Is a crossfader necessary?

A

a s u r a

New member
I was able to catch a DJ set last night- 'Lazy Dog' with Ben Watt (of Everything But the Girl) and Jay Hannan. They owned the crowd with their awesome mixing skills and choice of tunes.

Anyways, I was able to watch them mix up close and I noticed that they didn't use the crossfader at all. I was a bit puzzled. Is it really necessary to use a fader for mixing, or is it okay to just use volume adjustments? What are the pros and cons of these two methods? I'd appreciate any feedback on this.
 
I would have to to say it depends on the type of music they were playing. Cross faders are mostly used for scratching or cutting one sound off while the other is playing.
 
it really depends on the music and what kind of dj u are.

if ur breakbeat inclined then choping up the beats with the X-fader is more appreciated

if ur mix needs that fluid seamless mix then X-fader, channel faders and eq is for u

anyway i think everyone should practice doing the both that way u can drop in a tune without anyone actually knowing or u can tease the crowd :)

[Edited by ade on 11-29-2000 at 10:20 AM]
 
I use both in my sets. It's really what you feel comfortable with. If I know I am going to mix from break to break then I use the X fader...If I want a subtle mix then I use the volume and EQ controls... no matter how you slice it it's all the same thing... but you do get a better mix with trance music using EQ and volume controls.....
 
I find it better to use the channel faders when using cds AND tt´s, when all have their respective channels (that´s for visual and ease of control), but the xfader is good whenever u want fast cutting in and out of the channels. Long mixes, as used by trance and house djs, can be done using volume (channel) faders and EQs, whereas beats and scratch djs prefer the xfader. House djs used to like rotary knobs instead of sliding faders too, but that´s personal.
 
Hey

I would have to agree with Ckerr812 "It's really what you feel comfortable with" I the same use both in my set's too.. I mainly use the x-fadder as i like to chop up the beats and slice sound Fx in, I mainly mix techno,Happy Hardcore and Hardcore, Mainly I use the slide fadders as the gain's Because I have a tendancy to forget that i have increced the gains up or down, as in the slide fadders you can c that They are not both the same levels and there for it reminds me of how loud that is. I do from time to time use the slidders to mix if I think the Mix need's to be very very slowly fadded in to the same level..

L8r
Dj PsYcOtIc
 
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