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Ecler's new HAK 360 aims to be the top of the pile of scratch mixers. But can it stand up to the competition.
On Switch
Mains socket
Session input - Hook up another mixer to the 360.
Mix input - Part of the external effects chain
Line inputs x2 - For your CD players, Samplers, DATS etc.
Phonos x2 - For your decks of course.
RCA output - Bog standard out puts to hook up to your hi-fi.
XLR Balanced outputs x2 - Useful for hooking up to a club PA and better quality connection than RCA.
Effect Output - To connect to an external effects unit.
Recording Output - an output to record to.
Micro channel insert connection
Mic input x1 - XLR and 1/4" combo jack input.
So what we have here is quite a tooled up mixer. We're going to have a look now at probably the most important part of a scratch mixer, the faders.
If the faders are, errr, not up to scratch then everything else on the mixer is pretty much useless.
© ukhh.com 2003
deejay feature
0009 added 02.01.03 words
DJ Frish
This is the second generation of scratch mixers from the Spanish company. The first being the HAK 300 and 320, both receiving good reviews when they came out a couple of years ago. Fast forward 2002 and Ecler have released 2 more mixers the 360, their top of the range flag ship scratch mixer, and the 310 a "slim" style mixer on more of battle tip. We're going to be looking at the 360 though:
So this mixer straight out of the box, my main mixer is a Vestax 06 ProA which compared to this is very skinny. The 360 is a big mixer but has to be really to fit all the features and knobs on it. The mixer follows the same standard in layout as all other scratch mixers i.e. the area around the faders is clear of knobs and screws, and all EQ's, Panning, Gain and Microphone controls are in the top half of the mixer. On the front panel you have your fader curve and reverse settings and headphone connector and volume control. On the back panel you have all your connections which comprise of:
Channel Faders
The HAK 360 has VCA up faders with an estimated life of 4 million cycles! The Vestax equivalent (the PCV fader) is 1 million cycles. The PCV faders on my 06 Pro lasted about 18 months so as a rough guess the up faders could last you about 5-6 years which is pretty fucking good!!!! Your going to be saving money and not have to fork out money all the time to replace faders like with a certain Technics mixer.
So how do they feel? Well pretty nice in fact they're quite light and loose but not as smooth as a PCV. That is to say if you flick the fader up the groove it will probably hit the top my Vestax PCV would come almost back to the bottom again. Also if I held my 06 Pro up then the faders would probably fall down, this won't happen on this mixer but still there is not much resistance. They don't really take that long to get used to either.
Cross fader
This is a different type of fader to the channel ones. Ecler are calling this the "Eternal Inductive Fader". It is based on magnetic control; an extremely thin aluminium screen cuts the flux lines of a magnetic field created between two sets of coils. This electromagnetic modulation controls an assigned Voltage Controlled Amplifier that modifies the gain of the signal, so therefore this is a contactless fader. This type of technology has advantages over optic based faders like Stanton's Focus Fader, such as resistance to smoke, moisture, temperature and ageing.
This feels a lot different to the up faders. It is a lot looser than the up's and behaves like the PCV as I described above, if you flick the fader across it will come back very quickly and feels like you've got nothing in your fingers. Obviously this takes a bit more getting used to. A fader like this coupled with the fact that this is quite a wide mixer (360mm) makes beat juggling a little trickier, the Focus Fader on the Stanton mixers were well known for being difficult to juggle with because of the loose fader. I don't think the same is true here just time is needed to adjust to it. Playing around with the curve adjust could solve this problem. A nice feature is a small knob on the front panel that adjusts the cut in point of the fader i.e. at what point sound starts coming out of the mixer. It is possible to get a cut in time of 0mm, meaning that the fader doesn't even cut the sound off and basically doesn't effect the sound at all!!!
In addition to this it has the usual crossfade curve adjust from hard for scratching to a smooth fade for mixing. And that's not all, another switch on the front adjusts a "crossmode" feature which can select between FADE or SWITCH.
So you have a highly sophisticated and flexible cross fader that can be set up in a manner suitable for all tastes. But the best part is that the crossfader (and only the crossfader) carries a 5 year warranty! If this thing busts then you send your malfunctioning fader back to your dealer and they will send you a new one free of charge. This doesn't apply to misuse like spilling a beer over the mixer etc.
So that's the faders, the top half of the mixer could do with a once over.....
EQ's
The first Ecler HAK's mentioned at the start were known for there powerful EQ's and there's no exception here +10/-30dB on the highs and lows and +10/-25dB on the mid range and full kills can be achieved.
Panning
You can use this to bounce the sound from left to right over your speakers. On the 360 they are small faders which are more effective than knobs.
Input Selector
This is used to determine what you want to play your line level devices through there respective channels or your phono (turntables). Pretty self explanatory and found on virtually all mixers, however there is a small difference in that Scratch DJ's often use these switches as an alternative to the faders for scratch techniques, cutting the sound odd on and off. However on this mixer it has its own dedicated "Cut Switch" Which just cuts the input sound (phone or line) on or off. These cut switches are situated down near the fader area and the Input selectors are recessed up in the EQ area.
Program reverse
Another useful feature this is like a more complicated hamster switch. The program reverse will swap the inputs over, so effectively the right channel swaps to the left and vice versa. The EQ's also swap but be careful because the Input selector switches and even more importantly the Gains do NOT swap over.
Microphone
Fairly standard affair with 2 Band EQ and level control. The back panel of the mixer has a microphone sensitivity knob as well.
Monitoring
Again fairly standard, the headphone output is nice and loud, as you would expect. There is a facility for you to select between post fader or pre-fader listening what this essentially means is that you can do completely away with your Hi Fi or Amp and speakers and just listen to the master output through the mixer.
FX units
The HAK's 2 channels allow you to route their output signal to an external effects unit and loop it back to the HAK. When the Effect button is pressed, the effects path is active. This throws open more possibilities for your performance
Something that wouldn't have gone amiss on this mixer in my opinion are a Headphone Mute button. This just effectivley turns the headphone output off, quite useful in DJ sets where you can just set the headphone level at the start of the gig and not have to mess around with it mid-set. If you don't need the headphone just mute it.
Another useful thing would have been a headphone output on the rear panel of the mixer, the 06 Pro has headphone outputs on the rear and front panels. The headphone jack sticks out quite a long way and can get in your way, a connector on the back would have effectively eliminate this problem.
Alternatively you can get a right-angled jack adapter from Maplin which would rectify the "sticking out" problem.
Things I'm Not Feeling
The cut switches are a bit stiff and still make a small popping sound.
When the channel faders are at the bottom sometimes you can hit them when crabbing, but this is understandable. Ecler were probably trying to get the faders close together so Euro Scratches and other 2 Fader Scratches can be performed.
Things I'm Feeling
Value for money
Flexibility
Long lasting faders
Heavy EQ's
Nice sound
Heres a few points that have come apparent:
The Mixer comes supplied with rubber feet, make sure you use them, I didn't and it slid around all over the place!
The Mixer come supplied with a 2 Pin moulded plug. It operates with a universal input supply. It automatically works without internal modification from 90V to 264V, 47 to 63Hz. Which is quite useful if your
traveling around abroad etc.
The manual isn't too helpful when giving guidance on which outputs to use to just connect to Amps or hi-fi's. Use the REC Out or MASTER 2 Output.
Replacement faders cost about £45 although I would imagine the Cross fader would cost a little bit more.
It comes with extra jumpers that are put internally to help easy integration into more of a studio set up.
Rivals
I've seen this mixer advertised for as much as £585 Brand new in the UK but I got mine with a carry case worth £40 for £395 from a dedicated scratch DJ equipment shop in London. On that basis this mixer does deliver quite a bang for your buck.
The RRP of a Vestax 05 Pro is about £350 (although granted you get them for a lot cheaper nowadays) But your getting a heck of a lot more features. An important point is the fader life. The Ecler has a 5 year guarantee on its cross fader, and the Channel faders would last almost as long. I've heard PCV faders failing as soon as 10 months from new!!! And at £70 a shot to replace that's going to be setting you back a fair wadge.
So what does rival the Ecler HAK 360? Well currently there is only really one other mixer out there that is BETTER on paper - The Rane TTM56i. This is the best Scratch DJ mixer money can buy, but has an RRP of £639. The faders on this are rated at 15 million cycles with no loss of audio quality!!!!! It employs similar magnetic technology as the 360 and has a more sophisticated FX send and return functions. Other possible rivals are the Stanton mixers the SA-8 DJ Focus signature model which is more aimed at the studio turntablist and the SA-12 DJ Craze signature model which will have interchangeable FX modules! These are Stanton's new flag ship Scratch mixers and have RRP's of about £650+. Although Stanton's first batch of mixers had a reputation of bad quality, only time will tell on these.
I suppose some people are saying "what about the Vestax 07 Pro?" Well apart from the criticism about fader life, this mixer is too expensive, you can get one on a good deal for about £540 it can pretty much do all the HAK can do but I think the HAK can do the same things better.
But essentially it comes down to taste and what works for particular people.
- DJ Frish
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