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Lucky Bastard!

DJmag reader Martin Bell bagged himself the 'Most Innovative DJ Product', after voting in the 2006 Tech Awards, which means he walked out of our awards ceremony with an Allen & Heath Xone:3D!

DJmag reader Martin Bell is one lucky sod. He bagged himself the 'Most Innovative DJ Appliance' as revealed in the 2006 Tech Awards, after filling out our online voting form, which means he walked out of our awards ceremony with an Allen & Heath Xone:3D MIDI mixer, lucky bastard!

Martin, from Tunbridge Wells ended up cutting a deal to upgrade to the Xone:S6 as he really had his heart set on a rotary mixer to fit in the 19-inch rack-space on his DJ stand.

DJmag.com grilled comp winner Martin at the Tech Awards to find out more.


Martin bagged this beauty

Why do you want to change the Xone:3D for a Xone:S6?

"I wouldn't use the Xone:3D to its full potential as I think I'm the only one who doesn't really get Ableton and I don't like using computers for mixing.

"I really want to use rotary faders and I wouldn't be able to fit the Xone:3D into my set-up due to lack of space. The Xone:S6 would fit perfectly into my current deck stand, so hopefully Allen & Heath will give
me a good deal to change it."

What is your current setup?

Two Technics SL1210 Mk2s, two Ortofon Concorde Night Club E cartridges, a Denon DN-X500 Mixer, a Marantz CDR-630 CD recorder, Talk Electronics Cyclone 1.2 Amp, B&W DM602 S3 speakers and Chord Company interconnects used throughout.

Did you have fun at the Tech Awards?

"The Tech Awards were great. There were a lot of industry people and manufacturers there as well as some unexpected DJs (I saw Eddie Halliwell hanging about!) and Dylan from Mutiny did a great job presenting the awards. If you want to chat about DJ kit then these are the people to speak to!

"The highlight though was the end of the night entertainment - that Beardyman was amazing! DJ JFB was using Serato to its full potential, and even sampled the crowd and then scratched the sample right in front of us on the decks. He was a real crowd pleaser!"

How long have you been DJing?

"In total about four or five years, but I had to sell the decks a few years ago because of cash problems - I was more interested in production at the time anyway, but I've just got everything back again this year."

What style do you play?

"Deep house/techy minimal and proggy at times