Mackie Designs Hires Industry Veteran Nigel Toates For New Strategic Sales Position

December 3, 2001 – Woodinville, WA – Mackie Designs Inc. (NASDAQ: MKIE), today announced that Nigel Toates has joined Mackie as Director of Sales, Broadcast Market. In this position, Nigel will report directly to Keith Olsen, Corporate Director, Global Recording Product and Market Development. Mr. Toates' primary responsibility will be to establish a closer working relationship with Mackie's high-end, post production and broadcast customers.

Mr. Toates has extensive experience in the professional audio business, specifically the high-end post production and broadcast markets. Before joining Mackie, he worked as Vice President of Business Development for Seattle-based Wide View Technologies, developers of copyright protection technology for the film industry. Prior to that, Mr. Toates spent 20 years with professional audio manufacturer AMS Neve where he held numerous positions including World Wide Service Engineer, National Service Manager for North America and most recently, Vice President of Sales and Service for North and South America.

"Nigel has strong relationships with the high-end production facilities throughout the United States," explained Mr. Olsen. "He has a proven track record for understanding and addressing the specific needs of this market. In this role, he will significantly strengthen Mackie's relationship with high-end post production and broadcast facilities while bringing valuable market and product data back to the development team."

This appointment makes Mr. Toates the newest member of Mackie's newly formed Recording Market Development Team, under the direction of Keith Olsen. This team brings market management and product development resources from the Company's many brands together in order to improve customer communication and better facilitate the sharing of ideas and technologies between all Mackie Design Inc. brands.

"Both Mackie and Soundscape have great reputations," stated Mr. Toates. "But much of the high-end users and production facilities equate Mackie and its many brands strictly with the MI market." Nigel continued, "Mackie truly has one of the most impressive engineering groups and manufacturing facilities in the business-I was blown away. I am really looking forward to introducing Mackie's product range directly to the high-end market."

Nigel Toates will work from his office in Los Angeles and can be reached via telephone at (310) 592-4047 or email: Nigel.Toates@mackie.com.

About Mackie
Mackie Designs Inc. is known worldwide as a leading manufacturer and marketer of high-quality, affordable professional audio systems. Mackie products can be found in professional and project recording studios, video and broadcast suites, post production facilities, sound reinforcement applications including churches and nightclubs, retail locations and on major musical tours. Mackie Designs Inc. products are marketed by 54 distributors to more than 100 countries around the world.

"Mackie." is a registered trademark of Mackie Designs Inc. in the United States and other countries.

For more information please contact: Mackie Designs Inc. – 16220 Wood-Red Road N.E. – Woodinville, WA 98072 – Phone: 425-487-4333 – Fax: 425-487-4337 – Internet: www.mackie.com