I attended the AES PNW chapter meeting last night at Glenn Sound where I was both surprised and calmed to learn the likely future of our industry in regards to both digital archival as well as, primarily, acceptable means of delivery of finished audio to labels.

Independent and label-driven recordists worldwide are by and large done taking part in the proprietary battles, with the exception of a couple of late hangers-on. The battle has been that engineers everywhere are/were backing up and handing off music in so many different proprietary and/or short-lived (to now obsolete) forms that it’s become the challenge of the industry and its people to take upon itself finding a backup and deliverables means to use going forward that will have a longer shelf-life than, say, two years.

Continue reading "AES PNW Chapter and the Future of Archivals and Deliverables" »

Posted by Mackie at 09:47 AM | Permalink

Where would the film biz be without Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute? Check out the great films it has helped nurture, and we think you’ll agree it would be a lot less interesting. Sundance puts on a seminar once a year for up and coming composers co-sponsored by Mackie. Why we do that? It’s siimple: 1) Mackie was built mostly by up and coming musicians who kept buying the brand after ”making it.” 2) It’s a small way of saying “thank you!”

What will this year’s batch of composers be using? The tried and true 1604 VLZ Pro and the ever present HR824 .

Want to volunteer at a Sundance event?

Posted by Mackie at 03:46 PM | Permalink

When musicians turn actor the results can be wincingly bad. Not so for Antwon “Big Boi” Patton’s substantial role in “ATL.” Blackfilm.com’s review indicates Big’s talent now credibly encompasses both the recording and the movie studio. Deke is not surprised. After all, this is the super-creative artist who made pop radio listenable with his insanely great "I Love The Way You Move" (iTunes) and so many other dare-ya-not-ta-dance grooves.

What's that cool looking console in the "Big" background?

Posted by Mackie at 05:43 PM | Permalink

Even when the band you work your audio magic on is named INXS , Steve Jones’ proves it’s all about tasteful decisions. Pictured here mixing them for a television show, Steve has nice things to say about the TT24 and the SRM350 visible, but for the unseen Onyx 800R check out what the veteran audio ace has to say:

“I found the Onyx 800R mic pre's to be clean and fast, able to fit right in to a studio full of high end pre-amps, and to then bring the added clout of great sounding AD conversion to boot. It sounds expensive. Where it really shines for me is as a single unit that does so much - Mic and line preamps, digital conversion, DI, MS, dithering, BNC word clock, Variable impedance for ribbon mic's, and it doesn't fall down in any area. It covers so much ground in a single rack space unit, and it does it very well, with no fuss.”

Posted by Mackie at 06:49 AM | Permalink

Johan Mannerheim is living the dream: he always wanted to compose music for video games . . . for which he has a passion. After a successfull stint producing pop dance tracks in his native Scandanavia, Johan moved to Canada and got attention from the game industry. It’s no wonder why. This composer can positively drench you in a mood whether he’s using a big orchestra or the virtual rack of doom . . . both of which he monitors through a trusty set of HR824’s For some luscious examples check out his music page.

Posted by Mackie at 06:28 AM | Permalink

Deke doesn’t care what all those fake B3 sample playin’ mfos sez; ain’t nothin like the real thang bay-bay. Gotta be a Hammond and weigh too much for one person to move to move the Deke. Here’s three B3 players we like a lot; two of which are INTIMATELY familiar with the Mackie gear (SRM450’s and recording consoles) they’ve used over the years plus one great jazz organist who has, sadly, passed on.

For a deep dive into some smokin’ B3 playing, check this NPR link out.

Stumped who these fine players are? Click:
LEFT, CENTER, RIGHT

Posted by Mackie at 03:31 PM | Permalink

Okay, so Deke loves the name of the act "Yaga y Mackie" (Spanish for uh . . . Yaga and Mackie). But he loves the music even more. If you haven't heard a style of music called reggaeton Deke will not spoil the surprise. Check out one of the better proponents . . .

Posted by Mackie at 09:56 AM | Permalink

Ed Greene is an industry veteran who has been mixing sound for nearly 50 years. He is also a dedicated Mackie Digital 8•Bus (D8B) user. Most of Green’s recent work has been focused on broadcast sound engineering for high-profile live events. If you have ever watched the Grammy, Oscar or Emmy awards, you’ve probably listened to Ed’s work.

Recently, Ed was asked by producer and long-time associate Don Mischer to help bring the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City to more than 3 billion viewers and listeners around the world. Greene, who will also be mixing the closing ceremonies, provided the world audio feed to all of the radio and television networks braodcasting this event globally.

Continue reading "d8b at the Olympics" »

Posted by Mackie at 11:43 AM | Permalink