Mackie Announces Sponsorship Of Laptop Battle
Mackie has announced that they are now sponsoring the Seattle-based Laptop Battle music event. The Laptop Battle is an event developed by Kris Moon and Zach Huntting from the Fourthcity collective. Their goal was to create an original laptop music event that created excitement for a electronic music movement, which didn’t provide much visual stimulation.
“We thought it was a great idea to expose some of the underground talent that was really starting to come of age in Seattle around that time,” Moon reveals. “The event was also a reaction to boring shows with laptops, a phenomenon that has grown less frequent with the advent of better MIDI controllers and bigger audiences for electronic music straight off the hard drive.”
According to the founders, a participant doesn’t have to be an established musician or have loads of high-end equipment because the rules are very simple:
Rules:
Gear Specifications:
» Up to one MIDI controller and one soundcard
» All gear must fit into a 2’ x 2’ square
The randomly chosen Battles are 3-minutes long and presented in a single elimination format.
The Laptop Battle is growing and Mackie will sponsor the National Championship in February 2009.
“We’ve continued to throw battles, moving from the Deep Down to Chop Suey, where in 2004 the first ever Championship event was held,” Zach Huntting remembers. “Early on in 2003 and 2004 several other cities started throwing battles, including Philly and Dallas. Fourthcity also took a tour down the coast, and rallied winners from SF and LA. Since then, we’ve had many other cities join the fold. At our 5th Championship event on February 20th, ’09 at Nectar Lounge, we will have contestants from Atlanta, Miami, San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, Seattle, Philly and Dallas.”
The Laptop Battle has also grown overseas, with outposts in Tokyo, New Zealand, Germany and the UK.
Laptop Battle winners will enjoy some choice Mackie gear as regional champions will receive a copy of the Tracktion 3 Ultimate Bundle and the national champion scores a pair of HR624mk2 High-Resolution Studio Monitors.
More information on the Laptop Battle.
