I am planning on buying a new mixer this summer. I’m still not sure wether to buy a xone 92 or a rotary mixer like the condesa lucia, the rane mp2014, the taula 4…
I’m a techno/ house dj and I play with vinyl. The thing that attracts me to the rotary’s are the rotary volume knobs and their sound quality. The Xone 92 attracts me because of the filters, because it’s analog and because its “only” a 1000 euros where I live. Now I also want to know how a xone 92 compares to rotary mixers in terms of sound quality.
Which mixer would you guys get… I would like to hear from you!
I apologize in advance for my English I am French, so I currently have a Xone 92 and like you I only play House of the 90s and techno in vinyl or timecode Traktor it is a fantastic mixer,pre amp phono are really very good without relying on the quality of it’s really good.
But the rotary are really much better on the sound and the quality I have the chance to play on an E & S DJR 400 one is in paradise with the Isos and the filters
Are you literally just using two turntables and a mixer? Don’t bother with the recent Rane rotaries then, as they have an audio interface. Personally, I’d go for the 92 as ‘sound quality’ is pretty arbitrary after a certain point.
If I wanted to buy a rotary I am thinking of buying a Rane mp2014 because I already read in reviews that compared to the xone 92 it feels like taking of a blanket of your speakers. The aspect of the rotary mixers is the fact that I like that it’s simple and that you can blend very smoothly. But on the other hand is it really worth it to buy twice as much for the rane if you can go for a xone 92…
Any digital mixer properly designed will sound superior, even with vinyl. Analog has so many issues when it comes to mix buses, eqs, isolators, etc, that it will basically be a matter of personal taste of which analog mixer you think sounds better. Having a knob pot instead of a fader is not going to change the sound quality, though it may change how you do transitions.
And my argument would be that analog is way overrated. I have some completely passive resistive mixers, including a rotary, and the well-designed digitals beat them, as well as beating the best active mix bus analog mixers I’ve ever owned, including A&H and Biamp.
I’d imagine he would suggest the DJM-900NXS2 or maybe the DB2/4.
My issue is that they don’t provide enough channels for what I need. When we do our techno night (cheeky plug: Facebook) I use five channels for my mixing, plus we need an extra for plugging in another DJ controller. There are no six channel digital club mixers.
Yeah but the rotary aspect and the sound quality interests me… Probably going for a e&s mixer, but what are options you think that I definetely should add?
This couldn’t be further from the truth in my experience. I’ve been playing on the MP2015 for close to a year now. The first couple times I played on it, I noticed a much cleaner signal from it compared to the DJM T1, 800, and 900 which I owned and played on all the time. Then, I started noticing that while playing on the other mixers, something was definitely off with the sound. 9 months later, I enjoy the sound noticeably less than the 2015, and that’s on decent sound systems and in my home. That Rane is a masterpiece. I questioned my sanity on selling off so much equipment to get that (instead of starting my modular synth), but it’s easily the best mixer I’ve ever played on.
Why not go for a Xone 92 Rotary? that mixer comes in a rotary version… Don’t fall for the newer rotary mixers, they’re just taking the rotary idea & making cheaper versions of them. Find a GOOD one, like an old school Urei, Bozak, or an Alpha (link below)
If I were buying a mixer for that, I’d look real hard at the mp2014 and the djr400 for a handful of reasons.
If you’re going for “sound quality” meaning “as close as I can get to what the mastering engineer heard when he was done”, digital is superior.
If you’re going for something else, it depends a lot on your ears and the sound system.
The xone mixers do have a distinct sound, but it’s not night & day to my ears.
I finally splurged and bought myself an mp2016 a few years ago and love it. It’s very transparent (the 2014 is more so) and just a joy to mix on.
After owning both Rane (2016) & A&H (UK-made 62), I’d buy the Rane again but not the A&H.
The djr 400, otoh, is just a thing of beauty. I really wish I could shoehorn it into my setup, but I feel like they’d kill me for ordering own without any preamps.
sent from a device with a keyboard that hates me, using a system of tubes rather than a highway full of dumptrucks