I think having some physical stop for the handle of the fader at the top and bottom could be beneficial.
Everytime I pull the fader all the way up or down, I can feel the plastic handle has wiggle, and gets pushed farther than it should. Even handling the faders quite lightly and not going crazy with it.
Having stops for the top-most handle part of the fader would likely prevent them from snapping off over time. It may make it harder to find a replacement, as you’d need to make sure the handle on your new fader would fit an allow you to reach the top and bottom, but if it saves your fader from dying in the first place…
Not defending the flaky faders installed on Denon devices (and their lack of replacability) but do you think there is a link between this James Hype DJ craze and parts on devices breaking?
I don’t ever remember so many bits being broken on old gear, and it wasn’t made that well back in the day, outside of the odd product.
Seems every kid wants to copy this button mashing.
I went to see a friend of mine DJing in a bar last weekend. He was so proud to show me that he had just bought a flx-10 and he was playing with serato.
I got to try the flx-10 and, god, this thing looks cheap compared to what I’m used to now with Denon DJ gear. This whole unit seems to be made of cheap plastic, the jogwheels are so light, the pitchfader offers no resistance, the pads are awfully hard with no feeling of travel, so hard that thank goodness there is the led underneath to tell you that you have pressed them, no feeling of click (they are very sensitive though but it’s so weird).
The coating of the mixer part is like “piano black plastic” and is a real fingerprint magnet, hello cleaning!
The only thing I liked was the feeling of resistance in the upfaders (but I guess they are quite tight because they are new and that will loosen up with time and use).
When I got home, I fired up my Z2 and SC6000M and it is really another dimension, in terms of sensations, touch, feeling, a real treat. Every time I play on a pioneer unit it reminds me exactly why I love Denon.
This guy just thinks he’s interesting by thinking that treating the equipment like this to make the show makes it even more interesting. I don’t understand all this hype around him (no pun intended), even if he’s good technically.
If I were a manufacturer I would refuse to sponsor him by providing him with free equipment given the way he treats it, and I would force him to buy his own to perform. Besides I’m not sure it’s good publicity for the brand to see equipment being treated like this to the point of sometimes breaking down. Maybe it would make him realize that equipment is respected by having to pay for it himself.
I hate this kind of character who respects nothing and makes an entire profession look like idiots
Hmm, regarding sturdiness though, SL1200’s, Rodec mixers and Denon twin CD players all felt like metal tanks. I’ve seen these units swallow more than a few drops of beer, mostly in rental situation on pretty beer soaked student fraternity parties, and these things survived. Rodec was even prized because its faders were perpendicular to the fader slot, so beer would drip past the fader.
There had to be replacement parts from time to time: the rubber mats consisting of cue and play buttons on Denon rental units were replaced almost every year in heavy use situations, rodec parts (faders and other stuff) were plenty to find, as were parts for the SL1200. I once had to replace a SL1200 pitch fader at the rental company, because I spilled beer over it (young, wild, distracted,…). Cost me 10 euro for the fader, half an hour, an apology and a few beers, few .
When Pioneer stepped in we all called it fisher price because there was too much plastic involved
Long story short, professional gear used to be sturdy and meant for the road. Service was made easy by design. I don’t see this in modern gear…
Xone 96 has also faders made like that (90 degrees to the fader slot and a bit recessed).
Rodec and Dateq were real work tanks! But mostly I loved the Rodec scratch box - that mixer was awesome at some time…
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