Tired of the disappointing performance from the crossfader on his Numark MIXDECK, [dj JD] cracked it open and made the crossfade curves adjustable. It’s a super-simple hack that just introduces two 100k trimpots to the crossfade slider. The change led to a higher volume level on the current channel until the slider was much nearer to the center. The added adjustment feature might be nice to have as two more knobs on the board but [JD’s] method leaves his equipment with a stock appearance. Is this a more refined version of circuit bending?
Nope. Unless the guy got the two resistors to where he has ’em now by just randomly putting Rs and Cs all over the place, this has nothing to do with circuit bending.
Circuit bending is just mindless pecking and shorting with a speaker hooked up to the circuit.
The guy knew what he wanted(non-linear fade), understood how it all worked(the VCA fader), and implemented a solution by using actual electronics know-how.
Calling this “circuit bending” is an insult to this guy and his equipment.
i believe this is called “engineering”
I used to DJ and crossfader curve adjustment is something that separated decent mixers from some of the really expensive ones. Different music styles require different characteristics. For example, scratching hip-hop is very different than trying to get that perfect, smooth trance transition. He should sell this as a drop-in solution for DJ’s who know what they want as end-users but aren’t quite ready to hack their expensive equipment. Crossfaders are setup to be user-replaceable, so this would be no problem for most DJ’s who have/will have to make a replacement at some point anyway.
Is this a more refined version of circuit bending?
No, because he knew what he was doing and did it without wiring it to a spoon in his mouth.
Who are you kidding? Circuit bending is what Reed Ghazala does. Lots of people just mess with circuits and call it bending, really they’re just breaking stuff. This is just modification/repair… = ) cause i guess some crossfaders are just factory broken and need fixed
this i actually the mod that got me into hacking in the first place. back in 99/00 there was a huge community of djs/turntablists on some forums trying to get the sharpest crossfade curve on the smoothest fader. (and the adjustability came out of that.)
it got to the point where people where building optical interrupts or magnetic position sensors. most were on/off transform switches basically, but some allowed for normal position fading.
google ‘focus fader’ to see one of the firsts that got turned into an actual product from stanton.
if you haven’t done this mod or a similar version (say you want complete/on off with no curve) in the past then you’re not a real dj.
its all about that character building
Does anyone have a step by step process on what DJ JD did with the cross fader adjustment for his Numark Mixdeck?
I own a mixdeck and would like to solve this cross fader issue.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
I have the solution for modifying the crossfader for the mixdeck. Send me an email at JonMykal at hotmail dot com and i’ll give you the specifics
How to adjust the fader on the mix deck
I saw the step by step review.
Has anyone tried to simply replace the cross fader with another one. If the fix is just the actual fader piece it self, then maybe another fader will be the simple fix.
Any feedback would be appreciated
Could you please provide a diagram or explain how you modified your fader? I have an American DJ mixer that I want to modify in the same way. 100k pots OK, but where to connect them?
Thanks
the first (left most) pin of the pot gets soldered to the connecter closest to the middle of the circuit board, the second (middle pin near the back of the pot) gets soldered to the connecter on the bottom left of the board…same thing when you flip the fader upside down the other direction… the third pin (furthest right) of the pot doesn’t get connected at all, just bend it up and out of the way so it doesn’t make contact with anything. Set the curve switch on the front of the mixdeck to the left (mix mode) and adjust each of the channel pots underneath the fader to your liking…for better pictures of the finished product, email me at jonmykal at hotmail dot com.
so doing this tweak does what ?? it wasnt as clear as it could be for Everyone. i have a mixdeck and the cross fader is garbage, o like my old pd01 better (its ah like butter) anyways doing the tweak what exactly can i expect. the mixdecks crossfader doesnt make any noise untill almost completely in the middle and fractions of movement can be extremely different on the volume level. does this tweak make the cross fader mix a little smoother?
1. there must be dust or dirt in the cross-fader for it to be making noise like that, cause it’s a fully analog circuit. 2. This tweak gives you the ability to adjust the slope of the cross-fader with much more control than just using the switch on the front of the deck. Using the switch, you only have the option of a harsh slope for “scratching” or a slope that fades out the channel you’re playing before the channel that you’re mixing in reaches it’s full volume. Once you add the pots to the cross-fader, you can create a slope that behaves anywhere between those two settings. Let me know if this was helpful.
I know this is an old post, but the link to http://www.djjdpro.com/guides/mixdeck_fader.html is broken. Does anyone know where I can find these instructions?
Yes, the link is broken, but i can send you the specifics for modifying the crossfader for the mixdeck. Send me an email at JonMykal at hotmail dot com and i’ll give you the specifics