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AlphaTheta recently teamed up with Rupert Neve Designs to develop its latest premium DJ mixer: euphonia.
euphonia is a professional four-channel mixer with custom Rupert Neve Designs mid-stage transformers, high-resolution converters, specially weighted rotary faders for smooth mixing, three-band EQs and effects sends on each channel, a master three-band isolator section, onboard digital effects and hardware inserts, a full-color display with a dynamic four-channel VU meter, and a plethora of analog and digital I/O for connecting to any source or destination imaginable.
In short, euphonia combines studio-quality Rupert Neve sonics with smooth, ergonomic controls and tons of flexibility for creative mixing.
Formerly known as Pioneer DJ, AlphaTheta Corporation is a Japan-based manufacturer of DJ gear, music production equipment, speakers, and software under the AlphaTheta, Pioneer DJ, and rekordbox brands. Working closely with the DJ community, Senior Director of Product Planning and Artist Relations Lars Schlichting guided the development of euphonia to combine the best aspects of old-school analog rotary mixers and modern digital workflows.
Seeking studio-quality analog harmonic flavor, AlphaTheta commissioned Rupert Neve Designs (RND) to build a custom transformer stage for euphonia. While General Manager Josh Thomas and Product Manager Luke Smith collaborated with AlphaTheta’s engineers to deliver the “Rupert Neve sound”, Schlichting enlisted Carl Craig and other professional DJs to test out the product and provide feedback. The result is a truly unique product combining top-tier engineering, thoughtful design choices, and a premium analog signal path.
To get the inside scoop on the collaboration between AlphaTheta and RND, we spoke with Schlichting, Thomas, and Craig about the inspiration for euphonia, the development process, and the end result.
The concept for euphonia was born out of the growing interest in rotary mixers, a style that predates the more widespread models equipped with linear faders and crossfaders. “When I moved to New York in 1995, rotary mixers were everywhere,” Schlichting recalled. “It took me a while to appreciate them because I'm originally from Berlin, and we didn't have rotary mixers in Germany. But once I learned to appreciate them for how smooth they are, I became an advocate. For years, I was bugging people in my company about making one.”
Although limited in features and accessibility, those vintage rotary mixers are prized for their highly musical analog summing, which adds subtle harmonic coloration that makes different tracks and input sources blend together in a pleasing way. “When I first had to DJ on a rotary mixer after moving to New York, I was frustrated that they didn't have EQs on the channels,” Schlichting explained. “But I soon realized that on a good rotary mixer with high-quality components, the summing is so amazing that the frequencies of the two tracks you're mixing sort of fall into place instead of fighting with each other.”
In his initial conversations with more than a hundred DJs, Schlichting learned that while many still revere the older analog mixers, most were happy with modern units like the Pioneer DJM-V10, which offer the pristine sound and convenience of digital audio. Thus, the idea for a hybrid mixer was born.
“We wanted the advantages of digital, like a display, effects, and a sound card so you can use it with Serato or rekordbox,” said Schlichting. “Then, we put in the Rupert Neve Designs transformer to give you the sonic characteristics of an analog mixer. We feel that what we created gives you the best of both worlds in terms of features and sound quality.”
The search for top-notch analog sound quality prompted AlphaTheta to reach out to Rupert Neve Designs. As RND Co-Founder and General Manager Josh Thomas recalled, “They said ‘We want the Rupert Neve sound,’ but it took some drilling down into what the Rupert Neve sound meant to them and what aspects of it were important. When you put something through a Rupert Neve two-bus, you get this ‘glue’ that gels everything together and it sounds more like a final mix. And that's what they were looking for with euphonia: to be able to mix four different sources—some analog, some digital, some from turntables or samplers—and give it all some cohesion when it's playing through the sound system at a club.”
To zero in on the specific sound AlphaTheta was looking for, RND sent a pair of RND 542 Tape Emulator modules to Japan. Using reference tracks that both parties agreed on, AlphaTheta came up with settings that provided the best overall sound and sent their notes to RND to incorporate into their custom transformer design. According to Thomas, that was the easy part—the real challenge was adapting their technology to perform optimally at lower levels and achieve the “Rupert Neve sound” in a smaller format.
“When you hit the two-bus hard on something like the 5088, you get this really nice low-end bloom and harmonic content thing that happens,” Thomas explained. “But the 5088 runs on plus or minus 45-volt rails, so that only tends to happen at 30 dB or greater. When you're feeding into a digital converter, you basically have 18 dB to work with before it hits zero and goes into distortion, so we had to figure out a way to maintain the integrity of the signal and get that fullness and richness that you get from driving a Rupert Neve output transformer.”
As soon as a euphonia prototype was ready, Lars Schlichting brought it on his annual trip to Detroit’s Movement Music Festival, where he stopped by DJ/producer Carl Craig’s studio for a real-world evaluation. “Carl is someone that I hold in very high regard as a DJ and music producer, and I've involved him quite a bit in product development,” said Schlichting. “He was pretty heavily involved in the creation of the DJM-V10, and we had some product planning meetings regarding the CDJ-3000 as well.”
A veteran of the Detroit techno scene, Craig knows a great mixer when he hears one. “It's important to have something that sounds powerful out on the dance floor, but isn't fatiguing,” he said. “DJs are always trying to make it louder. Some mixers are popular because they hit really hard, but the sound that gets to the sound engineer is super important because you don't want them touching it too much. With the Neve electronics, they definitely made something no other company is going to be able to compete with. What they did with the digital VU meter is pretty dope, too; and the black and gold finish is DJ elegance.”
After receiving valuable input from Craig, Louie Vega, and other professional DJs, AlphaTheta began debuting euphonia to the public. “The response has been so much better than I thought; it’s blown me away,” said Schlichting. “We had an artist suite set up at Miami Music Week, where we ended up showing to 170 DJs, and 40 DJs performed on it at public venues that week. John Digweed used it at the Bedrock party, Terry Hunter used it at the Arlo Hotel, Louie Vega used it at the DJ Mag party, Honey Dijon used it at Space, and many more played on it at Dante’s HiFi. That’s what was so surprising—we managed to develop a rotary mixer that was so intuitive that people felt comfortable playing on it for the first time in front of thousands of people.”
Even Josh Thomas and his team at RND were pleasantly surprised at euphonia’s reception. “We're very happy that there's interest in the DJ world for Rupert Neve’s design philosophy,” said Thomas. “We’ve done a number of collaborations throughout the years, starting with Rupert’s design consulting for Amek, and more recent partnerships with Taylor Guitars, Bogner Amplification, sE Electronics, Dingwall Guitars, and Yamaha. It's got to be a top-shelf product and we have to really feel like we're adding something to the equation. This is a whole new world for us, and we’re looking forward to new opportunities.”
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