After retiring from Mackie Designs (now Loud Technologies) in 2003 Greg Mackie still had a desire to create the kind of innovative and high-value products he is known for. So it only took a little charm and cajoling by his long-time friend and collaborator Peter Watts to convince him to come out of retirement in 2008 and develop the concepts for a line of digital mixing consoles.
Peter Watts is also an experienced pro-audio veteran who has spent 35 years designing analogue and digital recording consoles. With concepts and preliminary designs developed, Mackie and Watts began looking for a partner to bring these mixers to life.
"We needed a pro-audio partner with established sales, marketing and distribution. A partner with a solid reputation for quality and reliability - one that had the technical capabilities to develop advanced digital mixing consoles and the manufacturing know-how to produce the products," says Mackie. "I had a long time personal friendship with John and Barry Andrews and knew I could trust QSC to be exactly the right partner."
"We are delighted to be working with Greg and Peter. Their passion for creating fine audio products mirrors our own." Says Gerry Tschetter, QSC VP of marketing "Our efforts to create value and performance on the 'B-Chain' (processing, power and loudspeaker) side have yielded a number of highly successful product lines. It's great fun to be working on the 'A-Chain' (mixing) side as well."
Design work on the products will be done by both M&W and QSC while manufacturing, distribution, sales, marketing and technical support will be handled entirely by QSC. The first products are expected to be announced during the first half of 2011.
(Jim Evans)
