Some of you might have seen earlier today that our own Chris Neto was sharing a few tweets coming from the world renowned DJ & producer Deadmau5 and his requests for a better mixer than the ,Aeudjm900s or s4s.,Aeu

I really hope audio engineers and manufacturers will come together soon and deliver us something better than djm900s or s4s for us — Goat lord (@deadmau5) August 5, 2015



This was shortly thereafter followed by a comment about what features he would specifically like to see:

A solid usb3 or thunderbolt connection, a low latency 8 channel AD/DA to XLR Main out / mon. Out. No EQ, just a NICE variable state filter. — Goat lord (@deadmau5) August 5, 2015



The series of tweets that follows became an interaction with those reaching out to offer a comment or suggestion to the artist and his responses started to move the conversation towards the concept of the specifics that he was looking for a mixer less suited to a DJ and more suited to the needs of the producer.

all im saying is, every "mixer" ive ever used… has been "DJ oriented" gotta get the ball rolling on something more, producer oriented. — Goat lord (@deadmau5) August 5, 2015



Mixer manufacturer PreSonus jumped at the chance to work with an artist like this and it ended with Deadmau5 having ,Aeusome work to do,,Aeu which leads to the conclusion that there will be a new mixer in development in the near future.

The take away from all of this, though, is that the product that was being sought was a simpler solution. Something with the ability to manage the types of signals that the producer wishes to use versus possible limitations that mixers have faced in the past while not sacrificing for quality of components or physical build. The desire for the complex EQ circuit or FX processor was not there.

It,Aeos become a more common story to see manufacturers trying to ,Aeuadd value,Aeu to a product by cramming more and more into it so that it suits a wider variety of applications and needs, at the possible cost of the simplicity that was sought when the product was brought to market initially. That isn,Aeot to say that there isn,Aeot added value for more entry level product offerings having additional features in them, but the concept of having those be optional add-ons has become a thing of the past.

More and more companies are seeking to be the everything-to-everyone with their products, or even the entire product line. Sometimes this means they might lose sight of the fact that there are still professionals out there that want to pick and choose the components they want to work with as opposed to relying on one specific partner or product to provide them everything they need.

Deadmau5 seems to have found a partner to develop what he,Aeos looking for in PreSonus, based on the comments on Twitter. He will likely get his high bit-rate AD/DA converters and metal chassis for touring work. It will certainly result in a simpler, more streamlined design to suit his needs. We don,Aeot all have the weight of celebrity behind us to make these kinds of requests. Often times we are likely to be at the mercy of what the manufacturers provide us.

The question I have for you is whether or not this is a good or bad thing for the industry by having fewer components (and possibly manufacturers) handling more of the work to accomplish the needs of the users given that it is likely the product doesn,Aeot perform each of those tasks better than all competitors? And if it is or it isn,Aeot in your mind, then what direction would you like to see the partnership of manufacturer, installer, and user go in the future?