Crossfader: who really uses it?

[DJBife]

I am just curious about this. I've been DJ'ing for 2 years now and today I laughed when I looked at my crossfader, as I realized I never use it. And I mean, never, for anything!

I spin Tech House, Techno, Minimal, Tribal, etc.


Who in here feels that the crossfader is totally unnecessary in dance music?

And if you feel it is needed, how do you use it?

[DISaS73R]

The crossfader is used for quick cuts (think dubstep, dark garage and stuff like that). Not to mention that it's essential for scratching.

[pleb]

I don't use it myself but yeah, exactly what DISaS73R said. Quick cuts, although it's not essential there and scratching.

[Sambo]

You can get really cool stutter effects with it as well.

[Stewe]

Comes handy when you got some smart fader effects mapped to same controls as your line faders.

[haze324]

Scratching.

[P4ULSON]

lol..... line faders are for fading, crossfader is for cutting if you don't cut or know what cutting is then you prob don't use it i've seen a few times where a dude was running 4 decks and couldn't assign them the way he wanted to his crossfader so he used a combination of the line fader and the crossfader to mix between the decks. It was on a behringer djx mixer

[Karlos Santos]

Who in here feels that the crossfader is totally unnecessary in dance music?

Anybody who thinks this is merely stating their preference, the way they work.
It's not a question that any objective person can answer without also saying "in my opinion".

I use the crossfader no matter what music I am spinning. It's a habit thing. I like the safety of knowing that the crossfader is to one side and that I wont accidentally air a track whilst cueing.

As a scratcher I also need the crossfader.


The question is just as unanswerable as "Do you need the Gain knobs" some people use them to mix, some people barely touch them.
I know a gazillion "dance music" DJ's never use the crossfader but I bet a gazillion playing the same music do use it.

And as for the right and wrong or tradition way of using the crossfader, meh hang all that. Use it the way you want. Some DJ's use it to fade (not just cut).

[mdcdesign]

I am just curious about this. I've been DJ'ing for 2 years now and today I laughed when I looked at my crossfader, as I realized I never use it. And I mean, never, for anything!

I spin Tech House, Techno, Minimal, Tribal, etc.


Who in here feels that the crossfader is totally unnecessary in dance music?

And if you feel it is needed, how do you use it?

I've been DJing for 15 years and haven't used the crossfader for the past 14 of those.

If I had my own way, mixers wouldn't even have them; or at the very least, they'd be RIGHT out of the way.

With that said, one thing I can't understand is why nobody's made a spring-loaded crossfader (which automatically snaps back to a specific position) to make scratching easier for those of us with piss-poor dexterity.

[dripstep]

Scratching, yes. Mixing anything, and its all volume faders.