I thought this would be a fun poll. Did you mix with this?
Your first mixer?
- Thread starter sawdust123
- Start date
I have used one in the past. Decent backup if you needed one. My first was an Atus AM300E.
- Nope. Luckily I first mixed on one of these:
I have a few more more modern mixers too, and I don’t know why I have more than one. CRAZINESS!
Technically, this wasn't my first DJ mixer. I worked at a radio station for years before I did parties. So my first mixer was really a broadcast mixer with the big round knobs. No crossfader. The turntables were huge cabinet models but man they started fast. We could make playlists with cart machines and pre-program the cue points (recording an audio sub-tone) but that was too much effort for your typical music show. It was used more for repeated items like news segments, PSAs, station IDs, etc.
This was my first mixer( not the actual one)
Gemini. Maybe. Don't remember. The first mixer I ever purchased for mobile work was my Urei 1620. I got it from Canal Hi-Fi and I still have it in my Vintage Recording Studio with my 1200s.
I can't remember the first DJ mixer I used because it was 81 when I first became a DJ. I remember buying a cheap mixer when I first came back. It worked. I don't remember the brand name. I remember someone was selling a Denon 500 mixer and I picked it up. The difference in the sound was night and day with that mixer compared to the previous one I had.
That was my second mixer. My first one was the $69 version that Radio Shack sold. I bought it with the prize money I got for winning first prize in the North Dartmouth Mall's Be-Bop Back To School Rap Contest in 1987.
I upgraded to the Radio Shack mixer shown in the main photo in college, then went through these:
I upgraded to the Radio Shack mixer shown in the main photo in college, then went through these:
- Gemini PMX-2000
- Gemini PS-727
- Rane MM8z
- Denon DN-X500
- Denon MC6000
- Pioneer DDJ-SX (currently using)
- Pioneer DDJ-SZ (currently using)
My second mixer was a Gemini PMX-1000. The main reason I chose it over its contemporaries was that the manual contained the schematic. I later modified the circuit board to bypass the phono input stage so I had more line inputs.
Man, I almost forgot about Lafayette or as we called them, "Laugh-a-lot." I grew up near their HQ and would go there often. I bought my first CB radio there and often went there for parts. My parents had some Lafayette stereo components. My brother and I would dive through their dumpster on occasion looking for things of potential value. Lafayette Dr still exists but there is now a Home Depot where Lafayette once stood.
I think at one point, we had a Gemini PMX also. I remember a Numark too.
I owned 1 Gemni mixer in the early 90s, purchased as an emergency backup, and used it once, was sorley dissapointed and got rid of it. Replaced it with an Soundcraftsman MTX ### w reverb.
The Gemini I had was extremely basic. At the time I got it, I had no plans to turn pro. I quickly ran out of inputs (even after converting the phono inputs into line inputs). I think I replaced it with a Numark and kept it as a backup. Years later I gave it to my buddy for him to use as a backup. By then I was selling audio test equipment and I decided to test the mixer before I parted with it. Its audio performance was quite respectable. It exceeded its noise and distortion specs and was actually better than some newer mixers I had tested.
My 2nd mixer was the ole Radio Shack special SSM 1750, like above I got when I had no desire or a thought about ever becoming a mobile DJ, I think this was mid naughts , I still have it, it still works, it collects dust. ( not the one I have, pic found from the web)
OMG yes, those sound effects were damn cheesyNeeds more cow bell.
I believe the Realistic one Sawdust showed was the first I used but the first I owned was this bad boy It's still around here somewhere in the graveyard and still works
It's still around here somewhere in the graveyard and still works
Those things were as tough as old get out I had a couple I bought because I needed a backup and didn't trust just one
I forgot it on the roof of my car one day got about a mile down the road at 55 Mph it flew off. It dented the left hand corner and scraped it a bit but other than that it was fine