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[John Roberts {JR}]

Mackie was once a decent company run by audio designers and managed by business folks with some passion for the industry.  That went away when Mackie was purchased by LOUD/Sun Capital Partners.  Mackie has been screwed, to varying degrees, ever since.

Look what LOUD did to EAW.  If corporations had been people a few years earlier, LOUD could have been charged with attempted murder....

It is interesting to lecture about a different company's history for a change. Since I was in the trenches as a competitor, during their meteoric rise and later stumbles, I have a slightly different impression.

If anything they pioneered "consumer style" marketing/merchandising into the MI business. Prior to their, serviceable but otherwise a yawner of a 16ch mixer with only 6 mic preamps, they upended the strong dealer system of MI product distribution, to a direct marketing model, where the customer was pre-sold on an obscure feature, so customers walked into the local dealer asking for that "xyz model" mixer, and leaving disappointed if they didn't have it. Even though 99% of that customer base didn't know was "solo" was, they had to have it, thanks to a larger ad spend for that one SKU, than I had to spend on thousands of SKUs.

While they threw barrels of ink proclaiming design advances they actually took advantage of the same general performance improvements in integrated circuit technology we all did. They went from $0 to $50M in mixer market share in only a few years thanks to agressive advertising and marketing. I know because some of those millions came out of my market share. 

But live by the sword, die by the sword, they were hoist on their own petard, when "Made in USA" was abandoned by consumers en masse, as they purchased carbon copy Mackie replica products made in China instead. Anyone around back then remembers the lawsuits and even product changes made by the copy cat, to moot that major lawsuit (as I recall they changed the meter bridge on their mixer between two trade shows.).

But now Mackie was left with millions invested in a "made is USA by Mackoids" advertising investment into good will that evaporated into thin air overnight (well not exactly overnight). To add insult to injury there were missteps later after they moved manufacturing off-shore with at least one contract manufacturer going belly up on them..

Fortunes change and I don't blame Sun capital completely for the for the trajectory they ended up on, but there is no doubt that the sharp pencil crowd are soul-less.  A house built on a weak foundation will not stand... (Did I leave any cliches out?).

My viewpoint may be biased and a little snarky, but more true than not IMO.

JR

[Bob Leonard]

All true, and yes, you left out "The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.".

[Tim McCulloch]

Good to see I stirred up some old memories.   I appreciate your perspective from the design/marketing/manufacturing side.

After reading my post again, I probably should have included some kind of direct comparison between then and now.  Then, you could actually get a Mackoid on the phone for support, and parts could be had.  Now?  They can't keep a forum up and running and give the appearance they take cover when customers post about negative experiences.  Parts support?  It costs money.

Mackie honed the "make them think they need....." marketing in ways that hadn't been done on such a huge scale in non-consumer audio before.  I hate them for the word "unity" to this day.... 

It is interesting to lecture about a different company's history for a change. Since I was in the trenches as a competitor, during their meteoric rise and later stumbles, I have a slightly different impression.

If anything they pioneered "consumer style" marketing/merchandising into the MI business. Prior to their, serviceable but otherwise a yawner of a 16ch mixer with only 6 mic preamps, they upended the strong dealer system of MI product distribution, to a direct marketing model, where the customer was pre-sold on an obscure feature, so customers walked into the local dealer asking for that "xyz model" mixer, and leaving disappointed if they didn't have it. Even though 99% of that customer base didn't know was "solo" was, they had to have it, thanks to a larger ad spend for that one SKU, than I had to spend on thousands of SKUs.

While they threw barrels of ink proclaiming design advances they actually took advantage of the same general performance improvements in integrated circuit technology we all did. They went from $0 to $50M in mixer market share in only a few years thanks to agressive advertising and marketing. I know because some of those millions came out of my market share. 

But live by the sword, die by the sword, they were hoist on their own petard, when "Made in USA" was abandoned by consumers en masse, as they purchased carbon copy Mackie replica products made in China instead. Anyone around back then remembers the lawsuits and even product changes made by the copy cat, to moot that major lawsuit (as I recall they changed the meter bridge on their mixer between two trade shows.).

But now Mackie was left with millions invested in a "made is USA by Mackoids" advertising investment into good will that evaporated into thin air overnight (well not exactly overnight). To add insult to injury there were missteps later after they moved manufacturing off-shore with at least one contract manufacturer going belly up on them..

Fortunes change and I don't blame Sun capital completely for the for the trajectory they ended up on, but there is no doubt that the sharp pencil crowd are soul-less.  A house built on a weak foundation will not stand... (Did I leave any cliches out?).

My viewpoint may be biased and a little snarky, but more true than not IMO.

JR

[dick rees]

I remember reading on another audio forum that the first pioneers (just like in mid west) where the ones with arrows in their backs.

I take serious exception to posting an analogy such as this.  Read what you wrote, think about it and consider an apology to the First American Community.

[John Roberts {JR}]

I take serious exception to posting an analogy such as this.  Read what you wrote, think about it and consider an apology to the First American Community.

---deleted to not offend ----  as usual read my mind

JR

[Geoff Doane]

After reading my post again, I probably should have included some kind of direct comparison between then and now.  Then, you could actually get a Mackoid on the phone for support, and parts could be had.  Now?  They can't keep a forum up and running and give the appearance they take cover when customers post about negative experiences.  Parts support?  It costs money.

Mackie honed the "make them think they need....." marketing in ways that hadn't been done on such a huge scale in non-consumer audio before.  I hate them for the word "unity" to this day....

Yeah there really was customer support at one time.  We had one of those SR40s (at the day job), and it had a few little noise issues.  Mackie came back with a mod to null out the noise, and console worked OK for a few years.  That's the same kind of service response I would expect from Studer or Ampex back in the day, although their products generally aged a little more gracefully.

As for things staying the same, Mackie (and almost everyone else) is still touting their preamps as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and the purchasing masses seem to lap it up.  In fact, the original CR1604 had preamps that could receive an AM radio station like nobody's business.  Maybe the reason Yamaha seems to get no respect is that they haven't resorted to BS advertising like the rest of them. 

GTD

[Marc Platt]

I respect yamaha, I currently own many of their products and have owned several other Yamaha products in the past.
 I own:
 Yamaha dualsport motorcycle, a yamaha grizzley atv, owned 2 yamaha banshee atvs and a raptor, a yamaha jetski, 2 acoustic gtrs, my 1st bass guitar which I learned to play on is a yamaha, first mixing console I owned was a yamaha, I own many yamaha fx units, power amps, speakers, and much more I am sure.
  All has always pleased me for the price....