Hardware & signal path
Crossfader
The crossfader is the horizontal fader that blends between two channels. At one end you hear only the left assignment, at the other only the right, and a curve control sets how abruptly the handover happens in between.
In practice
Check the assign switches before you blame the deck — a channel assigned to the wrong side is silent.
Set the curve to match what you are doing rather than leaving it where it shipped: sharp for cuts and scratches, gentle for blends, and back again when the set changes character. Most house and techno DJs never touch it — they park the crossfader in the middle, or bypass it with the assign switches, and do all their level moves on the channel faders, where the resolution is better and both hands are already working. If a deck is silent with its channel fader up and its gain healthy, the assign switch is the first thing to look at, then the fader position itself.
Sharp or gentle
The curve setting
A · Thru · B
Where silence hides
Often unused
In four-to-the-floor sets
Where these come from: Mixer control conventions, not catalog figures — nothing we store describes how a transition was performed. For what we can measure, see the move it exists for.
Why it matters
The curve is the setting that decides what the fader is for. A sharp curve reaches full volume within a few millimetres of travel, which is what cutting and scratching need; a gentle one spreads the handover across the whole throw, which is what a long blend needs.
It is also the most common source of silent decks. Each channel is assigned to one side of the fader or bypassed entirely, and a channel assigned to the side you are not on plays perfectly into nothing.
Frequently asked
What is a crossfader curve?+
How quickly the fader hands over between channels. A sharp curve reaches full level in a few millimetres for cutting; a gentle one spreads the change across the whole travel for blending.
Do house DJs use the crossfader?+
Often not. Long blends are easier on the channel faders, where each hand controls one deck independently, so the crossfader is left open or bypassed for most four-to-the-floor mixing.
Why is one deck silent when the fader is up?+
Check the crossfader assign for that channel. Assigned to the opposite side, the deck plays into a fader that is closed, which looks exactly like a dead channel.
Related terms
Channel fader
A channel fader is the vertical level control for one deck. The crossfader chooses between two sources; the channel faders decide how much of each is in the room, which is where most club mixing actually happens.
Blend
A blend is a transition where both records play together for a stretch — long enough that the overlap is part of the music rather than a join between two pieces of it.
Cut
A cut swaps one record for another on a single beat, with no overlap. It is the fastest transition there is and the only one that works between two records with nothing in common.
Rotary mixer
A rotary mixer replaces channel faders with knobs. It usually has no crossfader, an isolator-style EQ and a deliberately unhurried response — the design assumes long blends rather than cuts, and the format encourages them.
Explore: Score a transition · Mixing guides · Blend · All DJ terms