Audio Innovate AEM-100 DJ mixer  Add your News

The AEM-100 is truly a revolutionary DJ mixer. With over 50 knobs buttons and faders all designed to complement your existing turntables, CD players, and media players, this two-channel analog dj mixer is in a class all to itself.

Start with the basics of two sets of meters for PFL and AFL levels, a three-band graphic eq section with bass, midrange and treble sliders for each channel, and a flexible headphone monitoring system to provide the user with many choices on what and how to listen to their cue.

Connections
Lets start with some of the more progressive input options offered by the AEM-100. The first thing that grabs your attention is the use of 1/8” input jacks on the front of the mixer. Audioinnovate gives you two 1/8” Aux inputs right on the front to allow you to plug in any mp3 player on the fly without having to dig around in the back. Someone can hand you an ipod at your gig and you can plug it in on either side and mix it into the other side already playing.

 

Another great option is the addition of a 1/8” headphone out as well as the standard 1/4” out. How many times have you been with a broken 1/4” to 1/8” adapter or without one at all for your headphones? Now if you don’t have one or if it goes out during a gig, no problem - just switch over to the other jack.

It also helps to have two discreet microphone channels. Now if the dj is working with two MC’s, each one has separate volume, bass, and treble controls without interfering with the two main channels.

When looking at the back panel it becomes clear that no stone was left unturned. You are given three stereo RCA terminals for each channel to allow you to connect a variety of components. The first RCA stereo input is switchable between Phonograph and Line. The second stereo RCA input is for line level signals. The third stereo set of RCA inputs is for aux. It’s great to have the 1/8” aux inputs on the front but since it’s such a new concept what if you don’t have a 1/8” to 1/8” cord to utilize it? Well if you just brought your RCA to 1/8” adapter for your I-pod then you can use the back panel connections instead. Or what if you want to take your scratch mixer on the road and hook up a spare CD or DVD player? You can even hook up both the front and back AUX inputs at the same time, for a total of up to 8 program audio sources. We want to push technology forward but we don’t want to leave you out in the cold while we are doing it.

To make sure we are pushing the bar forward we went ahead and decided to get right down to business with the master outputs. The master outputs on the AEM-100 are XLR balanced outputs. We DJs are professionals and we deserve professional grade connections and audio quality for our main outs. In addition to the XLR out we have provided three RCA stereo outs as well. The three stereo RCA outs found on the AEM-100 are as follows, Master, Booth, and Recording outputs. In addition to audio outputs we have included two 1/8” fader start outputs to allow your digital decks to be controlled by the AEM-100. We live in a digital age so why not make the AEM-100 talk to your digital equipment.

 

Audio Path
Speaking of digital technology lets go into what happens to the signal when it moves thru the AEM-100. Audio running thru the AEM-100 remains 100% analog and never gets converted to digital. All of the effects are direct analog controls and have the warmth and reminiscence of analog synthesizers. The entire lower 1/3 of the mixer has an advanced digital control circuit which adjusts digital faders according to the analog fader, knob, and button settings. The audio never actually passes through any knobs or faders here; it all goes in and out through digital faders to keep the noise level down to a minimum. You can imagine this as having some little guy inside the mixer that can move the digital faders up and down, following your commands from the line faders, crossfader, and fader cuts (which we’ll talk about in a minute).

The digital fader setup also improves the sound quality by smoothing out analog fader adjustments with high speed controlled volume changes. Furthermore, with no delay in the audio signal as it passes through the digital faders, you have the direct feel and control that you’d expect when working with the mixer and analog or digital turntables. As your analog faders wear, even though they may develop some slight “bleeding” near the off position, the digital control circuit effectively removes this bleeding and can keep the sound fully off.

For the skeptics who worry about digital reliability, even if the digital section “crashes” from a power glitch, all that will happen is you can’t adjust the fader volume for a split second. The audio output won’t even flinch. Your crowd won’t even notice except for a light flicker. The AEM-100 gives you the best of both worlds – analog warmth with digital precision, and a digital control circuit that even makes your mixer feel more analog.

 

Crossfader & Fader Cuts
The crossfader used by AI for the AEM-100 is the Eclectic Breaks Pro X Fade crossfader. The EB Pro X Fade crossfader is truly one of kind in durability and functionality. With a conductive plastic resistor element, beefy 8mm wide stem, and precision tooled wiper, it is designed to last for over 4,000,000 cycles without ever breaking and sound just as good after 4,000,000 cycles as when it started. When you install the AEM-100 for the first time, you will already have the Pro X Fade tuned to be a perfectly smooth featherweight fader perfect for scratching, and the cut in points will be factory set to within a millimeter from the fader endpoints. As you work with the mixer, you can further fine-tune the fader tension or the cut-in points to match your mixing style. And even if the fader does start to wear out – most likely from dust accumulation – you can open and clean the fader to make it sound like new. The Pro X Fade combined with the unbeatable digital technology of the AEM-100 gives you a sound that is fast, precise, and smooth.

The most noticeable visual difference with the faceplate of the AEM-100 is the addition of fader cut buttons. The fader cut buttons can be used to cut audio in or out of that channel using your fingertips. This is not just the same standard way to transform. You can set the sustain time (“Cut Time&rdquo, attack and decay time (“Cut Slope&rdquo, and in/out direction (“Cut Style&rdquo all with familiar switches and knob controls. The fader cut buttons work hand-in-hand with the crossfader circuit and can even be used to trigger the fader start function for a cool stutter effect on the cue point. Each button is rated for over 1,000,000 cycles and has a low activation force so you can work the buttons agressively and do precision timed sound cuts. The great tactile feel and speed allows you to a new level of control on cutting sounds that you can easily work in with your crossfader routines.

 

Effects
When it came to effects we decided not to stick to the same standard things that you already have on a digital cd deck and offer a new multi-layering effect section. Audioinnovate is proud to debut an effect section that is more reminiscent of a subtractive analog synthesizer then a standard effects section. To give you a better idea of what we are talking about lets take a look at what you can add to your music. Using the wet and dry fader you can blend or completely effect your music using a noise generator, tone generator, bitcrusher, Phaser, high pass and low pass filters, as well as stutter. The stutter effect is a square wave LFO that is applied to the amplifier of that channel with a variable speed control; you can set the LFO really slow to get a timed stutter effect or really fast to get a wild ringing effect. As you can imagine you can create some rather wicked sounds by just using the noise oscillator, tone oscillator, bitcrusher and filters.

Most effect units can only work on one channel at a time. With effects available on 2 channels, you can create effects on a free channel and add it to your music with the crossfader and fader cut buttons. So now it is possible to add effects that you craft as a music overlay and still be able to run the music through a filter, bitcrusher or any other effect if you wish. The AEM-100 provides the means for DJ’s and musicians to add a new level of innovation to their sets.

 

Technical specifications
Inputs:
Line/Aux: 10kW input impedance, 5.6mV rms sensitivity for 1.0V output
Mic: 10kW input impedance, 1mV rms sensitivity for 1.0V output
Phono: 47kW input impedance, 0.9mV rms sensitivity @ 1kHz for 1.0V output

Outputs:
Master: 8.6V rms Booth: 8.6V rms
Record: 1.0V rms Headphone Amp: .5 watts / 47W, THD < 0.1%

Equalizer:
3-band Stereo Equalizer per channel, -30dB cut / +10dB boost

Signal to noise ratio:
Line: 92dB (JIS-A) Aux: 92dB (JIS-A)
Mic: 87dB (JIS-A) Phono: 83dB (JIS-A)

Frequency Response:
Line: 20Hz~20kHz ± 1dB Aux: 20Hz~20kHz ± 1dB
Mic: 20Hz~15kHz ± 1dB Phono: RIAA ± 0.5dB

Talkover attenuation: Maximum -19dB, minimum -16dB attenuation of main audio

Power consumption: 18 Watts typical, 22 Watts with full headphone output

Dimensions: 10" wide * 14" deep * 4.2" high

Weight: 6.0kg

Life rating:

Crossfader: >4,000,000 cycles CH1, CH2 Line faders: >100,000 cycles
Fader Cuts buttons: >1,000,000 cycles Misc. faders: >100,000 cycles

Effect circuitry:
Noise, Oscilattor: 0 to 3dB max level, oscillator has variable frequency square wave.
Stutter: variable on/off from a few 1/10ths of a second transforms to high pitched ringing.
Digitize: variable frequency sample/hold circuit.
Phaser: dual phaser with variable cutoff.
Band Pass, Band Reject filters: 4-pole sweepable butterworth filters.

Crossfader section circuitry:
Cut Time: 1.64msec min, 420msec max, full right = unlimited setting for maximum cut time
Cut Slope: 1.64msec min, 420msec max transition time between audio and cut position.

Cut Time and slope both set to min will turn off cut function
Fader Cut buttons, fader start, crossfader/line1/line2 response:
1.64msec max delay initial response
1.64msec max transition time for crossfader/line1/line2.

No delay in the audio path, delay is for the audio control only.
Output Resolution: 0.2dB typical with fader at 2/3 volume.