Saturday, June 11, 2005

mess up the mix, mix up the mess

finally got around to opening up my mixer. hoo boy, that's complicated! fixing it is well beyond my skillset. it has two big PCBs so even disassembling it enough to really diagnose it will be pretty complicated.

i have a show on friday, one that will likely get press attention. i need a working mixer for the show; theoretically i could do a performance without a mixer, using two inputs on my kaoss pad (for one cd player and a microphone?) but that would be half-assing it, and this show is too important to half-ass.

so i guess i need to buy a new mixer by friday! i'd been fantasizing for awhile about upgrading to a mixer with more features anyway, so this is a pretty damn good excuse to do that. barry will still try to take a closer look at my broken mixer, and if he can fix it, i can sell it.

i need a 19" 4-channel dj mixer. some of the special features i'm interested in include
  • individual pan control for each channel
  • fx loop (send/return)
  • built-in fx
  • built-in sampler
  • eq controls for each channel

and that's not an exclusive list. i know i won't get everything on it. i'd rather not have to spend more than $400 (i'd go as high as $500 or so for something really special).

fx loop is more important than built-in fx or sampling, as fx send/return capability would greatly increase what i can do with my kaoss pad. that's probably the most important feature on the list, and any mixer with send/return will probably also have individual eq controls, which is standard on mid- and high-end mixers. i probably won't find one with individual pan controls, which they don't seem to make on 4-channel dj mixers anymore.

i'm open to suggestions and/or feedback. but i'm the kind of person who is very quick to go out and buy something once i've decided to do so. i wouldn't be surprised if i feel compelled to go out shopping for mixers after dinner. but maybe i'll be able to restrain myself until tomorrow afternoon.