eks "otus"...

[rvltion909]

Sorry if this was posted already but:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27nR9wvXGrQ

DJ Mag review

[Rumblejazz]

New review at musicradar here too:

http://bit.ly/eksotus

[Stumpy]

A really, really crappy video about the OTUS RAW by Skratchworx. I'm not surprised that you can't see this video on their website. Doubt if it'll ever be there.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4beVNRrYvw

I'm not liking the pitch fader idea too much. They seem to have taken off some of the knobs too... :/

EDIT: It did get to the Skratchworx site with a little more information too:
http://www.skratchworx.com/news3/comments.php?id=1193

Second row of knobs is missing, which I find really bothersome. As well as talking about releasing it in the fall 2009! I hope the price will be cheaper.

[PIGLET]

back from the dead!

One thing thats slightly turning me off about the Otus is not the pitch slider - I think thats a good call for the 2 deck flip - but the 'touch' buttons. We all know the importance of a good feel of the platter/wheel so why suddenly put completely unresponsive buttons on the unit? I think for the sake of being 'modern/hi tech'...I think its good to have some feedback thru touch when at the club...a nice 'clunk' so you know you have started the track...

One thing I particularly like about the OTUS (apart from good looks and allegedly good soundcard) is the fact that it fits on a deck. Often booths can be cramped and if you want to use a digital system you are relegated to a corner or less than optimal position...In this case IMO it would be best to use the OTUS on a deck and use the hardware mixer for the mixing - so you could free up the OTUS knobs for FX and other tasks...also means you have the advantage of extra hardware headroom on the levels and a proper set of faders...

Hopefully they might install proper buttons instead of touch...

[djcl.ear]

Piglet, I agree with the use of Otus as a deck, just for the feel and control that one gets by using a good external DJ mixer. In this case Otus allows you to go either thru the good-quality Burr-Brown DAC for the analogue route using the RCAs outs...

Ooor personally I'll like to team Otus with a Digital Dj mixer -connected digitally inputs+outputs- in order to push farther the Digital-to-Analogue sound conversion into the last stages, namely just before amplification at the Crossover level.
Going this Digital route with Otus will require to use its SPDIF outs to get into the DJ mixer, if you want your audio signal go 100% unconverted clean digital... but then there are few Digital DJ mixers in existence that offer SPDIF channel inputs to plug the Otus to.
Pioneer DJM-800 does have, but its -26 dB EQ limit, means no real EQ freq killing and so, disqualifies it for many of us DJs who choose Eq Kills. Only a couple of real 100% Digital DJ mixers have SPDIF inputs. I am thinking on Vestax PC-580 that fills the bill, but at US$2000 is very expensive and more so as an addition to Otus and a fast Laptop.
Besides nowadays Digital DJ mixers tend to sport One or Double Firewire for digital input like EVO5 by Ecler and Korg Zeros. Not so expensive as PCM-580 but a dream as DJ mixers together with a Controller like Otus and a Lappy...
Sadly Otus -used as double deck-, remains incompatible with these two... the 100% digital way.
An incompatibility that would change if EKS adds Firewire as (optional?) output.

[PIGLET]

Piglet, I agree with the use of Otus as a deck (using an external mixer) and in this case it allows you to go either thru the good-quality Burr-Brown DAC for the analogue route using the RCAs outs.

Personally I'll like to team Otus with a Digital Dj mixer -connected digitally- to push farther the Digital to analogue sound conversion into the last stages, namely just before amplification at the Crossover level.
Going this Digital route with Otus will require to use its SPDIF outs to get into the DJ mixer, if you want your audio signal 100% unconverted digital... but then there are few Digital DJ mixers in existence that offer SPDIF channel inputs to plug the Otus to.
DJM-800 does have, but its -26 dB EQ limit, means no real EQ freq killing and so, disqualifies it for many of us DJs who choose Eq Kills. Only a couple of real 100% Digital DJ mixers have SPDIF inputs. I am thinking on Vestax PC-580 that fills the bill, but at US$2000 is very expensive as an addition to Otus and a fast Laptop.
Besides nowadays Digital DJ mixers tend to sport One or Double Firewire, for digital input like EVO5 by Ecler and Korg Zeros. Not so expensive as PCM-580 but a dream as DJ mixers together with a Controller like Otus and a Lappy...
Sadly Otus -used as double deck-, remains incompatible with these two... the 100% digital way.
An incompatibility that would change if EKS adds Firewire as (optional?) output.

Hi Dude,

Yeah the digital outs are an interesting option. Personally my understanding is that there is little to no / even negative benefit from using digital outputs on the Otus...if you do:

1. Can we assume that the mixer digital to analogue conversion is any better than the Otus? I doubt it...

2. You miss out on the extra headroom gained (he he more puns) from using an analogue mixer.

3. Analogue EQs generally sound sweeter than digital EQs...and might impose some warmth on the overall digitally generated output of the digital Traktor/OTUS set-up....as well as the analogue signal path in an analogue mixer...

I think there are only advantages in running analogue outputs at the moment if you are using high quality converters in your soundcard...unless I am missing something...maybe what you say about the 'crossover stage'...?

[Krome]

Oops, caught the topic quite late I had a chance to play with the original Otus and the touch pitch-slider just didn't feel right. I hope I can get my hands on a Raw soon to test it out, it really seems like a nice piece of kit =)

[PIGLET]

oh dear really? Well the problem is with the Otus Raw is that its much more difficult to use in 2 deck mode because the physical slider can only be set for one deck at one time....

[djcl.ear]

About your points:

1- Yes Otus' Dacs are superb, everyday DACs keep coming better. Soon at the best Discos sound engineers will be very attentive to what you plug into the sound path, just because systems are getting to be (some already are¡¡) very revealing and so the sound of that particular night is going to vary a lot, depending in the quality of your files, DJ equipment and how it is connected.

2- The headroom is optimized at the mixer by balancing the trims, faders and master. Going digitally will inmediately mean a big noise reduction (over 30 dB) that otherwise in analogue you perceive it as BZZZZZ on the speakers, losing separation of instruments, low level detail, etc crammed sound, shinny and sweet but foggy by comparison. Final vol level? just hope the soundman dont add an analogue limiter to tame the red on the hall mixer.

3- The sweet sound argument of analogue is found to be the addition of harmonics which in fact is designed choosed distortion not originaly present at the recordings... People learn to dig that. In contrast digital is deemed as Cold, and it was found that rightly so until better DACs were used, which is Otus case. At the end the learnt sweetness can be added, simulated, digitally or by adding just an analogue tube (nothin' sweeter than that), thus sparing the audio path from the distortion of each electronic component inside all those racks with layers and layers of noisy analog gear...

Today if you are able to find and set up a DJ rig unconverted from wav files at the start that ends with some either SPDIF or AES/EBU connector... you can then handle that dig connector to the soundman who now may connect it to just a single unit that doubles as EQ, Limiter, Crossover, speaker processor,etc.
Unit that he controls with a remote while mooving around the location fine tuning the sound quality of the configuration. Uk's XTA units are the standard for big top concert size venues but there are plenty other brands fabricating these all-in-one dig units (mine is LEM DX-26, cant be happier .

At the end having removed all that otherwise accumulated distortion means that the sound is leaps above what was 3-4 years ago available.
We just need to update the DJ rig to that level and OTUS looks like the best hands on controller for that

[PIGLET]

ah thats interesting - I dont have much knowledge on club sound systems. It was my understanding that you have the analogue mixer that outputs a line level signal to the amplifier (which may contain EQ and limiter). Are you suggesting that the mixer outputs digital to the amplifiers?

I can see how that would make a big impact if there was 30db less hum...but is that hum coming from the analogue DJ mixer or the turntables and amplifier?

What I do have some experience is is in production, and despite many promises - it seems only the highest spec digital EQs and saturation algorithms produce anything actually pleasing. EG something Like the $150 URS Saturation plugin IMO is pretty average and doesnt really add that much compared against something high-end like the $3000 Cranesong HEDD. Similarly its true that analogue EQs have saturation that make the sound musical - but also musical filter curves and as a package it tends to produce a nicer result. Lesser digital EQs just sound unmusical - and thats what we are dealing with here - music. Its important - whilst easy to shrug off with the theory of digital process...

I dont know enough about the aspects of club soundsystems to make a call whether the benefits of analogue components outweigh the negatives of things like hum...but I do know that unless you incorporate seriously high spec digital processing - the lesser digital EQs will sound unmusical. Ive DJed and cut my teeth on Digital EQs long enough to feel fairly strongly about it!