Cast your minds back to the beginning of October 2015, when Vekked won the DMC final, and a mysterious figure set the portablist world alight with 3D renders of what was called the 7 Portable Scratcher. Now jump forward just a few months to the end of 2015, and DJ Tech debuted a unit that looked suspiciously like (and I’m being incredibly generous there) the 7 Portable Scratcher, but had nothing at all to do with original designer.
There was a lot of denial and finer pointing, but somewhere along the way, the mysterious figure of Lauris Honore disappeared back into the shadows again having been badly treated by the industry. Undaunted, Lauris beavered on alone, trying to make his idea into a reality. Then in March 2016, I was invited to join a private Facebook group, where a select group of people would help shape the future roadmap of the newly dubbed 7PS.
And it’s been kicked around for almost a year to the day since that point. And now Lauris is ready to show the 7PS in all its glory. And he’s hoping that you’ll help him make it into a reality via GoFundMe.
DISCLOSURE: As mentioned, I’ve been part of the private Facebook group, and have been helping Lauris navigate the industry, and offering some technical and marketing advice.
WHAT IS THE 7PS?
It’s the first purpose-built turntable for portablists. Having seen the scene adopt a string of devices not designed for the task, Lauris decided that it was time for one to be built from the ground up, and addressing many of the shortcomings associated with the popular units, not least actually being available and not discontinued.
The feature list from the GoFundMe page:
- Size 260 x 270 x 125mm (10.2″ x 10.6″ x 4.9″)
- Belt driven. Belt easy to change. No screwdriver or other tools required
- Works on battery (I hope to have at least 6/8h of autonomy) and rechargeable by USB
- #7PS Tonearm with magnetic suspension
- Cartridge of your choice (Ortofon OM or Shure M44)
- Platter system that won’t sink or be slowed down by contact/friction because of rollers placed underneath.
- Knobs to control :
- MASTER
- HIGH
- LOW
- Line IN & Vinyl trim
- Headphone MASTER & CUE
- Pitch +/- 50%
- X-Case (Crossfader housing) rotating on ~180 degrees for right/left hander with a REAL crossfader built in (Mini or Pro INNOFADER. Other crossfaders should be possible)
- Crossfader features :
- Cut on LEFT / RIGHT / BOTH SIDE
- Fader mode – Your crossfader acts like a fader
- SEND/RETURN for DVS purpose (Jacks 3.5)
- IN/OUT for your speakers and smartphone for beats (Jacks 3.5)
- Headphone Input (Jack 6.35)
- USB for smartphone DVS
- Bluetooth (if not too much latency)
- START/STOP button
- LED indicator
- Handle for transport
- Transparent LID (if possible)
As you can see, this is a very feature complete turntable that definitely fills the gaps left by units not designed for the task. On the face of it, you’ll be able to add your own Chroma or Cooler caps, and for the modders (a key part of the portablist ethos) the tonearm is looking ripe for adding headshells. I personally would love to use a Concorde.
SO WHERE IS THE 7PS AT?
Lauris has worked tirelessly in his spare time to get the 7PS to a point of 3D printing parts as proof of concept. If any of you are familiar with the process, it’s expensive and time consuming. Slowly but surely, each part is getting printed and assembled to make a complete unit. And the insides are being handled by Andy ‘Rasteri’ Tait, a familiar name to modders out there, thus the guts are in very safe hands.
Between them, they’ve got a long way using what little money and resource is available. But to take it to the next stage, Lauris is looking for some financial support. This isn’t about Kickstarting for cheap units with unrealistic expectations of funding, but is all about getting small amounts of support from the DJ scene to help a man with a vision make it become a reality. We need more of that.
SUPPORT THE 7PS
No big company is going to make a portablist specific unit like this. It’s so cool that Numark did the PT01 Scratch, but to fully address the needs of the portablist scene, a unit needs to be designed and built from scratch to properly address those needs.
Lauris is looking for €6000 via GoFundMe to develop the idea further. It’s not a lot in the whole scene scheme of things. So if you really want it to happen, you absolutely should dip into your pocket and support the little guys out there. I have with time, and will be doing with a donation. And I hope you do too.
GALLERY
Done.
Wow I somehow missed that djtech ripoff at end of 2015, what ever happened to that?
In the DJ-Tech (-ripoff) story’s comments it is mentioned that the DIF-7PT will get a mini innofader. Now this unit has a mini innofader, too. The 7PS isn’t being built by DJ Tech, though. So someone jump shipped. Seems to happen now and then with third party crossfader manufacturers. Probably a good idea to not focus (no pun intended) on just one crossfader manufacturer.
I’m going to clear the air here and offer to show Mark privately the email that came to Dj Tech from a source that we trusted. It had a very good snap of the top profile of a rendering that was taken at DMC worlds. The email led Dj Tech to believe it was the senders concept. The way they spoke about it clearly had the people at Dj Tech (Who were not involved in the scene at all) convinced it was their idea. I was working for them at the time but wasn’t privy to this project until it was in proto stage….for reasons beyond my knowledge….maybe because the sender knew I was familiar with 7PS page maybe not. The day Dj Tech dropped the pics I told the office that this was an idea that did not originate from the sender. At the time Lauris was being private and if you remember they only went by initials. I thought it was the sender of the email trying to build the hype. Mark quickly let me know who was really behind the 7PS….I informed the office and Dj Tech immediately asked me to reach out to him and ask him how HE <— Lauris would like to proceed. Dj Tech said if they could not come to terms with Lauris they would not make it. Well….now you know why Dj Tech never made it. They couldn't agree on terms. Dj Tech also wasn't capable of making what Lauris envisioned. Maybe for the better. On a second note….Dj Tech was told to use an Innofader, which they did in protos….without Innofaders consent or knowledge. Mark I will Skype you at any time and offer to show you everything I have. Dj Tech never intended to make a clone of the 7PS….they thought they were making the senders idea…they had no idea 7PS existed.
Thanks for that Patrick
donated… hope this comes alive soon!! love the movement… we need more peeps working on something like this…
Just out of interest, would this be able to accommodate a 12″ record for general crate digging playback like the PT01 and the HandyTrax?
Nope. Only 7″
Once I donate on the go fund me page,
Do I receive a 7pS once you’ve reached your goal, manufacture however many, then ship them out to the donaters?
Or are we merely kick’n down some cash to bring your amazing creative vision to life?
Can you imagine all those people who are giving €5 getting a full 7PS? No, it’s just the safe knowledge that your donation will make the 7PS become a real thing.
That would be cool to give 5€ and receive a 7PS later on, but unfortunately for you this just to “kick’n down some cash to bring your amazing creative vision to life”.
The best way to understand it is to read the gofundme campaign ;)
donation should be possible by PayPal rather than credit card as i dont have my card number by hand
i apologize for any perceived negativity.
i want to like this, and am impressed with the effort and determination.
i don’t like that the entire bottom isn’t one uniform flat surface.
i don’t like the fader angle; if the center of the tonearm is 12 oclock, i want the fader at 3 oclock, with it’s linear motion pointing at the spindle.
i want a folding, locking, protective top.
i don’t want the iphone as a dvs-iser to be an afterthought. i want a holder built in from day one.