The Omnitronic TRM-422 is a vintage-style rotary mixer with four + two input channels with integrated frequency isolators, external FX Out, Digital Vinyl System (DVS) Integration on all channels, an assignable crossfader to all four channels, booth outputs section with Booth EQ and 2x MIcrophone inputs 2x — with frequency isolators for low, mid, and high frequencies over the master mix.
And, last but not least, a filter section with HP, BP, LP, resonance, and sweep controls, and a backup source auxiliary jack to plug in a smartphone, tablet, or laptop.
Clocking in at a hefty 11lbs/5.1kg, you immediately feel the weight of the mixer. The metal chassis feels solid and sturdy and every rotary knob, pot, switch, and crossfader feels smooth, natural, and well-built.
The design and layout are reminiscent of vintage mixers of the past.
The top panel of the TMR-422 is broken into five sections: mic & cue, the main mIxing controls, VU Meters, master volume outputs control & the booth volume control, filters, and the master frequency isolators and the cross-fader.
On the left side of the mixer is the mic and cueing section with high and low controls and volume control for the two microphone inputs. Each mic has a kill switch (On Air) with a headphone LED cue switch. Followed by a Mix Cue and Cue Volume control along with a toggle switch that lets you split the mode with the master sound on one side of your headphones and the other side with the track you’re mixing.
Here you’ll find four channels – each channel has a phono and line input switch, volume gain control, 3-band frequency isolators, a filter assign switch, a crossfader assignment switch, a cue button, and rotary channel control.
There’s an auxiliary input to plug in a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Next to that, you have a VU meter assigned to switch to select either the master or the booth single. Below is a 16-step Stereo VU meter for the Cue and Master level.
Adjacent to the VU meters is the master volume control, booth volume control, and high/low tone controls that allow adjustment of the high and low frequencies for the booth outputs.
On this part of the mixer you have the resonance control, filter type selector switch (high-pass, band-pass, and low-pass filter), and an FQ sweep control that sweeps the filter frequency from low to high.
Below all of that you have three large master isolator controls (vintage ALPS potentiometers) for the highs, mids, and bass frequencies and a crossfader (unusual for a rotary mixer).
On the face of the mixer, there’s a 3.5mm and 6.5mm headphone jack port, and just to the right of that is the crossfader slope control.
The 422 is on the larger side with a width of 13”, depth of 9”, and 4.2” high — flush to the height of a Technics 1200 turntable. While the mixer does have a bigger-than-average footprint, there’s plenty of space on the control surface to get around the various pots, switches, buttons, and faders without accidentally hitting something.
If you’re a battle-scratch DJ looking to purchase a new mixer, then stop reading. However, if you’re really into long and clean mixes and have always wanted to have a rotary mixer but don't want to fork out a ton of cash for a boutique rotary, then the TRM-422 might be the right mixer for you.
All the rotary knobs, pots, switches, and crossfader feels neatly placed on the controls surface with plenty of space to move around the controls with ease. The accuracy of each rotary knob feels smooth and clear-cut vs. using a sliding up and down control that’s found on most mixers. We did find the cue controls a bit confusing to get used to, especially if you’re used to monitoring in headphones vs. having a dedicated monitor. However, once we got used to the switching paradigm, it became a bit easier to intuitively cue.
The feel of the cross-fader is very smooth and clean. There's a lot of slope space between the two different channel signals in the mix, even with adjusting the slope. Definitely not a deal breaker and actually could be a plus when doing really long mixes. Nevertheless, the resistance and accuracy of the channel controls, coupled with the crossfade, allow for longer and cleaner mixes and feels super smooth. The good news is that you can easily disable the crossfader.
In terms of volume control, if you’ve used a rotary mixer in the past, you’ll know you will want to set your gains for the input sources at around the center of the gain and use the level controls below to max out at no more than 10. We noticed that there was plenty of headroom when it comes to mixing lower-volume tracks, which is great for vinyl DJs.
Usually, rotary mixers tend to steer away from fancy features like filters and external EFXs options, but the TRM-422 is a bit of an anomaly in that it does include a set of filters and an input option for external EFXs units (e.g the Pioneer RMX-500 or RMX-1000).
With the 422 you have multiple filter options to choose from including a high pass filter(HP), a low pass filter (LP), and a band pass (BP) filter. All three took a bit of practice to get used to the various settings with the engage button.
Let’s quickly talk about the filter engage button. We did notice that when engaging the filter button there’s a very loud clicking/popping sound and a degradation in sound quality which can be very jarring in a live setting, and even in a bedroom setup. We tried many different ways of engaging the filters in the mix to prevent the clicking sound but opted to stick with turning off the engage button most of the time. The same goes when using an external FX unit in the external fx out and in option. We thought it might be an issue with our test unit, but we spoke with the folks at Omnitronic and they’re aware of the issue, but didn’t say if they’d be fixing it anytime soon – just that they’re aware of it and have it in their backlog.
All that being said, if you find a friendly way to leave the filters engaged at all times, and you don’t mind the degradation in sound, you’ll find an endless amount of fun with the built-in filter options, or the use of your own FX unit through the EXT FX Out/In features.
For the price point, the sound is quite nice and surprisingly warm. Control over the gain and the master volume gives you plenty of headroom in the mix and the bonus here is that you can adjust the two-band EQ on your monitors without affecting the master sound, which is a game changer for your ears in a live setup.
We found setting up the DVS system with Serato and Traktor quite difficult. We tried many different configurations offered by both online tutorials and suggested setup configurations by Traktor and Serato, but eventually, we gave in and went with just using vinyl to mix for this review.
While it’s a bummer that the filter switches pop when engaged and setting up the DVS was difficult, these annoyances don’t meaningfully deter from the fact that this is still an excellent rotary mixer for the price. The 422 is well-built, the rotary knobs give you real and detailed control over your mixing, and there’s plenty of room to move between the pots and switches without accidentally hitting something. If you can figure out how to get the DVS outputs to work, then there are endless possibilities with this mixer.
Despite these issues, the positives outweigh the negatives. Its build quality feels second to none and the sound quality is nice considering the price point. So, if you’re looking for a rotary mixer at under $1000 (US$) look no further.
Here is a short list of my final impressions of the Omnitronic TRM-422 Rotary Mixer. I did the heavy lifting for you and decided to break it down into the simple pros and cons of this device. So let's get into it it.
