Richie Hawtin has been at the forefront of technological developments in DJing for years.

He pioneered digital DJing in the 2000s, becoming the most famous spokesman for Native Instruments' Traktor software and an avid user of Allen & Heath's Xone gear. His latest foray into DJ hardware is a new brand called PLAYdifferently, a project with former Allen & Heath engineer Andy Rigby-Jones.

The first unit of the pair isn't what you'd expect given their history of digital innovation. Rather than offering control via software like the Xone series, the Model 1 is a purely analogue mixer that focuses primarily on sound quality, claiming to treat vinyl, CDJs and laptops equally and give DJs a performance experience they can't get with traditional mixers.

To find out if Model 1 lives up to expectations, FACT met with the two in Berlin to learn more about the mixer and also get a demonstration from Hawtin himself.

Hawtin will play at this year's Weather Festival in Paris from June 3rd to 5th – tickets are available here.

Model 1 will be released on June 30th. Full information is available on the PLAYdifferently website.

http://playdifferently.org/

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