booth left carrying that sentiment with them.

The ProFX Series saw its first audience as well, showcasing a full feature set that the competition hasn’t touched. We uniquely offer the combination of our custom-designed “Gig-Ready” Running Man FX™, precision 7-band graphic EQ and onboard integrated USB on both models – the ProFX8 or the ProFX12. Premium Mackie mic pres and our legendarily transparent 3-band EQ make these mixers an unconquerable deal at an undefeatable price.

The ultra-light and powerful PPM Series Powered Mixers saw their second audience. People were amazed at the feather-like weight of these Class-D powerhouses, not to mention the updated features such as dedicated inline channel compression and the high-quality RM FX+™ effects with tap delay. “More Sound Per Pound” in a package like this will easily make weekend warriors and professionals alike rethink their active setups and switch toward powering a compliment of passive speakers from a powered mixer that can truly deliver the raw power needed..

For entry level show attendees, which there were aplenty, we also showcased the U.420 and U.420d “hybrid” mixers – Integrated 96kHz FireWire neatly tucked into the most compact, ergonomic and easy-to-use mixer we could possibly build. Whether you’re a DJ, podcaster, keyboardist, producer or plumber, a U.Series mixer could very well complete your next gigging or recording setup.

Other “culprits” of the show included the MCU Pro family of control surfaces – the most widely used, widely supported control surface on the planet. We had a full recording studio setup in our “stage” area featuring the complete MCU Pro line as well as a Big Knob, capable of switching listeners between the exceedingly popular MR5s and unbeatably clear-and-balanced HR824mk2s we also brought to the show.

The entire VLZ3 line, our most popular mixer series to date as proven over a near-20-year track record, dominated its corner of the booth as well. To this day it seems that everyone we talk to either has or has used one of the legendary VLZ mixers, and now we offer them all the way down to the ultra-compact 802 and 402-VLZ3 model sizes. These mixers are still the ultimate analog solution in their class. Heck, they even invented the class in which they compete.

That’s about a wrap. This 3-day show was a blast for all who attended, especially us Mackoids. We enjoy meeting our customers in person, and even more, we enjoy sharing all of our newest gear with customers face-to-face. Next up: NAMM. See you there!

Posted by Mackie at 4:37 PM | Permalink

Redhook Brewery has a long history of making some of the finest full-bodied, hand-crafted beer in the Northwest. And it just so happens that they are just down the road from Mackie world headquarters in Woodinville, WA.

Every summer, Redhook holds a series of outdoor movies nights called Redhook Moonlight Cinema. Basically, just combine one part giant inflatable screen, two parts Mackie powered loudspeakers and 20 billion parts beer and there you go. It is really fun and a great way to spend a summer evening. This summer, Mackie and Redhook partnered to show some really cool flicks. The lineup included Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, 300, Kingpin, The Shining and  Knocked Up. Like I said…fun for all…ever watched The Shining outdoors? It is an odd experience.

One night, in particular, was Military Appreciation Night and anyone with a Military ID was granted free admission, although there are no weapons permitted on Redhook’s campus. The movie shown was…Top Gun.

Needless to say, the audience was sympathetic to the epic tale of friendship and intense competition so effectively conveyed by such characters as “Maverick” and “Iceman”. In fact there was hardly a dry eye in the place when “Goose” met his untimely end, foolhardily engaging the airplanes canopy during an emergency ejection.

However, Top Gun fans will remember that good always triumphs evil and “Maverick” learns a valuable lesson. It turns out that Mackie learned a lesson also. Movies + Redhook + Mackie = Good times.

Posted by Mackie at 2:13 PM | Permalink

One day earlier this year, avid race fan and dedicated Mackie Tech Support Rep Nick Kristoffersen came by the graphic design department looking to get a load of Mackie vinyl decals for his rally car.

Now, all Mackie employees are loyal fans of the brand, but not all are willing to blanket their rides with Mackie decals (although you can see more than a few “running man” decals in the parking lot). Anyway, Lead Graphic Designer Jayme Delma was quick to ask why he wanted so many decals.

It turns out that Nick was scheduled to race his Subaru WRX in Cle Elum, WA for the Under The Wires Rally X event and when it came time for him to choose his race car number, he could think of no better number than 450. You know, like SRM450, the world’s best-selling portable powered loudspeaker…or SRM450v2, boasting more power, clarity and punch than ever before. But I digress, Jayme not only fulfilled his request, but had some custom vinyls created for the sweet rally car.

The day of the event came and not only did Nick roll up in the best looking car in the competition, he also brought along a pair of SRM450v2 loudspeakers for exciting turn-by-turn announcements.

SRM450v2 Rally Car

Also, be sure to check out some unedited footage on Nick's YouTube page. While you're at it, subscribe to the MackieTV YouTube page and become a Fan of Mackie on Facebook.

Posted by Mackie at 2:52 PM | Permalink