As my much delayed home remodelling continues, I discovered an unopened parcel unceremoniously wedged behind the boxes of cassettes I found the last week. This package has more or less rotted in a tiny (can’t stand up in it) damp, leaky, and unheated room, untouched and unloved, and apparently unknown. So I was keen to see what was inside, and importantly if it still worked.
The rather sorry-looking packaging indicates that this was from ADJ as part of a larger batch of review gear. And looking at the paperwork on the front this arrived one month off a full decade ago. Bad Mark.
As previously mentioned, the store room/cupboard/hole isn’t exactly warm or watertight, which hardly makes it a great place for storing anything at all, let alone electronic. So I had my doubts about the condition of what aid inside the soggy outer wrapping, which more or less fell away from the polystyrene and plastic wrapping inside.
Somewhat amazingly, the American Audio DP2 rack mount controller seemed to be in great condition. Some of the screw heads have begun to corrode, and the faders could be smother, but other than that it could easily be described as first class condition. But it hadn’t been switched on yet, and that could change the story considerably.
Thankfully, I didn’t have a euro plug adaptor at home, otherwise we could have been looking at blown fuses and maybe even fires. But a night out of its damp box would at least help dry it out a little before carting it to the Worxlab for a test run.
Amazingly, it turned on first time, and was available to map inside djay Pro 2, and was automatically recognised by VirtualDJ 2020 too. Everything seems to work except the tiny jog wheels. I get no MIDI messages from them in any software, so it’s possible that the harsh environment the DP2 has lived in for a decade may have taken its toll. I’m not sure I’d fare so well if treated to the same living quarters for that length of time.
So, yeah… sorry ADJ. While you sent a box of stuff that did get reviewed, the DP2 got lost in the skratchworx reviews machine, never to escape. Given that it’s discontinued, there seems little point in doing a posthumous review now. But I just wanted to show how this excellent piece of hardware survived a terrible existence and still came out the other side more or less in one piece.
OVER TO YOU
Do you have anything DJ or music creation related under the bed, in the back of a cupboard, or otherwise stashed away that could do with a good airing? Would you get a few quid on eBay? Would you just enjoy playing with that old thing all over again, if only to remember how bloody easy you have it now?