Exploring the Mackie DLZ Creator: A Conversation with Rob Puzzitiello – Part 1
“What we did with this product was, we’re trying to give people the benefit of using a mixer without necessarily having to be like the audio professional who went to school. Like, I hear all the time, anytime I meet someone they’re like, ‘Oh, the first board I ever used was a Mackie,’ and, like, we all learned on it. I, you know, we have them in my classrooms.” — Rob Puzzitiello
This week’s guest in “Exploring the Mackie DLZ Creator” is a creative self-starter who’s worked across podcasting, independent filmmaking, and the music industry. He began his career in 2009 as a livestream radio host, and today he’s the marketing director for the pro audio brand Mackie. He’s also leveraged his background in content to help launch the DLZ Creator, a digital mixer that adapts to a user’s level of experience to produce professional results faster than ever. His name is Rob Puzzitiello and you’ll definitely want to hear his thoughts on the trends and future of podcasting, audio tech, and about sound in general.
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(0:00:01) – Sound’s Influence in the Audio Industry
As the episode starts, we talk about Rob’s earliest experiences with sound, which, in his case, involve his very first iPod and the seemingly endless musical possibilities it opened up for him. “My iPod,” he tells us, “you know, I filled it with music, and that was definitely… the catalyst for me becoming interested in music.” Rob also tells us about his journey from pioneering podcaster to Mackie’s marketing director, and how he’s adapting to new streaming audio markets like Twitch. “I overthought about, like, how should I market myself,” he says, “like should I do this, and I was like, ‘I’m just going to do what I want that day because that’s what I did ten years ago and it worked.’”
(0:13:09) – Mackie DLZ Creator Digital Mixer
Rob talks about the early challenges of audio mixing back when it was mostly hardware, and how the digital age revolutionized professional studios. “Now we have this board that does everything our $50,000 plus studio had,” he says, “and it’s something that is sitting on my desk.” He tells us about Mackie’s DLZ Creator Digital Mixer, and how, as the podcasting and audio enthusiast market’s grown, the demand for simpler, more intuitive audio technology’s grown alongside it. “What we did with this product,” Rob explains, “was, we’re trying to give people the benefit of using a mixer without necessarily having to be like the audio professional who went to school.”
(0:18:49) – Creating the Best Podcasting Mixer
“We weren’t the first ones to make a dedicated podcasting mixer,” Rob continues, “but we were going to make them as the mixer brand, and we were, like, we are going to make the best possible one that we can make.” We discuss the benefits of handling your own sound editing versus an outside editor and how he’s working to make do-it-yourself editing easier than ever. “Whatever we can do to help alleviate that is pretty nice,” he explains, “because not everyone wants to learn about all of that stuff. They just want to sit down and sound professional and have some peace of mind.”
Episode Summary
- Rob’s first experiences with the iPod and early days as a radio host and podcaster.
- How the digital age has transformed audio production and editing.
- The rise of self-produced audio and the need for ever-more intuitive mixers.
Tune in next week as we talk about how the pandemic changed what it means to be in a band, what’s in store for both Rob and the DLZ Digital Mixer, and whether he still sees room for long-form audio content in a world that’s becoming more and more about making an instant impression.
Connect with the Guest
Website: https://mackie.com/
Introducing the DLZ Creator Mixer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjpkxNst28w
Connect with Rob Puzzitiello on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-puzzitiello-45553476/
Follow Rob Puzzitiello on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robbiepuzz/
Follow Rob Puzzitiello on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robbiepuzz/
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This interview episode was very skillfully made to sound beautiful by the talented Humberto Franco.
