Floating Points unveils his “world-class” rotary DJ mixer that pushes the boundaries of technology

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Equipment visionary Floating Points reveals his ‘FP Mixer’, a “world-class” bespoke rotary mixer that was designed and manufactured from scratch over a 4 year period and will live at London’s Plastic People.

The mixer is the product of Isonoe, a company best known for their turntable isolation feet but they also have a strong reputation of masterfully engineering custom equipment, which made them the natural option for Floating Points’ impressive sound project.

Back in 2010 Patrick Forge introduced Justin Greenslade, managing director of Isonoe, to Floating Points, who was eager to build a mixer to a unique specification of the highest quality. In his view “in comparison with the quality of equipment employed to record and mix much of his record collection, the DJ mixer represented a bottle-neck.”

The FP Mixer looks to repair this quality rift between mixers and other gear (from recording equipment to turntables). But as Justin Greenslade explains the aim was also, in part, an engineering experiment: “there was also a feeling, as an experiment, to see how far one can go with a DJ mixer and to take it to the limit. Like the gas plasma metering on it and things like that. What is interesting about it is, is that it’s very heavy and you could say it’s over engineered but all the engineering exists for a technical reason that adds quality in terms of sound.”

The four year engineering challenge came to an end earlier this year and the machine has since been tested in a number of clubs. It was first trialled by Floating Points and Mr Scruff at Plastic People before making a small tour of UK clubs including Corsica Studios. Only a select group of DJs like Theo Parrish and Gerd have played around with the 30 kilo mixer and it appears that it’s got their stamp of approval. Now the plan is for the mixer to live at Plastic People to accompany the high fidelity ATC sound-system there.

Some reports claim the mixer will be making a general release but we can confirm it’s strictly built to order. If you’re serious about having one, can wait four years and are willing to break the bank, contact Isonoe.

In the meantime gawk at the full technical details here and head down to Plastic People to check out the mixer in action.

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