Just get Medhi to build you one of these then… 
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Have been eyeing up different types of rotary and fader mixers for a while now as mine is on its way out but enjoy switching between sudden, short and gradual, lengthy mixes. Rotary’s sound like they are a bit too cumbersome and a tad restrictive for my taste, especially if you are mixing various genres. I would still like to give it a go and see what all the fuss is about but sounds like you need to fork out to see the real benefits?
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Yeah, I mean I guess the more recent Mastersounds allow entry in at around £800 so you don’t need to spend huge amounts, relatively speaking. It really is all down to your style though.
I find that you can even tell the difference when listening to mixes online too though. The higher end rotaries generate a much fuller sound. I’ve had a few folk comment on the sound quality of recordings.
I doubt I’ll ever buy another mixer again in my life so this was a long-term investment for me, which has more than paid for itself in fun and enjoyment tokens over the past 5 years 
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I’ve owned a Mastersounds rotary and have gone back to an Allen & Heath fader to give myself more flexibility as you describe. For me, rotaries makes it somewhat easier to do a longer blend whereas a crossfader makes it much easier to do a quick blend.
As for sound quality, I don’t understand how you can hear any difference unless you have a very expensive home setup or are using a decent club system. If your mixer is more expensive than your speakers and amp then surely those are the limiting factor in terms of sound quality. It’s a bit like driving a Ferrari in central London compared to on a racetrack.
I also can’t see how people could tell that your mix was recorded on an expensive mixer if they’re listening to a compressed recording on the internet. Even if they were listening to an uncompressed file it would also be dependent on what they’re listening to it on.
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Totally agree re the home set-up thing. But as with your analogy, it’s nice knowing you’ve got the extra horsepower there if you need it
Would you not say that each mixer has an inherent ‘sound’ that comes through in a recording? I do think you can hear that in an online recording. For example, the Carmen has a really warm lower end and it definitely sounds very different to the recordings I was doing on my old Numark 10 years ago.
It’s an interesting thought to which I don’t know the answer. I was trying to think of similarities with musical instruments having particular sound qualities, but then I thought the recognisability would mostly come down to the player. I think you can definitely tell if something has been mixed on a quality mixer, I’m not sure if I would be able to tell the difference between something recorded on a Condessa, E&S or Bozak etc.
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I think it has more to do with builders putting better quality circuitry in the average rotary than the average scratch mixer. Eg, I have an ancient but very finely built clubman with a fader that has circuitry roughly on par with a Urei or Bozak. It makes album cuts sound like 12”s and everything is warm and powerful. I also have an Omnitronic. It doesn’t sound as good as the Clubman but it cost pennies and it DOES sound better than scratch mixers at three times the price. I think in general the rotary mixers on the market are built with a lot more attention to warmth and fidelity.
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I was wondering how the knobs made things sound better! 
It does make you wonder why it’s such a binary choice with mixers ie rotary knobs or crossfaders.
As per the Condessa example above I reckon a well made mixer with both knobs and a cross fader would be popular.
Personally I like the cross fader when I’m in the mood to chop between tracks but mainly I like a longer mix which would probably sound better on a rotary.
I do miss that sometimes with my current mixer but I compromised for quality over features.
Formula Sound and MasterSounds do make models with rotary channels and crossfader but not in the mid-price category.
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Formula Sound have tended to offer both for quite some time
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My friend did a mod himself and has a mixer with both. It’s really fresh and I’m now searching for someone who can do a mod to add knobs to the Clubman.
I’m still rocking the Ecker Nuo 5 and still love it. Will be devastated when I finally have to replace it.
That looks lovely. Was it self modded or made bespoke for him?
He’s pretty handy with this shit. He’s on west coast time when he wakes up I’ll get the details.
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The MC logo on here is MC Audio Solutions (Marios Xatzikirlis).
He makes conversion kits and is contactable via facebook or instagram.
www.facebook.com/McRotaryKits
www.instagram.com/mcaudiosolutions/
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He’s on a Facebook group I’m in - definitely seems to produce the goods.
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Wow. That’s very cool.
nice one - thanks!
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