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View Full Version : Why can't companies build the mixer I want for less than £1,800??



Sigma
10-09-2012, 09:29 AM
The Rane Sixty-Two has everything I want in a mixer, but it's £1,800.

The new Native Instruments mixer looked great initially, but it has no curve control/reverse on the line faders and the mini Innofader has been preconfigured to be loose for the crossfader, but stiffer for the line faders from what I've been told. Ugh.

The Pioneer DJM-T1 (which has been massively reduced in price in the UK now and can be bought for under 600 quid) has no curve control on the line faders.

Why can't companies other than Rane get it right? They cut too many corners and don't understand what it is that many of their customers are looking for in a mixer. And you might say "that's just your opinion" and it is, but it's shared by plenty of other people too.

:furious:

DJ Que Yi
10-09-2012, 09:55 AM
I empathize with you Sigma. I used to search for "perfection" in my mixer but always came up short and had to sacrifice due to my budget limitations. I found myself buying this and that in hopes of reaching perfection. I knew perfection costed more money. I just recently chalked it up and realized that is what sets Rane and industry leaders apart. The best get it right faster than the rest.

Era 7
10-09-2012, 09:55 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWdd6_ZxX8c

:teef:

may have to bite the bullet and buy the rane :shrug: there is a reason why it costs 1800 bucks.

Sigma
10-09-2012, 10:12 AM
Rane Sixty-Two = £1,800
Native Instruments Z2 = £630

So a difference of £1,170.

I don't know how much it costs to make a mixer, but adding curve controls to the line faders would not have bumped the cost up by that much I'm sure. I think they should have gone with 2 versions, kinda like the Ecler Hak 310 and 360: -

310 = Ecler Pro faders + Curve only on the crossfader
360 = Eternal fader + Pro faders + Curve on all 3 faders

If there was a Z2 Pro with 3 full Innofaders and curve on all 3 faders, I'd have got my pre-order in already. Even if it bumped the cost up to £1,000 it would still be considerably less than the Rane and very competitively priced, but as such, I'm probably going to be doing what you said and biting the bullet and saving for the Rane. That's a lost sale for NI though, and all because they cut a couple too many corners.

There is no good reason why I should have to buy the most high end mixer (of this type) in order to get the features I need. To me, it's down to companies not understanding what people like me (and there are lots of DJs who want the features I want) are looking for.

For EDM DJs, I've seen a lot of comments like "I'll wait for the 4 channel version" (although I have no idea why they need that as most of them suck balls with 2 channels, never mind 4). For hip-hop, scratch and battle DJs, I've seen comments that echo what I'm saying. So it seems to me that they have built a "compromise mixer" and that's no way to gain traction in a market like this.

lingk
10-09-2012, 12:10 PM
It's not that it cost a lot of money to make the mixers, overhead and all. It's that ti's a small market. because they only sell a small amount per year they have to put more room in the price for profit margin.

Sigma
10-09-2012, 12:18 PM
Sure, but I think they would increase their potential consumer base by aiming a little higher with features and increasing the price accordingly, so it doesn't have to cut into their profit margin. I'm not expecting them to make the mixer better, but keep the price at £629.

It's not a mainstream product that's going to sell to people who aren't very clued up on equipment. It's a small market of people who are pretty clued up and can see a product's potential shortcomings.

Andrew B
10-09-2012, 02:02 PM
How about the Rane Sixty One?

djslik
10-09-2012, 03:27 PM
For EDM DJs, I've seen a lot of comments like "I'll wait for the 4 channel version" (although I have no idea why they need that as most of them suck balls with 2 channels, never mind 4).

Now that is pretty funny. I'm selling off all my gear to fund this venture too.

Sigma
10-09-2012, 03:43 PM
How about the Rane Sixty One?
A mate of mine is selling a Sixty-One, but it doesn't really offer everything I want. I did consider buying it, but I don't want to make compromises if I can help it. I did that with Torq (which was crap) and with the mixer I own now (although at the time I needed a mixer quickly and it was all I could afford).

The Sixty-Two is pretty much perfect. The Z2 is close but no cigar I think.

Someone from DV has played around with a Z2 and posted these impressions: -

GOOD: -

Crossfader feels amazing - just like a regular Innofader
Great layout and workflow
Post-fader FX
The single "super FX" knob and macro FX

BAD: -

Line faders factory set to be stiffer than the crossfader
High gloss fingerprint magnet finish ("at the end of Sunday the Z2 looked like someone had been eating fish & chips off it")
No curve on the lines
Plastic pots instead of metal
"Impossible to sample ya self cutting, the Z2 controls tractor DVS only via (anti post fade sampling) internal mode, meaning my long wait for an improved loop recorder experience continues."

And when I thanked him for his impressions, he replied: -


No worries, I'm proper torn and needed to vent. Like you I wish NI just made a version that wasn't so compromised to keep costs down.
So if anyone from NI reads this, make a slightly higher end version! You're close to having a real winner on your hands here IMO.

VjQue
10-10-2012, 12:16 AM
I say just save for the 62

Sigma
10-10-2012, 09:54 AM
I say just save for the 62
But that's exactly the point of this thread.

Adzm00
10-15-2012, 10:22 AM
For EDM DJs,

I am with you on this Smegma.

The thing for me is there is no DJ mixer on the market (that I know of) that has what I want totally, and the mixer that comes close is the Xone DB4 (£1,800), alas it has a feature missing which is rather crucial, which is an independently controlled fx loop, although it scores points for the matrix input which most manufacturers overlook entirely.