Difference between revisions of "Faders"
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Turntablists have the following requirements in a crossfader : | Turntablists have the following requirements in a crossfader : | ||
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* '''Low friction''' - the wiper should move with as little friction as possible. | * '''Low friction''' - the wiper should move with as little friction as possible. | ||
* '''High durability''' - the fader should be able to withstand significant lateral and forward-backward force at all wiper positions. | * '''High durability''' - the fader should be able to withstand significant lateral and forward-backward force at all wiper positions. | ||
* '''Long operational lifecycle''' - the faders lifecycle should be specified in the millions of operations, ideally tens of millions. | * '''Long operational lifecycle''' - the faders lifecycle should be specified in the millions of operations, ideally tens of millions. | ||
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| + | Other factors to consider include : | ||
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| + | * '''Wiper weight''' Different wipers have different inertia depending on their mass. For example, the Focus Fader is extremely light and thus has very little inertia, whereas the large metal stem base used in vestax PCV faders gives them a much larger inertia. This could be considered | ||
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| + | Discussion of the circuit requirements [[Mixer circuit]] | ||
Revision as of 13:36, 31 January 2016
The crossfader is the component of the DJ mixer that is most important to turntablists.
Intro
Early DJ crossfaders were a simple carbon-track design, and contained two pairs of Logarithmic curves. This made the crossfader essentially equivalent to two back-to-back input faders. These were adequate for looping and beat-juggling, but made performing even basic scratches very difficult. In addition, the faders simply weren't designed to withstand the number of cycles a typical turntablist would put them through in a day, let alone a few years. As a result, many/most early scratch DJs used the phono/line selector switch to cut instead.
By the early 90s, performance mixers (such as the mx-2200) had faders with sharper curves, and used a carbon/plastic hybrid design to increase the durability. Still later mixers, such as the Vestax PMC pro series, switched the passive fader design for VCA circuits. These allowed advanced features like control voltage filtering (increasing fader life even further) and curve adjustment.
The current generation of performance mixers have a wide variety of novel non-contact methods of sensing fader position.
Fader requirements
Turntablists have the following requirements in a crossfader :
- Low friction - the wiper should move with as little friction as possible.
- High durability - the fader should be able to withstand significant lateral and forward-backward force at all wiper positions.
- Long operational lifecycle - the faders lifecycle should be specified in the millions of operations, ideally tens of millions.
Other factors to consider include :
- Wiper weight Different wipers have different inertia depending on their mass. For example, the Focus Fader is extremely light and thus has very little inertia, whereas the large metal stem base used in vestax PCV faders gives them a much larger inertia. This could be considered
Discussion of the circuit requirements Mixer circuit
