Flash’s visit culminated in a rocking two-hour set at the Ministry of Sound on the Tuesday night of PLASA. It’s the first time he’s ever played the club, and he took full advantage to put the Empath through its paces to a packed audience. This was preceded earlier in the day by two presentations by Flash on the stand of Rane’s UK distributor, Hayden Laboratories, at the PLASA show in Earls Court. Each was followed by a short demo of his own specialist brand of performance art.
In presenting the mixer, Flash expanded on the ‘8.45’ syndrome, which has prompted many of the Empath’s most practical features. This is the common scenario when it’s 15 minutes before doors at the club, there’s a long queue outside and there’s a load of connectivity conundrums for the DJ to deal with. Coming from the horse’s mouth, from someone who’s been at the cutting edge of performing in the best, worst, most interesting and challenging situations, the Empath is a mixer by a DJ for DJs. Flash’s priorities were to ensure that the elements important to DJs were an integral part of the mixer. "It’s the small and vital details that make the big picture," he explained. This, combined with Rane’s technology and engineering experience, has produced the Empath mixer which, say Rane, is the ultimate creative DJ tool.
(Lee Baldock)
