Hardware & signal path
Crossfader curve
Crossfader curve sets how quickly the sound arrives as the fader leaves its end stop. A sharp curve is fully open within a few millimetres; a smooth curve spreads the change across the whole travel.
In practice
Sharp curve to cut, smooth curve to blend. If your cuts smear or your blends step, this is the knob.
Set it to what the night needs rather than to a preference. Scratching and chopping want the curve as sharp as the mixer offers, so the sound is present within the first millimetre or two of travel. Long house blends want it at the smooth end, or want you on the channel faders instead. Battle mixers put this on the front panel because it changes between records; club mixers often bury it, which is why an inherited setting can quietly make an unfamiliar mixer feel wrong.
Sharp
For cuts and scratching
Smooth
For long blends
1–2 mm
Sharp-curve travel to full
Where these come from: Typical adjustment range and working practice on battle and club mixers — not catalog figures. For what we can measure, see what the fader itself does.
Why it matters
It is the single setting that decides whether a mixer feels like a blending tool or a cutting tool, and it is the first thing a scratch DJ changes on unfamiliar gear. On a sharp curve the record is at full volume almost immediately, so a flick of the fader is a clean cut. On a smooth curve the same flick is a fade.
Getting it wrong is why blends sound lumpy or cuts sound soft. If your long blends have an audible step in the middle, the curve is too sharp for what you are doing; if your cuts have a smear on the front, it is too smooth.
Frequently asked
What curve should I use for scratching?+
The sharpest the mixer offers. The point of a scratch fader is that the sound is fully present within the first millimetre or two, so a flick reads as a cut rather than a fade.
Why do my blends sound uneven?+
Often a sharp curve on a long blend: the level jumps early and then does nothing for the rest of the travel. Smooth the curve, or blend on the channel faders and leave the crossfader alone.
Where is the curve control on a club mixer?+
Usually on the front edge or in the utility menu rather than on the top panel, which is why it is easy to inherit somebody else’s setting without noticing.
Related terms
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.
Magnetic fader
A magnetic fader senses position with a magnet rather than a wiper touching a conductive track. Nothing physically rubs, so the abrasion that eventually degrades every conventional one never begins.
Battle mixer
A battle mixer is a compact two-channel mixer built around a fast, replaceable crossfader, with curve and reverse controls to hand. Everything else is stripped back to keep the fader area clear.
Hamster crossfader
Hamster is a crossfader wired in reverse, so the left deck lives on the right side of the fader. Scratch DJs run it because it puts the cut on the pull rather than the push.
Explore: Transition techniques · Crossfader · Cut · All DJ terms