Is anyone using motorized faders?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Is anyone using motorized faders?

Hey all -

I know that Tim Exile uses this controller to great effect with Reaktor to control his effects. I’m looking to have precise hardware control and feedback when using Reaktor, Max, Ableton, etc. At this point, I’m not using APCs much, as they just don’t seem to have a lot of expressive production use and even one is a huge addition in terms of footprint if I’m setting up 1200s, Z2, F1s, possibly also QuNeo and SoftStep, and of course Maschines. Really, the space/weight/hassle would be better used on some serious faders.

Xonetacular and I jumped on a deal on some Artist Mixes last year, but it turned out that the sale was not honoured. I’m not dealing with that particular seller ever again, and really, those controllers aren’t worth $1,000+ each. I don’t even have ethernet connectivity anymore.

Anyone using the BCF2000? Does anyone else know of some other good motorized faders, outside of mixing desks or things that ought to be permanently installed somewhere? How are you using them?

2

I still cherish it’s counterpart, the BCR 2000.

The BCF is the motorized version, it works like a charm, but is noisy as fuck.
Not that the noise is recorded when busy with production, but it makes a lot of noise in the room you’re producing in.

If you don’t mind that, you will have a very high bang for buck with this.

3

As someone who has never used them at all, what advantages do motorized faders have over regular faders? Why would you pay so much extra for them?

4

Assigning different functions to the same fader based on deck/scene/page selection without needing to use a shitty soft-takeover.

When you re-enable that scene the fader jumps back to the position it should be for that page/scene/deck

The BCR really is the best bang for buck controller with motor faders - and reliable.

5

With motorized faders you achieve the same result as with LED rings when it comes to displaying position of knobs in various pages/banks.

6

No. How many LEDS? I could probably get away with using two or more Arc 4 controllers from Monome, but otherwise there is essentially no hope of any accuracy. Also, that’s a LOT of money for just getting away with something.

I was really in to the idea of a setup of a huge Monome grid controller and Arcs when Ableton and APCs were my only friends but it would be a big investment.

7

Hehehe indeed, accuracy isn’t nearly the same :slight_smile: My point was on what functionality does motorized faders serve for as reply to firebr4nd. Sorry, maybe I should quote that.