Details are sparse so far, but Richie Hawtin announced at an exclusive NAMM 2016 event that he has partnered up with manufacturer Allen & Heath and been working on a top-secret project that’s set to début in the “near future.” Read on for the sparse details and to learn what we know so far.
Editor’s Note: DJTT’s founder, Ean Golden, knows more about this project, but has kept it secret from the DJTT staff. We don’t know anything more than what’s written in this article!
Richie Hawtin + Allen & Heath
Richie has been a long-time user of Allen & Heath’s Xone:92 DJ mixer, so when we found out this evening that the two icons of the industry have been working together on a top-secret project, it was no surprise. According to Richie’s own posts, he’s been collaborating with the brains behind A&H’s Xone mixer series, Andy Rigby-Jones (he’s the design manager and creator of the Xone line) for the last two years:
“Play Differently”
Tonight Richie made the official announcement of the existence of this project, and so far there’s nothing released about what the project actually is, aside from a website, playdifferently.com. The site is incredibly sparse aside from the above photo, which shows a few knobs on a glossy surface of a controller or mixer of some kind. Since Richie has been working with Andy at Allen & Heath, odds are pretty good that there’s some Xone mixer magic as a part of the project, but details remain to be seen.
The site also notes:
“The ethos of Play Differently is to create products that will magnify the individuality and expand the creativity of today’s generation of electronic music artists, producers and DJs . We hope to encourage and inspire creatives to PLAY Differently.”
UPDATE: One Theory, The Xone:93C
We were just alerted on Twitter to this fascinating thread of gear investigators over on Hipasonic’s forums where people have been tracking the appearance of Richie / Allen & Heath’s new mixer in various photos from clubs and his own Instagram. They’re calling it the Xone:93C, but that’s not a confirmed name – nor is this necessairly the product that is going to be launched, although it sure looks like the same knobs as in the preview above.
via: dj tech tools