The stantons are also +/- 8%. No, I don't know why they're my favorite of the new breed of TTs. I really think it's just because my first experience was with them. Back in high school, a few years before I even considered DJing, one of my friends decided he wanted to play drum & bass. And he started by buying one st-150 (the old blue ones). And we had fun playing with it, despite the fact that he never really learned what he was doing or started DJing at all. He just hung out on the DI.fm forums and talked about D&B and made fun of trance DJs.
I wonder if he still has it...I should see if I can get it from him just because I would get more of a kick out of it sitting around than my current set of Mk2s that I fee no attachment to whatsoever.
Anyway....
I don't think the imprecision @Timbo21 mentioned has as much to do with the range or "resolution" as it does with physical dimensions...when drums are flamming or bass is phasing, fixing it requires very small movements. When I've played on CDJs (which I haven't done since 1000mk2s), I pretty much always had them set at 6% except as an effect, and I kept my DDJ-SX (whichever software) on the smallest pitch range...Traktor stayed at 4% when I've played with pitch faders. If it's too much wider than that, regardless of the "resolution", what feels like a small nudge can trainwreck the whole thing if you're not careful. It's even worse on compact controllers...the faders themselves mostly have tiny resolutions, but they're also insanely short. I actually like manually beat-matching on my D2s about as much as anything else. It takes longer to get close...but once you do, between clear big movements turning into small increments and easier big adjustments with the touch strips, adjusting is a piece of cake.
It doesn't really matter if the steps are .1% or .02%, if 3/4" or 1/2" movment adjuts about 1 BPM, the movmements required are just too small to fix flamming or phasing just with the pitch fader....which (I'm convinced) is why DJs started feathering one platter or the other in the first place. The early DJ turntables (sl-1100s, thorens, etc.) had even smaller pitch controls.
That being said, there are a lot of techniques to keep the mixing tight despite those limitations. This imprecision, also, is on the giant list of things that either don't matter or can be a blessing in disguise.
The physical dimensions of pitch faders (not the technical limitations) is why a lot of people still prefer manual beat-matching and vinyl, whether they know it or not. Even if your mixing is tight, the error is going to cause the BPM of your sets to drift a little bit...which is what gives a DJ set "movement" or "feel". No matter how much people argue for it, it's not the imperfections in beatmatching that people like...it's that everything being perfectly matched means you have to make conscious decisions to use tempo to affect the energy of the room. With turntables, if you're a little hyped up and want the party to accelerate, you're naturally going to err on the side of the new record being a little fast...you slow it down (by feathering the platter) during the transition and then let it accelerate on it's own...and do that with the next one. And after 3-4 records, you're playing a BPM or two faster.
If everything is perfectly matched, it's really easy to play at the same tempo for far too long....the energy (even if it's high) stagnates, you don't know why, and then you make an abrupt change and possibly lose people.
I like having the precison and forcing tempo decisisons to be more intentional. I certainly don't mind it being natural, but I'm just wired to want it to be a conscious decision. But, it took me a while to learn that you actuallly have to do it. Frankly, that's the thing that made me switch to D2s....the tempo adjustments are so easy and precise. Plus, it's something to do while a track is playing and I don't want to screw it up by playing with effects or something while I'm just standing there and probably looking bored, regardless of how much I'm enjoying it. Now...I pretty much never stay at the same tempo for an entire track, let alone an entire section or set. It's definitely not the only way to affect energy level, but it's one of the most direct ones.
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