There are two studios out of which I primarily work: the first is my
home studio, the second is of course the DFA studio complex. I tend to
do all of my remixing in my home studio, as remixing doesn't usually
require the recording of loud acoustic instruments like a full drum
kit. My home studio is pretty extensive. I have Apogee converters, a
bunch of vintage outboard compressors and preamps, a ton of analog
synths.
The difficulty in the small studio setup has historically been with
finding a decent sounding small format mixer that had the routing
capabilities and features of a desk you might find in a 'proper'
studio. Mackie was the first to do this with any great success. They
offered inexpensive boards with tons of features crammed into a small
frame, but for me the sound quality was entirely unacceptable.
However, a couple of years ago I bought a Mackie Onyx 1640, the
flagship board of their new Onyx series. It was the first time I was
satisfied with the sound quality of a Mackie product, and though I
wished for a 24 channel version, I was quite happy with it. It sounded
fine, it had a small footprint, and with a price tag of around $1,400,
it far outperformed anything in its class.
Until a couple of weeks ago. I was in the midst of some tight remix
schedules (I still am), and while I was powering up my studio I noticed
that the Mackie Onyx with which I had had no troubles would not power
up properly. It was switching on and off and making a popping sound in
my Dynaudio monitors, which, incidentally, cost as much as my car. I
immediately realized there must be some sort of power supply issue,
something I knew my local tech could fix that day if he had the parts.
I was sort of happy to have the unscheduled day off, so I dropped off
the mixer with the tech and went bowling.
Within a few hours the tech called me with some bad news. The
problem with the mixer was in fact the power supply, a simple fix.
However, Mackie would not have the necessary replacement part available
for three months. Three months!!! This was entirely unacceptable. Three
days would have been a stretch, but three months was simply impossible.
The tech assured me that there was nothing he could do on his end, that
he was entirely at the mercy of Mackie.
I was now faced with two choices. I could either break out one of my
older mixers and sort of get by, or I could go out and buy something
else to replace it. The former option didn't sit right with me. I did
not want to compromise sound quality in any way. The latter option,
depending on your financial perspective, was a bitter waste-of-money
pill to swallow. I would be buying a new mixer outright to replace
something I would get back in about three months, leaving me with two,
and leaving me $1,400 poorer.
Before I went out and spent that kind of money, I decided to contact
Mackie and get their take on it. I sent Mackie an email outlining this
ordeal, explaining who I was, who I worked with, all of the things that
I thought might grab their attention. I got no response.
You would figure that in this economy, the last thing a company
dealing in a pretty specialized electronics item aimed at the pockets
of home recordists would want is to turn someone like me against them.
I routinely praised the virtues of the Onyx to friends who do what i
do, fans who wrote me asking me about my recording setup, and even in
interviews (see recent Future Music and Resident Advisor).
Now I will actively advise against buying any Mackie product. After
further discussion with my tech, it seems that Mackie is encouraging
customers to replace broken Mackie products and discouraging them from
repairing them. They are ostensibly making it harder to get their
products serviced, and limiting their warranty service centers. Aside
from the financial insult (again, depending on your perspective, being
told to replace a $1,400 mixer rather than do a $200 repair is a
financial outrage), the environmental travesty of implementing such a
policy should deter people from supporting this company.
I am exploring other options and will let you know the outcome.
Right now I am trying out mixers from Soundcraft and Allen and Heath,
who were only too happy to accomadate me. But for now, this whole
ordeal has cost me enough money that, for the first time, I feel
compelled to campaign against a company like this. Mackie may not care
enough about losing one customer, and my attendant loss of income, but
in the current economy It will be somewhat satisfying if I can spread
the word about this. Word of mouth is a pretty powerful thing in the
customer service world.