New Book for Mackie HDR/2496 & MDR24/96 Users

[MikeRivers]

For those of you who aren't regular readers of the Mackie Users's Forum, I'd like to announce the publication of my new book

The Last Mackie Hard Disk Recorder Manual

This book picks up where Mackie left off, describing new features beyond software version 1.2, operating tips, modifications and upgrades, maintenance and troubleshooting tips. If you have one of these recorders, this reference book will help you keep it going.

Check out the table of contents at:

http://members.aol.com/mikerivers/La...Manual_TOC.pdf

The book is 112 pages, 8-1/2 x 11 and wire bound so it won't close up on you when you're trying to work on the recorder with the book open. There's a companion CD which contains all the current Mackie documentation and operating system files, some useful maintenance tools, and a couple of handy programs that complement the recorder.

Book - $25
CD - $6

Order from Cafe Press. They take credit cards and ship anywhere.

http://www.cafepress.com/mikerivers

Since I don't regularly participate in this forum (yeah, I know, I should) if you have any questions, e-mail me directly at mrivers@d-and-d.com.

[Dave Martin]

If you're using one of these boxes, I strongly recommend Mike's book.

[hollywood_steve]

Book - $25

Mike, I'll give you THIRTY-five if you write a similar book on the Genex GX9000

Seriously, hard disk recorders, DAWs, computers in general, etc. are some of the most complex tools that man has ever had to operate. so why are the manuals so lacking that third party books are commonplace?

The good news is that these kinds of books are available, the bad news is that they are almost always only available for the mass market products. (daws - Pro Tools, yes; SADIE, no; HD recorders - Mackie, yes; Genex, no, etc.)

My issues with the GX9000 are mainly that I know that I'm barely using a fraction of it's capabilities. I'm able to get my work done without any problem, but I know that some of the features that I've never used could make my job easier, more productive, etc.

Will you do it for FORTY-five?

[MikeRivers]

Originally posted by hollywood_steve

Mike, I'll give you THIRTY-five if you write a similar book on the Genex GX9000

Seriously, hard disk recorders, DAWs, computers in general, etc. are some of the most complex tools that man has ever had to operate. so why are the manuals so lacking that third party books are commonplace?

My issues with the GX9000 are mainly that I know that I'm barely using a fraction of it's capabilities. I'm able to get my work done without any problem, but I know that some of the features that I've never used could make my job easier, more productive, etc.

Funny thing, Steve, but I was working at Mackie when the HDR24/96 came out (I was hired as manager of the Tech Documentation Dept just in time, and retired six months later) and my first project was to get the manual out the door that someone else had started. I wanted to write the manual on the same technical level as the book that I finally wrote on my own, but the product manager only wanted a simple quick start guide. Since one of the selling points of the HDR was that if you already knew how to operate a multitrack (analog) recorder, you already knew how to operate the HDR, he didn't want a manual that looked like the unit was actually pretty complex. Then a few weeks later he decided that we should augment the quick start guide with an editing guide because editing wasn't covered in the QS. This was a good thing for users, but it had a marketing slant, too. Since the competition was the TASCAM MX-2424 which, at the time had only rough block editing capability, and that was with an outboard computer, he wanted some documentation that showed that musical editing could be done to the waveform level right on the machine. Finally we did the Technical Reference guide - then I retired.

The reason why you don't see a lot of third party books for this sort of thing is that the products often have relatively short lives, and there just aren't all that many of them around. It isn't profitable for a publisher if he can only sell a couple of hundred copies. I decided to do this one myself because I got tired of answering the same questions all the time on the forum. I guessed that that there might have been maybe 2500 to 3000 recorders sold and that maybe I could sell about 10% of that quantity of books. I couldn't sell that to a publisher. Well, it turns out that there have actually been over 10,000 sold (and I've sold fewer than 100 books, but have just started publicizing it outside the Mackie forum) so I guess there must be about 10,000 people using these things that are either perfectly happy with what they can do with it.

I looked at the Genex when it first came out and I thought it was overly complex, but also mighty powerful. Same with the new Sound Devices portable hard disk recorders that I was hoping would save me from continuing to use the Nomad Jukebox 3 on casual remotes. Trouble with learning everything there is to know about gear like this is that it's so easy to forget - and even forget that you ever knew it. So even though you know you did that once, when it would be handy to do it again, you don't even remember that your machine can do it. A well organized reference guide would indeed be handy.

I never really tried to do anything for the Genex (though I did try to get a job with HHB in Los Angeles a while back) but I did offer my services to Fostex and they decided that their manuals were good enough. Go figure.