It’s the Year of Our Lord Two Thousand and Twenty Four, and a new range of analogue rotary mixers aimed at vinyl mixing has launched.
The Orbit LE series comes from Union Audio, a company significant due to the fact the founder is Andy Rigby-Jones, a veteran DJ mixer engineer and the mastermind behind the Allen & Heath Xone range. Andy formed the company in 2014, and initially worked with other manufacturers to develop such products as the PLAYdifferently Model 1, and MasterSounds Radius range. More recently, Union Audio launched their own products, starting with the orbit.6 rotary rack mount mixer and later the elara.4 club mixer.
There’s four new bits of gear here, with two and four channel flavours either with or without built in effects. The orbit.2 LE and orbit.4 LE, along with their LE fx counterparts.
A significant detail with this release is that it comes off the back of MasterSounds announcing an end to their collaboration with Union Audio on a range of high end analogue mixers, along with the well loved MasterSounds effects unit.
UNION AUDIO EXPANDS ITS PORTFOLIO OF ELITE ANALOGUE PRODUCTS WITH THE LAUNCH OF A NEW LINE OF CLASSIC ROTARY MIXERS
– The British audio design firm launches the new Orbit LE product line with four new rotary mixers –
Leading high-end analogue DJ equipment designer, Union Audio Limited, is pleased to announce the release of four new products – the Orbit LE2, Orbit LE4, and the ground-breaking Orbit LE2 FX and Orbit LE4 FX – offering a new range of accessible 2 and 4 channel rotary mixers.
The Orbit LE2 and LE4 are high-performance rotary analogue DJ mixers, featuring fully independent channels, each equipped with high-quality phono pre-amplifier and line inputs, high-pass filter with variable Q, FX Send with pre/post switch, and a precise Alps rotary fader. The Master section features a 3-band Isolator, and separate level controls for Master Out, Booth Out and Aux Return, whilst comprehensive monitoring is via two backlit custom analogue VU meters, with a powerful headphone amp featuring both Split Cue and Cue/Mix, plus 1/4” and 3.5mm headphone jack sockets for maximum versatility.
Building on the LE2 and LE4, the Orbit LE2 FX and Orbit LE4 FX uniquely feature an integrated DSP FX unit and a powerful 4-band isolator, offering unparalleled creative potential in a single, elegantly crafted device, blending the best of analogue warmth with eight creative digital effects including delays, reverbs, phaser, flanger, bit-crusher and resonant filters. In addition, the mixer can also be connected to an external FX unit for even greater audio manipulation, with the choice of running both internal and external effects simultaneously.
“We are excited that these new products are joining the portfolio, which has been expanded to meet the diverse needs of our customers, whilst maintaining the same superior audio excellence, build construction and innovative design across the range,” said Andy Rigby-Jones, CEO of Union Audio Limited. “The classically designed Orbit LE2 and LE4 offer high performance, quality and excellent value for money, whilst the LE2 FX and LE4 FX take this further with the inclusion of a digital FX engine, perfect for audiophiles and professionals who want to push the boundaries of sound design, whether in the studio or during live performances.”
The Orbit LE2, Orbit LE4, Orbit LE2 FX, and Orbit LE4 FX will be available for purchase immediately on the Union Audio Limited website and through authorised retailers.
Pricing: Orbit LE2 – £715.00, Orbit LE2fx – £875.00, Orbit LE4 – £935.00, Orbit LE4fx – £1120.00, exclusive of VAT.
For more information about the Orbit series and other Union Audio Limited products, please visit www.unionaudio.co.uk
My take
My immediate internal debate when I first saw this has been around the fact that it’s another rotary mixer without any EQs on the channels. This has always struck me as a weird design decision when it happens because these mixers are clearly aimed at vinyl mixing, which is probably where EQing is needed the most compared to modern digital audio. It’s not like there isn’t already precedent… the now-vintage UREI 1620 and Rane MP2016 didn’t have them, but that was likely more due to technical limitation for the UREI than choice (the mixer was groundbreaking in that it was a stereo mixer) but the Rane offered a companion XP2016 rack for crossfader and six channel EQs.
Union Audio does offer an EQ strip with crossfader, but it’s only got two channels of controls, and it costs more than the most expensive mixer does!
We can expect the usual level of smart engineering you’d get from anything Andy designs, with top notch build quality and every component perfectly chosen. The blurb highlights the phono pre-amp, which means it’s going to be attractive to vinyl DJs, with Union Audio no doubt using the best pre-amp they can get. There’s also Andy’s signature high pass filter on each channel which sort of offers compromise for the lack of EQs.
The addition of the options with effects is interesting. It’s not clear if these are fully analogue, or have some sort of DSP. I really hope that down the line Union Audio start offering an external effects unit. I had hopes after the Xone:PX5 came out that Allen & Heath might release something along those lines. There’s definitely a gap in the market aimed specifically at DJs for an effects box that allows for chaining multiple effects. Especially after MasterSounds offered a Union Audio designed product that has been so well received. There’s also those classic analogue VU meters for sound monitoring.
Which brings me to the subject of the end of the MasterSounds/Union Audio partnership. We’ll probably never know why this seemingly successful relationship ended, but it leaves MasterSounds with a diminished product range, and Union Audio going it alone to fill the gap in the market. When Union Audio launched, it was purely a consultancy/partnership company, but now they’ve got some highly respected partnered products in the portfolio, it makes sense to expand their own product range. Perhaps the agreements with external clients have come to an end and they can stand on their own two feet? It might also simply be that MasterSounds wants to focus on their original vision: renovating Technics turntables.
Your take
Do you need EQs on your mixer or would the HPF do the job? How do you feel about Union Audio’s new offerings?
The Union Audio orbit.2 LE, orbit.2 LE fx, orbit.4 LE, and orbit.4 LE fx are available in shops now.
