A few years back I met a rep fom Newmark. Really cool guy. I showed him the custom eqs I had built for the VU dj rig and showed him how it all worked in the mix. Mixer companies had offered eqs to djs before but I had added gain trims, pans and individual inserts which was unheard of at the time. A few months later Newmark sent me a free demo of a new mixer with "their" all new idea: EQs with trims! Yet they left out the pans. It was the DM 1100X. It had some neat ideas (although the electronics were poor) but was still missing important features. I added master inserts with an in/out switch just under the power button and placed the insert jacks (tip=send ring=return) on the back of the mixer. I also added split cueing. This allowed me to hear the cue in my left ear and the master program mix in my right ear. the cue switch allowed you to choose what kind of cueing you preferred, stereo or split. If mixer companies wanted to sell more mixers, they'd offer split cue as a standard option, since amongst other things, it helps when you don't have a monitor.