Lack of DJ skillz and impending middle age forces sale! ;-(
There’s a story behind me and decks, which I can tell now that the 10 year non-disclosure agreement has expired. In my final year at university, I took the “Innovation For Engineers” class, which taught how to be an entrepreneur. Myself and another student, Andy Williams, decided that we would have a go at entrepreneurship for real. Andy knew I was a mad inventor, and he lent me money to develop one of my inventions, in exchange for half of the profits. (lesson 1 in entrepreneurship: never give anyone half of the profits)
The invention I chose was an improved crossfader for DJ mixers. I’d just fixed a DJ mixer for a friend, his crossfader had worn out, and I thought I could invent one that would last for ever. I soon had a prototype together, and we took it to music industry trade shows in Manchester and London to attract interest. The first interest we got was “Company G” who offered us £10k to bury the thing, a la everlasting lightbulb. (In hindsight we should have taken that.)
After a lot of board treading, we got the attention of “Company N” who agreed to buy the invention off us and fund the patent. Enter endless messing around with contract and patent lawyers. All went well until a substantive patent search found that I had reinvented a mechanism first patented by RCA in the 1970s. Game over! We walked away with £5k each, after a year’s work, for a net hourly rate comparable to flipping burgers. But it was certainly an interesting experience.
Company N launched the new fader anyway, in their Pro SM-3 mixer. Sales were so-so and the model was discontinued after a while, the company choosing to get out of analog mixers altogether and go to a digital solution.
Fast forward to 2 years ago, when I finally decided to buy some decks of my own. I bought a second-hand pair of Technics 1200s, only to discover to my surprise that I’m a crap DJ! I can match beats, but I can’t be bothered shopping for records, and have no idea what sort of records I’d want to buy anyway. And if I ever do buy any, I can’t remember the right places to mix them into each other.
The decks had their finest hour at my 30th birthday party, where I persuaded a friend of a friend to come and spin drum’n’bass on them. My flat was well and truly rinsin’! Unfortunately the rest of us got completely drunk, kicked him off the decks and started to play Blondie. He didn’t drink, and left in the huff. The party was still going at dawn the next day. Sorry, Chris.
Now I think it’s time to move on. Feel free to bid on my decks on Ebay! 🙂
