I feel the pain of 3-channel "scratch" mixer fans. I'm a deep-mixing 3-deck house dj primarily, but i'll drop breaks, downtempo or whatever, and though originally from san francisco i'm now in florida and hang with lots of Orlando-trance-break style dj's who grew up with Freestyle and incorporate scratching into their mix and it's REALLY powerful and not grandstanding or in-your-face (battle-style), just "extreme flow" if i had to describe it and am trying to incorporate it into my sets as well, but am finding it nearly impossible to find a high-end 3-chan mixer with line/phono toggles, even the ones that only have 2 inputs per channel. The Pioneers are the only ones besides entry-level Numarks, Geminis, Behringers etc that have them, but i'd prefer something less cluttered and better sounding, like
an Ecler Nuo 3.0, but to use that i'd have to be able to switch out those input slide switches for toggles.
SO 10 years ago i traded in my Rane MP24 on a Numark 2002x, which not only has 3 channels replete with rotatable toggles above each fader (as opposed to above the whole channel like most multi-chans), but actually has the channels LINED UP correctly, with the 2 main channels centered above the fader and the 3rd one staggered to the left to match the deck lineup, as opposed to the current trend of centering the middle channel above the xfader in the middle of the mixer, making you have to mount the 3rd deck above the mixer if you want A) your deck order to match your fader order and B) the xfader centered between the main left/right decks. with the 2002x, you've got traditional 3-deck mixing configuration on an uncluttered faceplate with nothing between you and those toggles and the ability to reach that leftmost deck with your right hand on a line fader that's located to make it easy.
The catch? It sounds terrible! BUT i've been looking for something better-sounding with a similar layout/features for years with no luck, and when it comes to ergonomics-vs-hifi i drew that line in the sand when i unloaded my Rane, and the Empath's layout (the annoying 3-centered as opposed to the 2+1 we deep mixers prefer) and lack of viable transform switches just doesn't suit my workflow. I could make do with the fader lineup, but no transforms on a scratch mixer designed by Grandmater Flash? Was he anti-transforming or something? Maybe he's a purist who thinks that's cheating?
Anyway, as someone who's looking for exactly this type of mixer (a scratchable house mixer with no frills), i can say with confidence that it doesn't currently exist or i wouldn't be rebuilding an entry-level Numark every 6 months or so.. The Pios are as close as i can find, but they're such beasts. Screw fx, a REAL trance dj induces it the olde-fashioned way: by mixing minimal dubs on multiple decks. Anything less is just McTrance!
