Surely you’ve been there.. Mad plugging and unplugging, tracing cables back to the mixer, who’s is this? What is that plugged into? Where’s my line out cable? Hmm, this one *pop* – *…silence …* guess not! Dude, I AM hurrying!! Etc etc.

What if it was all easymode? The house decks stayed connected, you walk up and plug in your scratch amp along side the previous act’s scratch amp, have a quick chat, flick a switch and start your set! REVOLUTIONARY And did I mention NO CABLE HELL?

Well, Allen & Heath’s new Xone:PB solves SO many common hassles it’s a marvel of simplicity. The Xone:PB is a patchbay – patchbays aren’t a new concept in the music biz by a long shot, but DJ patchbays?? I can safely say I have never used one! This neat little invention is worth its weight in gold (or ice cold imported beer at the very least). Rack mountable in a standard 19″ format, the Xone:PB will drop nicely into the space above any 19″ club mixer, and takes up very little space alongside a desktop format DJ mixer. This passive interface unit is “designed to simplify the task of connecting encoded vinyl replay systems to installed mixers without the need to re-patch, providing a quick and easy solution to set changes in busy club line ups.”, and it does it brilliantly, with well thought out features for real world DJ applications.

The outputs from up to four audio sources and the inputs to the mixer channels are connected to RCAs on the rear panel of the unit. The front panel connections echo the outputs from the audio sources on the left side, while connections on the right provide inputs to up to four external sources. Switches on the front panel select whether the mixer inputs are connected directly to the audio sources or diverted to the external sources, allowing very quick and simple interfacing to scratch amps or computer soundcards. The audio source connections on the front panel are duplicated, enabling two scratch amps to be connected to the same audio source for simple DJ handovers.

Additionally, two switchable inverse RIAA filters are available to enable line level sources to be connected to the phono preamplifiers of the mixer, there is common mode noise attenuation filtering on all external inputs to help reduce laptop power supply noise, and an earth lift switch helps prevent ground loops.

So, in summary:

• Pure genius for clubs, festivals, parties with multiple DJs in the lineup.
• Great for connecting laptops, scratch amps and other decks
• The only cables you’ll need to see / touch are the ones YOU are connecting
• Noise filtering for dealing with noisy laptops
• Easy switching between house sources and external sources
• RIAA filters allow connection of line sources to PHONO inputs on the mixer (nice feature for purely digital setups)
• How the hell did we get by without one??
• Every club in the world should have this!

You can read more about the Xone:PB from Allen & Heath here.

Tags: DJ, Xone
Posted in DJ lounge
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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 17th, 2010 at 10:40 am and is filed under DJ lounge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.