I never use x-faders either. But I generally mix house, electro, trance, etc.
I alwaysssss turn them off if I can, cause I always accidentally hit it or someone else does and it cuts the music completely. Its too easy to knock out of place.
The only time I use it is if I’m scratching or playing hiphop, but both are fairly rare.
I love toying my x-fader and I’m not a Hip-hop dj… I seem to be an aberration…
I generally have it off unless I’m playing hip hop, works well with glitch and dubstep too. One less thing to worry about.
I can’t live without one, using usually 3 decks, and now a sample deck, copying tracks to one side or another and managing my left and right assignments, I do need a crossfader. Without talking about the quick cuts and small tricks with it.
I’ve been using the crossfader on my s2. I mainly play hip-hop /top 40 when practicing. However, I noticed that using the specific deck volume fader gives me a bit more cleaner mix unless i’m cutting the song very abruptly.
This is exactly how it happened for me. I was using the cross fader for a while but when I saw other people just using the individual faders I tried it and liked it much better.
All the time, though I play mostly drum and bass. I use the line faders to deal with inconsistent volume and use the fader to mix in and then eq the track in…I feel like I get a bit more control, but to each their own
Barely use it, more than often mapped to something else… like headphone volume, fx, whatever.
I sometime set the volume fader to half the volume of playing track then use x fader to “soft” cut it in on the one then creep the line fader up from there.
i used to use the x-fader, but then i started realizing that i don’t scratch, and the more i watched Top DJ’s (cox, Armin, afrojack, etc…) i realized that you don’t have to use the x-fader. and my mixes have been better ever since.
I don’t have a proper mixer and don’t have a crossfader mapped. Don’t find the need for one, I mix with EQs and line faders.
Oh.My.God. I’ve been learning to DJ for about a month now and I’ve been mixing only using the crossfaders. I’ve been wondering why my mixes sounded like shit. I’ve wasted so much time!
I use the channelfaders for smooth transitions, but I use the cross fader for one thing: mashing beats. When you have a track rolling in one channel and have synced up the other, i.e. a intro in 8 beats on the other, I use the crossfader to suddenly drop in a beat on some drum kicks while playing the first track. Sounds like playing a sample. To make this work it’s important to have a sharp crossfader curve that cuts the tracks when the crossfader is on the other channel. Combined with the delay in the VCI-100SE mapping this makes you sound like a scratch pervert. (I admit it’s cheating, but it gets me laid…
I’m going to learn so much here..
Like most have said, i mix on the Lines, but the cross is there, its another tool so i will use it.
Cross is good for cutting & doing echo effects - on the counsell pop mix on mixcloud i had 2 decks playing Virtue - Feeling good -New Dawn a beat out of synch and faffed around with the crossfader for that effect, its subtle but its there
Hehe, being the thread starter and have written the NEVER in so big letters, i have to admit:
i have got my xone92 shipped yesterday, and since i can now map two filters on the both sides of the crossfader and do an filtersweep with it, i think about to start to use my crossfader for the first time ^^
we will see ;o)
Yeah I only use it for the xone92 filter as well
It’s times like these when I really feel out of place in here …
I mainly use the crossfader when i mix between tracks. But I could see how using the volume faders could open up alot of variety. Def. going to be trying this technique out more.
Channel faders are definitely better for smooth transitions. If you never use the crossfader then I would suggest getting into a rotary mixer. The crossfader still has its uses though. Scratching, quick mix theory, echo effects, and filter sweeps all need the crossfader. One trick I’ve been using since I started was cutting back and forth between two tracks quickly to accent the snare or hihat of one of the tracks. Also while you do this you can simultaneously crank up the hi or mid frequency for a nice effect and just get manic with the mixer. I learned this from watching Derrick May and Jeff Mills back in the day. Here’s a video of The Wizard getting crazy with the fader and eq’s.
