Mackie is psyched to sponsor the Seattle-based Laptop Battle. This may entice the more imaginative readers to conjure up images of scantily clad she-warriors hurling iBooks at each other in a fight to the death. Oh…no? Maybe that’s just me. The Laptop Battle is much more interesting and certainly more entertaining. 

In 2003, Kris Moon and Zach Huntting from the Fourthcity collective created an original concept to bring people and music together…the Laptop Battle.

We thought it was a great idea to expose some of the underground talent that was really starting to come of age in Seattle around that time. The event was also a reaction to boring shows with laptops, a phenomenon that has grown less frequent with the advent of better MIDI controllers and bigger audiences for electronic music straight off the hard drive.

You don’t have to be an established musician or have loads of high-end equipment to participate. A wide variety of musical sounds are welcomed…there are no rules at all regarding content. In fact, the rules are very simple:

Gear Specifications:

· Up to one MIDI controller and one soundcard

· All gear must fit into a 2’ x 2’ square

The battle is a single elimination tournament and battles are randomly chosen

Battles are 3-minutes long. After that time is up, the MC will fade out the contest’s output

The choice of material, software and everything else is completely up to the contestant. This leaves room for a tremendous amount of creative freedom.

At the center of it all is a Mackie Onyx 1640. The crew hooks several battlers into the mixer, drastically minimizing the time between acts.

The Mackie is at the heart of the Laptop Battle.  It sits on the junction between two 6' tables, with four laptops on either side.  It's the perfect mixer for the show, we hook eight laptops into it at once, filling up all the channels, and send the front of house our stereo mains.  After the first four battles, we break down and set up another eight lappys in about 10 minutes, and a big part of that speed is the ease of use of the Onyx 1640.

The Laptop Battle is growing and Mackie will likely sponsor this great event for years to come, including the National Championship in February 2009.

We've continued to throw battles, moving from the Deep Down to Chop Suey, where in 2004 the first ever Championship event was held.  Early on in 2003 and 2004 several other cities started throwing battles, including Philly and Dallas.  Fourthcity also took a tour down the coast, and rallied winners from SF and LA.  Since then, we've had many other cities join the fold. At our 5th Championship event on February 20th, '09 at Nectar Lounge, we will have contestants from Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, Seattle, Philly & Dallas. 

The Laptop Battle has also grown overseas, with outposts in Tokyo, New Zealand, Germany and the UK.

Laptop Battle winners will enjoy some choice Mackie gear as regional champions will receive a copy of the Tracktion 3 Ultimate Bundle and the national champion scores a pair of HR624mk2 High-Resolution Studio Monitors.

For more info on the Laptop Battle or Kris Moon and his projects, visit:

http://www.laptopbattle.com
http://soundcloud.com/kris-moon - - Kris' favorite new way to share music
http://www.myspace.com/krismoon
http://www.myspace.com/laptopbattles
http://www.myspace.com/abletonseattle
http://www.dbfestival.com

**Photos courtesy of +Russ**

Posted by Mackie at 9:48 AM | Permalink

Open since September 1991, High Tech High School is a full-time public school of choice that offers a challenging academic curriculum in a technology-based environment. This environment facilitates the acquisition of a repertoire of skills that allows students to access and manipulate knowledge through technology. There are several programs of study, including a Media major, with special emphasis on Audio Tech skills. Areas of study include an overview of music technology currently used in the entertainment industry, the use and application of the MIDI keyboard within a recording studio environment, synthesis, recording consoles, modular digital tape machines, digital audio workstations and synchronization.

Each student has their own workstation, which uses a Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro as the central hub. All keyboards and instruments run through the 1202, and students also use the ALT 3/4 bus to send channels to their interface for recording. This feature, which is also found on the VLZ3 Series mixers, allows for simple routing without the risk of feedback loops.

Rod Shepard (aka Mr. Shepard) is the instructor of the Audio Tech class in addition to his role as Musical Director. He even runs a 24.8 in his home studio!

“…even with the latest technology in computing and audio/sequencing software, the 1202 VLZ's are still reliable”

-Mr. Shepard

The tech-savvy school also has an Arts major that puts on award winning productions...including a recent performance of Dracula. The system for their theatre includes a TT24 at FOH. It just goes to show you that Mackie's commitment to technology ensures that our new products can be found alongside our classic products in recording environments worldwide.

Posted by Mackie at 11:40 AM | Permalink

Mackie is a proud sponsor of the San Francisco based Women’s Audio Mission , which is dedicated to the advancement of women in music production and the recording arts. Women represent less than 5% of the professional recording industry and WAM aims to “change the face of sound” by providing hands-on training, experience, career counseling and job placement for interested women and girls, transforming the vision and voice of media and popular culture. They offer a wide variety of programs to this end including not only adult education but also programs exclusively for girls.

Mackie (and TAPCO) have donated several pieces of gear to help develop their programs and help them with their mission goals. Their studio and training facility is entirely run by women and provides internships to qualified members while providing a low cost, high quality recording environment for independent artists.

The training facility features a MCU Pro and Extender Pro which are being used to control Pro Tools and a pair of HR824mk2s for high resolution audio playback. The live room in the studio utilizes a pair of TAPCO S•5 Studio Monitors and an SW•10 Powered Subwoofer run through a TAPCO Blend 6. This setup allows for easy communication between the engineer and talent. After all, listening to the rough cut through headphones can be, well…rough. Having a powerful full range system can really help the creative process.

"The MCU was a real epiphany! It makes recording and editing in Pro Tools so much more enjoyable and allows me to get more done in less time. Complex edits and fader moves are now a breeze and recording is faster without the mouse. Having come from the analog world, the MCU is that missing tactile piece of the puzzle that makes my DAW as fast as hitting "record/play".

-Terri Winston
Executive Director, Women's Audio Mission

WAM recently held a party to celebrate the grand opening of their new facilities. The party was held during AES and several Mackoids were happy to leave the booth and attend. They were using a ton of Mackie gear for the live performances, including an Onyx 1640 at FOH, a Quad EQ for tuning and host of SRM450v2 and SRM350v2s on-stage as monitors. A good time was had by all.

Visit the WAM website to learn more about this great organization and their goal to “change the face of sound.”

Posted by Mackie at 9:53 AM | Permalink