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Mackie

Mackie started with a small PA mixer before growing to become an industry standard for recording, pro audio, live sound, podcasting, and content creation. Greg Mackie started to tinker in Mukilteo, Washington in 1970. He was a self-professed audio nerd and closet rocker sick of the underpowered live mixers of the day, compelled to do better by building the TAPCO Model 6000, the first 6-channel mixer designed for rock bands.

The early TAPCO gear was described by Greg as being “Primitive” as the chassis were stamped out by a heating duct fabricator and the bottoms were painted with fake vinyl car-top spray. To improve the feel of the low-cost, mass-produced rotary potentiometers (which were the only kind available then), Greg took each of them apart and injected them with a special "pot-tightening goo." They may have been primitive but the TAPCO items were solid and dependable, with a look and feel that was shocking for the price point. TAPCO had made a real mark on the industry by the mid-1970s with mixers like the 6000 and 6100R becoming staples in working class musician circles, attracted to their low price and bulletproof construction. This general concept has been a fundamental building block of every piece of Mackie gear.

The 1980s saw the birth of MIDI as well as innovations in low-cost digital recording that led to an era focused on the personal studio. Greg Mackie identified the need for affordable, good sounding, feature-rich mixers that could satiate the rapidly growing appetites of this home studio revolution. In 1989, Greg founded Mackie Designs. Its debut product, the LM-1602 line mixer built enough buzz among musicians to inspire Greg to procure warehouse space. Shortly after, the introduction of the CR-1604 in 1991 put Mackie on the map.

By the mid-90s Mackie had expanded and evolved to boast over 250 employees, including a top-shelf engineering team. The introduction of the 8-Busmixer, designed with multitrack recording and live sound in mind, quickly became a standard presence in project studios and mid-sized live venues everywhere. In the 21st Century, Mackie has continued to crank out massively popular products, with legendary lines that have become industry standards and spawned countless imitators. The Mackie MCU Controller has stood the test of time and continues to outpace the competition. The Onyx Series technology has once again set the benchmark for legendary sonic performance, bringing great sound within to those with even the most modest budgets.

The Mackie name still holds a solid reputation that has become synonymous with innovation, great sound, and even greater dependability. Today, Mackie touches every corner of the creative audio space, with solutions for every application, from studio recording, mixing, and monitoring to a full range of live sound solutions, microphones, studio and live mixers, headphones and in-ear monitors, podcasting tools, amplification and processing, and more. Mackie continues to impress, bringing the next generation of tools to the next generation of creatives. If you’ve got a dream, Solotech’s highly trained sales reps are happy to help you find the Mackie gear to make it happen.