Seattle’s annual Laptop Battle provides a stage on which DJs and music producers can compete in a single-elimination tournament – in front of a loud, appreciative crowd. The battle, which lasts about four hours, features 16 contestants, each given three minutes to do their magic using a laptop and a Midi controller. Originality in musical performance, technical ability and crowd interaction are all factors in judging.
Producer and DJ Andrew Luck produced his first laptop battle event in Salt Lake City in 2005, then moved to Seattle and began participating in laptop battles there. Held at the Fred Wildlife Refuge – a two-storey art facility that is a refuge for artists, not animals – the 2015 Laptop Battle was hosted by Seattle dancehall legend and MC Mista Chatman, with Luck producing.
The space is equipped with an all-Mackie sound system, including a 1604VLZ analogue mixer, five SRM450 portable powered loudspeakers and a pair of SWA2801 subwoofers. ‘We use it for a variety of events every weekend, and it has been very reliable and treated us well,’ says Luck. ‘We’re fans of Mackie PA gear. So when we needed an additional stage mixer and speakers for the laptop battle, we turned to Mackie.’
The stage mixer had to be easy to use and offer tactile controls because the artists would use it to mix live, and they would have no time to learn a complicated interface. In addition, since all of the DJ gear had quarter-inch line-level outputs, Luck needed a mixer that could handle that many line-level signals.
‘We’ve used a Mackie mixer for the past several laptop battles, and we really love them. The Mackie has been the core of our system,’ Luck recalls. ‘This year, we went with the new ProFX12v2, which was just what we needed. It has the tactile faders and knobs we want and plenty of line-level inputs, and it’s very easy to use. It sounded great with the SRM speakers.’
Gallery 1 of the Fred Wildlife Refuge accommodates up to 199 people, and the Laptop Battle fills the space to capacity. To supplement the room’s regular sound system, Mackie supplied a pair of SRM650 high-definition powered loudspeakers, which feature a 15-inch, high-output, low-frequency driver and a 1.4-inch titanium dome compression tweeter, driven by a 1.6kW amplifier.
‘The SRM650s were the right choice,’ notes Luck. ‘They blended very well with our Mackie subwoofers. They filled the room beautifully, with power to spare.’
Mackie has also provided prizes for the event: ‘This year, Mackie donated a pair of their CR4 4-inch multimedia monitors, which are very cool,’ Luck says. ‘A lot of the contestants live in the city, and they want quality sound but can’t use bigger speakers. Mackie is known for studio monitors, so the contestants were excited about the chance to win the compact CR4s.’
Going forward, Luck points to the next incarnation of Laptop Battle: ‘The new online site allows users to download sound packs each month, and test their production and performance skills against other producers by uploading videos of their performances,’ he explains. ‘The site will enable us to help solidify our global community of computer musicians, interact with each other, and discover new artists. Our biggest goal is to continue to improve computer music performance, and provide a space where competitors can learn. Mackie has helped us raise the stakes with great gear and awesome prizes. They’ve been truly supportive.’
