So, I remember Mac talking about his little brother Marshall fairly often on the forums. I found Marshall's website (he is still playing sax professionally) and it had a "contact me" form.

So, I wrote the following:



I received the following reply (lightly edited to respect privacy):



I hope I hear from him.

That's really good to hear John.

Thanks for chasing Mac up. I often wonder about him. He's STILL the top poster with 38,502 posts even though he was last online in April 2014 (04/09/14).

And he's member #11 -- that means he was here right from the start! By comparison, my member number is 12,038 and I joined in 2008. By the way, Peter Gannon is #12!

There's no two ways about it, Mac is a legend's legend!

What a great way to start 2020,
Noel

So glad to hear that Mac is still around. If he started posting again, what a welcome back he would get, and rightly so.

I was just thinking about other users, Finetuned who did biab third party styles as well, they simply disappeared off the forum as well, many years ago and no one heard any more from them either.

Even though its an internet forum it can be sad to see members disappear from it.

Come to think of it has anyone heard from 90Db (Bob) in a while or even Seeker (Frank) who did a lot of user tracks?

John, Mac was very influential in my journey. I “met” him at the old N-trackstudio forum, as well as the audiominds forum he was the one who convinced me to use BiaB and also a program called Multitrackstudios. I had many questions and he answered them with patience and kindness. He truly was a gem around here I wish he was still with us. I am sure he had his reasons for fading away, I certainly did as well for about 2 1/2 years. John if you get in contact please give him our greeting and best wishes. He would have known me as Robomusic.

I certainly will, Rob!

John, thanks for taking the initiative. It’s great to know Mac is still with us. He would be so welcomed back.

Noel, I noticed in your post that you said Mac was here from the beginning, based on his forum registration. The first part is true; the reason is not. In the summer of 2000, PG Music changed their forum software!

The number of posts and the actual date we had first registered was lost - we all lost years of material and started over in 2000. So Mac has even more posts that what you see in the user list. So do I, but I’m not in the same league. Yes, some of us must be older than dirt by this point.

Thank you so much John. I've often wondered about Mac myself.

In the early days when he disappeared, he didn't answer my e-mails. He was beta-testing some of my new styles for BiaB at the time and not returning e-mails was unusual.

I read he was going through some health issues so I let it drop. The last thing someone facing a serious health challenge needed was something like, "Hey buddy, how is the evaluation of those styles coming?"

It's good to hear he is still alive, and I hope completely healed. If he responds, please send him a "Hello" from me.

Thanks,
Notes

I'm also glad that Mac is still with us. For those who didn't know Mac, during the day he was what Noel is to us now, a man with tremendous knowledge about BiaB and music in general whom gladly shared this with the rest of us.

John, tell Mac I said hello.

If I hear from him, I will be sure to share everyone's well wishes.

Me too John. The last contact I had was also shortly before he disappeared. I had an Emu 1820M PCi interface that died because I spilled coffee all over my computer. I PM him asking if he thought he could repair it I would just give it to him. He said yes so I put it in a box and mailed it out. He did reply he received it and thanked me and that's the last thing I've heard.

I've often wondered what he would have to say about all these discussions about making fairly radical changes to the program. He's the only one I know who could go toe to toe with some of the very technical folks who've joined the forum in the last few years. The big difference between him and most of us is he's brilliant and has a 30 year perspective with PGM. I often thought he had more to do with the company than he ever let on publicly.

Bob

John & Bob,

I really miss that old phart Mac!

He had been a regular contributor to the N-Track Studio forums and, in fact, assisted us in its early development. He once suggested that we contact him through his brother but I have lost that email address.

Mac and a Cockney Londoner, "Limey" made that a fun place to hang out. Great memories.

John,

I'm glad you found a way to get an update. Great piece of detective work sir.

Mac doesn't know me from a hole in the wall but he was still active in the forum when I returned to Band-in-a-Box. I greatly appreciated both his knowledge and style.

My two cents worth: yes, I was always totally amazed with the tremendous knowledge that Mac had about BIAB (and actually so much else)!! It was so informative to read his threads/contributions and I have missed him tremendously....I was so thrilled to see you make this effort to reconnect with him, John, and I just hope, along with all of us that knew him, virtually at least, that you hear back from him and let us know if you do.
Thanks for your attempt,
Cecil

+ on the thanks train
In addition to all Mac’s musical and real life knowledge as a fellow Pittsburgher
I also enjoyed the times he mentioned his experiences in the burg

And like everyone else wish him Well in all areas of life

I also miss his informative posts...

John

Great news and good sleuthing, when you reconnect with him tell him that his music forum and Air Force bro says best wishes and I really miss his presence here.

Mac and I only talked off-forum a few times and then only via PM’s and on LAST one he told me how he loved chilies so I told him I’d some him some world famous Hatch (New Mexico) green chilies (he was already familiar with them). He also mentioned that his call sign in flight school was..., well let Mac explain directly (from his next to last PM to me back in Feb of ’14)



I did send him some chilies but then Mac disappeared from forum at almost exactly the same time he got the chilies, so I always feared I had somehow poisoned him (and that's not so LOL).

--------------
Like Matt said this forum was reconstituted back about 20 years ago I completely forget why not even sure I ever knew. And as Matt mentioned even on that previous forum Mac was a very early member. I’m member 55 (I wish I was still 55) on THIS forum but had posts on previous forum as well along with Matt, Mac et al - only reason my member number is so low, lower than Matt’s is I beat Matt to the new registration somehow.

I want to hear from him as well. Mac, rharv, silver tones and a few others got me started on PTPA (you newcomers may have to look that acronym up!).

Wow, thanks for doing this John and bringing us up to speed. Great to know Mac is still on the grassy side. Even greater to hear he is still a brilliant man.

This post made my day, thanks again.

Danny C.

+1 here for another fan of Mac - learned a lot from him and greatly indebted - as well as lots of the people on this thread : )

So for once it wasn't my fault?

Always enjoyed Mac's insights and input. Great to know he's still with us. Hopefully, we can hear from him again?

Thanks for tracking him down.

Yep I'll take this hit

I miss Mac too. I could always count on him to call me every 2-3 months just to check on me and chew the fat.

We'd talk for an hour or two and then I wouldn't hear from him again until either I called him or he called me.

I stopped hearing from him about the same time everyone else did. He is a fountain of knowledge about anything you would bring up. Even if you brought up a project you were getting ready to work on around the house, he'd always have a few tips to do it better or make it easier.

I hope he's doing well. I'd love to see him rejoin our ranks.

I miss him as well.We spoke on the phone a number of times.He was a brilliant man.
Thanks John for tracking him down.

John if you do talk to him, he might be surprised I finally bought BIAB in 2020.

LOL!

I know I am.

So now you can become a Jazzstar_not

Congrats Scott.
Let us know how you get along.

Unfortunately, I have not yet heard from Mac. But I have had several very nice email exchanges with his brother, Marshall. Marshall did say that Mac pretty much keeps to himself these days and confirmed that hee had passed along my contact information.

Hope springs eternal.

Thanks for the update, John.

Let's keep hoping that we get a reply, and that he at least learns that there are so many people thinking after him.

I wonder if Mac may have had a stroke, or dementia, or something else like that and doesn't want the world to know.

I hope that is not the case.

I've been gigging at 55+ communities since I was 39 so I guess that is why this occurs to me.

Anyway, I hope he's healthy and happy.

Notes

Yes, it would be great to hear from Mac.

You need to have been around here for a while just to understand that one!

Yes, me too - pleased to know that Mac is still going and hopefully in good health.

ROG.

Hey Rharv!!! Moooooooooo!!!!

Glad Mac is still kickin' it!