Xone DB4

_VNCNT · 2024-04-30T20:06:03.650Z

I haven’t fixed it yet, I’ve been using the mixer and just using the gain as a fader on channel 1,which is obviously, not ideal but a workaround for the moment, I plan on getting the unit to the authorized service center closest to where I live on the next week’s, for fader replacement… will update you then.

I also had the EQ section bleeding out from neighboring channels but since it got serviced that seems to be resolved.

Best of luck

DaveMech · 2024-06-01T18:57:58.072Z

So i was made aware of this:

Ploytec might revive old audio interfaces on gear like the zone DB4 to support the latest mac osx ! Check it out here

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ploytec/ploytec-revival

It’s a hardware converter. Pretty neat. By now I doubt I’ll jump on it as I probably will only use db4 as a hardware mixer, not as studio hybrid mixer. But anyone missing the great routing possibilities and high quality audio from DB4 on their OSX, this might make you really happy

XONE:4D and XONE:2D are also supported and more might follow with enough interest.

feedbac · 2024-06-02T09:09:23.894Z

It should be simple to code if they ask only for 3000€.
(just kidding, I would assume some of the money is coming from other places…)

lvthn · 2024-06-17T17:40:45.983Z

Hey Dave! Apple is getting new OS update and some software is forcing me to update above Catalina. I’ve made some research and found some possibilities:
First is Ploytec’s most recent project that you mentioned, the Ploytec revival, a USB highspeed converter for Xone:4d 2d DB4 & DB2 (without midi support yet)

Now, for the software possible solution, has anyone tried OpenCoreLegacy to install a patched macOS? This is intended for older MBP to run newer OS, but as far as I know this also enables legacy drivers to work seamlessly on newer OS by patching kernel and security issues

Could this work? Has anyone tried this?

Bagatour · 2025-07-11T21:56:36.721Z

Hi Dave! thanks to your amazing performance videos with the mighty DB4, I just got myself a super pristine one couple of months ago for my live performance setup. I have a DT2, DN2, Moog Labyrinth, Metal fetishist and a Nord Drum 3p all connected to DB4 with a complex routing. I also purchased the Revival PCB to make DB4 mac / iOS compatible again and it works great for my needs actually. Apart from all those good things I have a strange problem about the tempo-synced damage effects like stutter, dicer, bitbash, saturator on the DB4. There is a super annoying slight drift goin on when I activated the tempo-synced FX’s. Whatever I tried, those damage FX’s drifts slowly. Internal / external clock, BPM detection, DB4 own Midi clock determined from the menu etc… doesn’t matter, they just drift in a very annoying way like in a loop, like one of the machines is slightly slow or fast somehow. Then I just find out that when I send the master clock via iPad AUM app with the Revival to DB4 the stutter effects doesn’t drift but every time I stopped the music then hit play again the stutter FX starts from a different point like an LFO without a reset. So it looks like the DB4 BPM conscious damage effects designed to work like this which is weird and make those very cool FX’s unusable. I know I can correct the timing/ position of stutter or chopped audio by the FX adjust scroller knob to move the position of the chopped audio but its not an option during a live set. So I cannot turn on those effects instantly without cueing it cause I’ll never know where it starts to chop the audio. Btw, I dont want to use the iPad and AUM always connected to DB4 and if I set the BPM manually on both Digitakt and DB4 manually, those damage effects will drift eventually but it can be tolerable if the chopping/ stuttering position could be in the same position everytime I engage the FX.

Did you (or anybody) ever noticed that problem during the time you use the DB4 with your Elektron boxes? I know that there is no perfect gear but those tempo-sync FX’s shouldn’t work like this logically I think…

cheers !

DaveMech · 2025-07-12T11:27:07.607Z

Hey! Congrats on the DB4!

I can be very short in my answer: Unfortunately there’s no fix to this and it indeed renders them quite useless. I really tried to make them work but in the end I just settled with the groups: delay, reverb and res.

Bagatour · 2025-07-12T11:58:45.492Z

oh thats very disappointing… How a company like Allen & Heath make a beast of a mixer like DB4 and didn’t think about this, very strange. So as far as I understand, those tempo-sync effects were useless right from the beginning.

DaveMech · 2025-07-14T08:32:25.232Z

my only guess is that they were more meant for quick push in effects rather than long effects. It struck me as quite odd as well though

Bagatour · 2025-07-17T01:49:25.593Z

yeah maybe… but for example a quick push to the Dicer or Stutter in DMG FX section will result some unwanted out of sync audio chopping which nobody wants to use, so as you said its even weirder… I would really like to talk to someone at Allen & Heath for this strange issue and what was in their minds back in the day when they developed this beautiful hell of a beast mixer…

sacconaz · 2025-08-20T14:02:13.251Z

Hey man are you still using the DB4 I just got another one after selling my first one 5 years ago because I missed the creativity… I’m using it with the Revival USB Ploytech USB update but I notice the LOOPS drift A LOT… I don’t remember the looper being so out of sync… I use it with Traktor… do you notice variable LOOP drift?

DaveMech · 2025-08-20T14:24:00.567Z

Fairly confident to say that it’s probably traktor that is drifting, not the db4
Have you tried syncing traktor to db4 ? Db4 can be master clock. Never tried to set that up though.

sacconaz · 2025-08-20T17:11:32.719Z

Hey Dave! I switched from DB4 BPM Detect to MIDI CLOCK * and it seems to be working fine now… Do you still use the DB4 regularly…? I wish more DJ mixers had theses kind of features… Built in LOOPer and granular effects…! How is the the only one in the world the do this?

sacconaz · 2025-08-20T17:14:24.621Z

So you don’t think it has anything to do with the REVIVAL hub?

sacconaz · 2025-08-20T17:29:09.232Z

Hey Dave is it possible to connect 2 DB4’s together? I find 4 channels is not quite enough

DaveMech · 2025-08-20T19:11:34.109Z

Ah yes. My bad. I kind of assumed you were in midi clock mode already. Best detector is useless

I currently use the elara6 but the db4 will always have a special place in my heart. I’ll never sell it that’s for sure.

Yeah it’s kind of crazy no one has tried to make a similar mixer. To be fair it didn’t sell all that well at the beginning. When I released my original video on it, sales jumped for a while (heard this from them) but then the hardware became too old to support newer operating systems …

It’s a very niche product but it’s incredible nonetheless

DaveMech · 2025-08-20T19:12:31.856Z

Well you could always run the output of one into the A channel of the other. Other than that not really a direct way to connect them so they become one mixer if that’s what you mean.

sacconaz · 2025-08-20T21:26:07.323Z

Yes that’s what I was thinking… the Play Differently can be linked via Xlink to create one big mixer…

sacconaz · 2025-08-21T14:15:37.079Z

Hey Dave I have an odd question for you… if I were to run the output on the DB4 through an Union Audio orbit.2 LE FX 2-channel Analog Rotary Mixer…would that create an “summing” effect that would warm up the sound you think?

ddiamond84 · 2025-08-21T21:42:19.413Z

I’m one of the purchasers after your video! It’s such a special piece of gear. It has a couple of things I wish were better like the sync, but man, it does the most magical things and is so fun! I couldn’t bring myself to ever sell it either.

sacconaz · 2025-09-06T14:11:27.830Z

Hey Dave…after talking to Andy at Union Audio I decided to use the 2 Valve in series with the DB4 and the result is phenomenal! The sound quality is beyond what I could have imagined. The Two-Valve gives the music a roundness and warmth that makes it feel alive — open in a way I had only intuited but never actually heard. Together with the DB4 as my interface and mixer, it’s become a singular experience, almost like discovering an entirely new instrument.

I’ve come to believe DJs need to think and act more like musicians — carefully curating the tools they use to shape and refine their sound. Too often it’s like a guitarist walking into a venue and just playing on whatever guitars and amps the house happens to have. That approach limits expression, while the real magic comes when you bring your own voice, your own chosen instruments, to the stage.

The Two-Valve makes that clear. It isn’t just a piece of gear — it’s a masterpiece, and it’s pushed me to hear and create in ways I never thought possible.

Thanks again,
Sacco

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