As the debate over analog versus digital rages on, one company has found innovative ways to satisfy people on both sides of this issue. Mackie’s original analog mixers have been a staple of professional and novice sound reinforcement for over fifteen years, and they continue to develop and improve on this solid reputation. In recent years, they have made significant inroads into the digital realm with high quality live and production consoles that have quickly become very popular with popular names such as Usher and Bootsy Collins.

When I heard that Mackie was going to venture further into the digital world with the "Quad Series" of live sound signal processors, I was both intrigued and curious. Although Mackie mixing boards have featured onboard signal processors for a while now, they are not known for making outboard signal processors....at least until recently. Mackie has released a new rack mounted series starting with the Quad Comp/Gate and the Quad EQ.

Because of my past experience with Mackie products, I was confident that these units would not just copy the equipment already available. Mackie's style is innovation and adding new features that you would not be able to get anywhere else. When I received my Quad EQ and Quad Comp/Gate for review, I was not disappointed. Read on to find out why these are special units!

I would like to talk this month about protecting your musical gear investment. Let’s face it!! It is extremely easy to sink a ton of money into musical equipment. Guitars, amplifiers, mixing boards, rack gear, stomp boxes, microphones, cords, and the list goes on. Music can be a very serious investment and if you are not careful you can find yourself with a bunch of gear that looks cool, but does not function properly or at all. Later I will talk about caring for your guitar, but in this article I would like to talk about caring for all electronic outboard gear you may have or are planning to acquire in the future.

Many of you may remember Dan’s recent review of the SRM350 active loudspeakers by Mackie. But what about all of you who have already invested money in outboard amplifiers that you are already very happy with. For you Mackie has created the C300z passive loudspeaker.

When I first entered the live music scene several years ago, loudspeakers were little more than wooden boxes with speakers installed in the front. These square and rectangular boxes worked fairly well in the hands of experienced sound crews and engineers who could afford the best equipment to get the most out of them. For the less experienced however, these cabinets were a breeding ground for resonant frequencies and standing waves that turned their sound into an undesirable mush. With much effort and experimentation with placement, most were able to get results they could live with.

While newer speakers and electronics were developed over the years, the problems with the cabinet designs were for the most part ignored. That was until Mackie introduced their line of injection molded polypropylene speaker enclosures. It has been my experience that Mackie does not approach a problem from only one direction, but they tend to innovate on several angles at a once. This is achieved by hiring people who use and therefore understand firsthand the problems associated with most loudspeakers and work hard to solve these issues. This was especially true with the C300z passive loudspeakers.

When you first start gigging, you quickly begin to realize that sound dynamics are an incredibly difficult beast to tame. Different performance spaces and crowd sizes result in dramatically different acoustic properties from gig to gig – or even within the same gig as people float in and out. You may find that your standard guitar amplifier sounds great at sound check at 10 or 25 feet away and fills the empty room with sweet tone. Suddenly, people are milling about having a good time dancing, singing and talking. Now the people in the front can hear you but people in the back just hear a muddled bunch of noise – mostly low level frequencies. This problem expands exponentially as you add bass guitars, keyboards, drums, and vocals to the mix.

At this point most bands realize that it is time to invest in some serious sound reinforcement equipment like mixers and loudspeakers specifically designed to improve fidelity from the front to the back of the room. As many of you already know, Mackie is one of the foremost names in sound reinforcement and studio equipment, and they have sent us the SRM350 2-Way Active Loudspeaker to review for you.

About a year ago Furman Sound introduced their updated Series II line of power conditioner and distribution centers. The PL-8 Series II included some very important upgrades from its predecessor. The original PL-8 had a traditional style surge suppressor circuit that would sacrifice itself if the power surge was great enough to damage equipment plugged into the unit. This was a very good insurance policy for your rack gear, but did require that you send the PL-8 in for a replacement of the suppression circuit. Unfortunately, this also temporarily shut down your rack system, or at least left you unprotected, while the PL-8 was being repaired. However, now with the incorporation of Furman's new "Series Multistage Protection" (SMP) technology, you will no longer need to worry about a surge causing the power center's circuits to be destroyed.

Here is a challenge for all you true GearHeads. Do a web search for electronic guitar tuners. Count them...and now choose just one. It seems like everyone is building guitar tuners these days (good ones and bad ones!). Fortunately, for those of us who want a rack mounted tuner, the field is much smaller. There are only a few rack tuners to choose from in the current market, and after looking at all of them my first assessment was that the RT-7100 by Sabine® had the best features and represented the best value. Wanting to take a longer look to see if my instinct was correct, I contacted Sabine® and they sent me one right away to review.