Week in week out, I get to play with a never-ending stream of spanking new DJ shiny of every shape, size and budget. But during last weekend, while m’good buddy ProfessorBX was in the worxlab, he decided to hook up my vintage Gemini PMX-2200 Jazzy Jeff edition mixer and have a juggle. And today, before reorganising my work space, I had a bash as well — and pure fun followed.
When you look at the picture, it’s as if I’ve photoshopped off 80% of the controls. But no, this is what a DJ mixer looked like back in the 90s. And throwing 2 copies of my favourite juggling track on the decks made me realise that despite the pile of expensive next level scratch mixers gracing the carpet, the Gemini mixer proved to be more fun than almost anything I’ve played with for a while.
Perhaps it’s the nostalgia, the retro stylings or just feeling like Cash Money and Roc Raida (minus the skills of course) owning DMC. But I put a great deal of the fun down to making simple gear work hard and have my abilities taxed to make it perform. This was definitely a less is more moment.
A question — do you ever feel like simplifying your setup and enjoying the hoot that is doing more with less? Are you faced with an increasingly complex setup that in reality you just don’t use?