The DJ mixer controls and contours all sounds. The slightest twist of a knob or the slide of a fader can change the construction of 1 sound to make room for an additional. The instrument, which is on the core of all digital music performances, has seen various iterations within the final decade however has stayed restricted in vary and performance. Richie Hawtin, some of the recognizable DJs on the techno circuit, needs to vary the established order with PLAYdifferently.

Hawtin’s new know-how venture is the results of a partnership with British product designer Andy Rigby-Jones, who labored on Allen & Heath’s Xone mixer collection for properly over a decade. And it is already seen a ton of buzz this yr. The corporate has been teasing a brand new mixer that is designed to provide higher management and artistic choices to DJs. I just lately caught up with Hawtin in a nightclub in Austin, the place I acquired palms-on with the primary mannequin from PLAYdifferently.

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The place most present mixers are restricted to 4 channel mixers, the brand new mannequin has six stereo channels (plus two ship and return channels) for extra choices. “Turntables, CDJs or computer systems, all these devices get put collectively via a mixer,” says Hawtin. “It is the guts of all of it. We needed a tool the place every DJ can select what so as to add on.”

However the spotlight of the mixer is the EQ vary. As an alternative of the fastened frequencies (low, mid and excessive), PLAYdifferently’s system has low move and excessive move filters and a sweepable EQ for each channel. “You possibly can contour sound but in addition be scientific and scope sound,” he says. “Why have solely three bands of EQ? Let’s have the power to dial into the frequency that the report wants. It is a totally different mentality.”

The mixer, which might be out there beginning June thirtieth for about $three,650 (£2,500), requires a special strategy to enjoying. However Hawtin hopes its artistic flexibility will outweigh its newness. “You possibly can’t drive something on anybody but when an instrument gives a brand new parameter with out compromising the standard of the sound, individuals will undertake it,” he says. “We’re hoping individuals will hear and really feel the distinction.”