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
