What Would Be Your Ideal Mixer ? (College Design Project)

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

What Would Be Your Ideal Mixer ? (College Design Project)

As the title says im currently doing a college product where i have to design and justify a product. As I would like to think iknow a fair amount about DJ’ing i chose to do a dj Mixer and need ideas on what the general populus would like to see in a mixer. For examples

Features
Software intergration
Construction
price ?

Any ideas would be great as im not trying to design “my” perfect mixer but a good mixer all round.

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A DJM 900 for £500

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4 channel mixer with a massive effects unit on it and 4-band eq’s. Traktor scratch certified and a build in usb hub and a part midi assignable. Some send/return channels are welcome :wink:

4

a djm900 - vci100 hybrid for me please

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My ideal mixer:

  • Per channel (like Pio mixers) analogue multimode filter with adjustable resonance (like on the Xone mixers)
  • Send/return for external effects units with routing like the DJM 2000 and the 900 (buttons to skip over channels if need be and a switch to quickly toggle, to have options)
  • Ability to accept midi clock input from software to sync effects. 4 channel (maybe an aux channel or two as well like the Xone 92), 4-band eq (maybe an option to switch between 3 and 4 band)
  • Post-fader effects including tape delay
  • Multiple parameters to adjust on effects instead of just one (for more dynamic effects usage)
  • Envelope-reactive effects (kind of like the beat effects on the djm 850)
  • Maybe a waveform display to show what your signal looks like post-effects and EQ? Not sure about this one though.
  • A built-in soundcard for DVS use would be nice, but not necessary (and if you include one, make sure there are two usb ports for it like the Rane 68)
  • Excellent sound quality on the EQs and the overall audio summing
  • 2 switchable line/phono inputs for each channel and one digital
  • Ability to customize or add effects (sort of like with the RMX-1000) by USB or similar
  • Ability to use audio plugins for effects would be really cool, though I don’t know if that’s feasible (and isn’t 100% necessary as long as the send/return is decent)
  • Flexible headphone cueing - stereo and split-cue along with ability to monitor each channel individually, plus the master
  • Ability to monitor what an effect will sound like in headphones before applying it to the running track (like the DJM 900 has but actually fully intuitively functional)
  • Great quality faders and knobs (at least DJM 900 quality) including a solid scratch-worthy crossfader; with adjustable curves to suit individual preference like the DJM 900
  • Durable construction (DJM 900 quality minimum) but not overly heavy
  • Midi output for syncing external effects units from software

That’s all I can think of at the moment.

6

Z2, but moar. I would love to have 4 upfaders, a full X1, another USB in and 4+ more USB outs.

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  • heavy duty construction

  • analog audio

  • quality components

  • strong smooth pots

  • eq kills

  • larger than standard eq knobs with extra room in the design

  • magnetic contactless faders

  • midi section either side containing

  • 2 encoders with buttons for effect select and looping.

  • 3 pots with buttons for effects

Pretty sure I just described a Rane 68 :wink:

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All these ideas have been extremely helpful, (and the screenshots can be used as market research :wink: ) keep em coming,

So far my general design is a 4 channel mixer with

dedicated filter section for each channel
4 velocity sensitive pads either side of the upfaders (twitch size)
Traktor Certification
DJTT chroma caps
Innofaders
USB hub
phono/line selector for each channel

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I think send/return is a must, especially with all really good effectors on the market these days. Good build quality is also important.

I like that you have decided to go for tractor certification as well :smiley:

EQ kills is a good idea as well. I have them on my Behringer DDM4000 and they work to an extent, but stuff seems to still get through :-S

I love the X/Y touchscreen on the DJM2000 as well, allows tons of space of creativity. Don’t know how feasible this is for you,nut I think is an uber-cool idea.

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How do you expect to get the traktor certification? Getting a traktor soundcard inside?

11

there is one thing i realy love on my djm909 that i never found on another mixer (yet).
You can say that your effect only goes for midtones. or high. or low. or a combination of it.

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I’ve said it before on this forum…Parametric EQ’s. I just boggles the mind why DJ mixers don’t incorporate them. I’ve got them on my mixer (Tascam X9) but it’s older and I’d love to upgrade. I’d get an Allen & Heath in a second if they’d just add this feature. I use them all the time.

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Hey maybe I can help you with the build.

I have a unifinished diy 4 channel arcade mixer that I bought here is the thread of how its looks.

I never finished or worked on it but I did buy led’s, a livid brain and all other internals needed to finish the build. I planned on doing led mods using a led wiz to make the leds dance to the music but I never got the time to complete the build.

If you want it you can get everything for about $300 or if you want the parts I will let the livid brain go for $100 its not the v2.

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I just want a decent 4-Ch mixer, with built in audio interface and effects, and plenty of assignable buttons and pots for mouseless navigation.

make the mixer the heart of it all again.

15

Wow, I had an X9 back in the day…I am really surprised that your still works. Mine was riddled with issues from the start.

16

Did you get the firmware update and new chip? Mine’s been rock solid for about a decade now.

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No, but I had a friend that did, and his X9 also gave him a lot of headaches. I guess you were one of the lucky ones.
I used to have a Korg Zero4 that was flawless, when others that I knew that had one were going nuts from all the problems they had. So mixer lottery is a real thing with certain brands/units.

18

4 channel rotary mixer with an isolator, send/return, matrix input and 4 channel internal RME interface and volume meters. loud headphone monitor out. and an electric shock red line deterrent system for bad djs.

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I thought about parametric EQs when I put together my list but - I suspect the reason they haven’t been included on most DJ mixers is because they make the mixer more complicated and more importantly, more difficult to standardize between mixers of the same type or even between individual channels on a mixer. Parametric would be cool, but I suspect they would be a bit much for the non-production-minded individuals out there, and I’m not so sure how great they’d be for performance; I’m guessing that’s part of why (aside from cost and possible sound quality issues) they haven’t caught on. That said, I just looked at the X9 and I gotta say - that’s a pretty clever way of doing it and I like the idea as long as it works well.

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I find that they’re almost like having a filter for each of the high’s, mid’s & low’s, it’s also nice to be able to isolate a particularly harsh hi-hat and tame it a bit. Parametrics are pretty subtle but definitely allow for more control and smoother blending if your style of mixing is eq heavy and you like to mix tracks for long periods of time. If you’re a quick cut DJ or turntablist/controllerist then you probably won’t get much use out of them but it certainly doesn’t hurt to have them available