MusicRadar

• Review

Objectophilia. You might have stumbled across the term on the internet by accident when searching for exclusive Flickr snaps of Richie Hawtin's live Plastikman setup. It's a term used to describe people that have emotional attachments to inanimate objects.

There was a recent case of a woman marrying the Eiffel Tower, for instance. You might have once scoffed at these nutters and their unrequited love for lifeless belongings. Scoff no more.

We wouldn't be at all surprised if you caught a DJ or two fleeing in the dead of night to Gretna Green, with the Allen & Heath Xone:DB4 tucked lovingly under their arm.

Feast on features

"With this level of multi-layered sound architecture it really could be the one to change the game."

To be honest, this mixer is a little saucepot. After you pop it out of its tight-fitting carry case and bring it to life, your face lights up. Thanks in no small part to the beautifully-lit rotary faders and digital display menu.

Then, like a fat man at a buffet, you don't know where to start first on this feature-packed minx. Picture a Rane Sixty-Eight or a Pioneer DJM-600, but with no gag reflex.

She's light, so perfect for the DJ on the move, and sturdy as hell. The build quality is barely worth mentioning. As soon as you see the Xone logo, you know what you're getting.

DJs familiar with the layout of the Xone:92 will feel at home, and then get a twinge on when they fumble around the redesigned EQ section, and spot the new Quad FX Core DSP effects engine. This is the heart of the machine.

It's powerful and delivers stunning effects. Each of the four channels has its own FX bank and BPM detection system, automatically adjusting all time-related FX and loops to the BPM of your beats.

Something for everyone?

A quick fiddle about with these studio-quality tweakers and you're in heaven.

You could spend the night tickling the customisable delays, reverbs, modulators, resonators and damage functions, before exploring each one's patch library of different effect variations.

Also, the effects can actually be chained so each one has its own dedicated filter.

You've also got dedicated expression controls and a fat-knobbed rotary dial to freak out between wet and dry.

As the resonance knob rightly points out, it takes you on a journey from 'mild' to 'wild'. Those schooled on the Pioneer DJMs should be in their element.

Fans of the famous Allen & Heath filters will be pleased to know that the wonderful scope found on models like the Xone:92 is still up for plundering.

The DB4 also benefits from a built-in 24-bit/96kHz, multi-channel, fully patchable USB 2.0 soundcard and MIDI compatibility.

The soundcard means that this hybrid mixer will sit nicely in a club booth for most of the night if DJs with certain mixing software or DAW preferences are on the bill. Rocking Ableton Live or Traktor? No worries – stick in the USB cable and you're up and running.