In today’s economy, many DJs are looking to increase their marketability by making themselves as versatile as possible. And why not? The more you can do, the more gigs you’ll get -- whether it’s playing a karaoke bar, controlling a venue’s “dinner music,” or mixing up dance tunes at a high-energy club. Of course, to do this you need gear that can perform a wide range of functions. Rather than shell out big bucks for many specialized pieces, it makes economic and practical sense to buy equipment that’s flexible enough to handle different situations and be used with a variety of other audio gear. That’s what we like about American Audio’s new Q-FX Pro DJ mixer. A 4-channel mixer with 4 mic inputs, the Q-FX Pro is loaded with 8 onboard digital FX with DSP (Digital Signal Processing). The FX can be assigned to any channel, including any mic channel, which is one of the things that makes the Q-FX Pro so versatile.

Effects Options Abound
If you’re a DJ who likes to add FX to your music, you’ll definitely want to check out this board, because it gives you so many options. With 16-bit digital FX built right into the mixer, you can take your FX essentially anywhere. You can use the Q-FX Pro with turntables or CDs (if your CD players don’t have built-in FX, there’s no need to buy fancy new ones that do!). Plus, with the assignable mic inputs, you can even add cool FX to vocals like karaoke, emcee-ing or announcements. What’s more, the mixer’s got a handy input on the front where you can plug in an MP3 player, so you can mix and blend FX into your MP3 tracks too. You can also plug a satellite radio receiver into this jack. Some establishments, for instance, like to play smooth jazz on satellite radio during dinner hours, so the Q-FX Pro even covers this base!

Tremendous Versatility
The arsenal of onboard FX covers an impressive number of bases too: Pitch Shift, Reverb, Flanger, Auto Filter, Manual Filter, Transform, Echo and Auto Pan. With the DSP feature, you can overlay the FX and produce all sorts of creative sounds on the fly. For even more variety, there are X-Y Parameter Adjustments on each effect that let you control how much is in the mix from “wet to dry.” Another useful feature is a BPM Counter that lets you sync the beats of your tracks with each other and the FX.
In addition to the versatile FX options and variety of players you can run with it, we liked the fact that the Q-FX Pro can handle more than just one room at an establishment. It’s got a Zone Output control that lets you run separate music in, say, a foyer, small lounge or outdoor area at the same time you’re mixing up a storm on the main dance floor. Here again, American Audio is addressing today’s DJs’ demands for more versatile gear that can function in different situations. Sound quality-wise, the Q-FX Pro should be able to take on whatever situation it might be called to perform in. Even over a powerful sound system, we found it really clean with crisp highs, clear mids and rich bass.