DJ KC’s mix “Rotary Connection”

AST DJ Mixer

DJ KC’s mix “Rotary Connection”

an odd early 80s 4-channel old school rotary mixer custom-built by Audimation Corp.

The gods of Craigslist smiled on me one random day in mid November. For no good reason I decided to search for DJ mixers and lo and behold there was an odd 4 channel old school rotary mixer listed for the whopping sum of 25 American dollars! It was too good to be true but that didn’t stop me. I called the seller and we arranged to meet at his office building downtown. The guy turned out to be a retired DJ who had stopped back in the early 80’s. This was apparently the last piece of DJ equipment he owned. It had sat in it’s original box in his house for the last 30 years since he had a particularly strong emotional attachment to it. Fortunately it works like a charm and has stood the test of time with flying colors. They don’t make em like they used to, that’s for damn sure. The sellers only caveat was that I had to text him and let him know if I liked it, because he was willing to buy it back if not. Talk about wanting it to go to a good home! After playing with it and realizing the genius of it’s simplicity I texted him to assure him that it was again working it’s magic on another DJ who was more than happy to have it in his life.

Some basic research shows that it was sold by AST NYC, a since closed audio retailer just off Canal Street in Manhattan which apparently had custom mixers manufactured by Audimation Corp out of Nescopeck, PA. The seller had ordered several modifications to the mixer at the time of purchase, swapping out a 3rd photo pre amp for a second line level tape input and adding a “light show” output to the send section of the unit. This was essentially an additional mono send. The coolest thing about this mixer is that it shares quite a few layout similarities with the $3,800 DJR400 mixer made by Jerôme Barbé of Electronique Spectacle in Paris – 4 channels, a master EQ section, send and returns, and not a lot else.

To celebrate this amazing find I mixed together some tunes I’ve been feeling lately into a mix entitled Rotary Connection (not to be confused with the awesome band of the same name). Enjoy.

Rotary Connection by Mrkc on Mixcloud

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