Reducing the cut in lag of Rane faders (TTM-57) - Any ideas?

[mfsop]

I really like the TTM-57 I bought a few months ago on ebay but I've been using the Eternal Fader for several years and it has spoilt me a bit. I just always feel like I don't want the larger dead zone of the crossfader.

So I wanted to try the old trick of sliding a piece of plastic under the mount of the crossfader to reduce the cut in lag. But there is zero space between the face plate and the body of the mixer. Has anyone of you guys come up with a solution to reduce the cut in lag?

[Guest Symatic]

you can take out the fader and adjust the little black squares called "hall sensors" that stick up from the PCB and line up with the magnet on the fader carriage. you can GENTLY bend them in and out to adjust cut in a little bit. you can also add thin rubber or card washers to the rails also.

 

Rane's faders have a weird 3-step cut in: like if your reeeealy slowly move the fader in you'll hear it go from OFF, to vey quiet, to quiet, to ON. this takes up about a mm or travel no matter what so there is a limit to what you can do. however, at this point the law of "man up or shit off" comes into play.

[mfsop]

Thanks for the tips - I'll look into it tonight!

 

Maybe I'll also try some thin cable ties and attach them to the rails to reduce the lag. I'm fine with the steepness of the curve as I also didn't set it to the maximum on my old Eternal Fader (I don't like the sound to just "pop in") but I'm still not too comfortable with the length of the lag.

 

Let's see, I haven't scratched that much for a while, so I'll stick with the law you mentioned. But there's also the law of "once you go HAK" involved.

[Mike-L]

I used some washers on the rails of my Rane upfader to reduce the space at the top (full volume). I dont see why that wouldnt work with the cross fader too, and may have less potential for damage than bending the sensors.

[Backtrack]

What Sy said.
Just be careful and bend them a little. It works just fine. If you fuck up you can buy new sensors

[DJ Rock Well]

Everyone's pretty much covered it, but three thoughts...

 

Yes, the Rane fader and the Eternal are very different as you get a very crisp cut on the Ecler and the Rane is actually (as Si said) a tiny fade. Personally, I started on Vestax 06 then a Pioneer 707 which both had cuts more like the Ecler and then I got 56 and at first I really wasn't keen on cutting on it. But over time I liked it more and more and now I like it as much as any fader on any mixer. I think over time you just learn to work with it and eventually you like it for what it is.

 

As Si also said, you can't get rid of the mini fade. But on mine at least, the distance over which it occurs changes as you bend the sensor in and out. So on my 56 the sound cuts in fully at 1mm from side and the mini fade happens across about half of that distance. And I can be so sure of that becuase of my third thought...

 

Whenever you're messing around setting up faders, use a little ruler so you know precisely what's going on. It makes you look like such boring prick but it saves so much pointless farting around. I lost count of how many times I opened up mixers to tweak things prior to this revelation. Usually it went a bit like this; set up fader, try it again the next day and it doesn't seem quite as good, open up the mixer again and move it a little, use it the next day and realise it was fine before but I was being sloppy the previous day and I was the problem - nothing had moved on it's own and was right the first time, etc.

[mfsop]

Thanks for the input everyone! Maybe I have my terminology wrong but to me the difference between cut in lag and curve is this:

I didn't want to mess with the fade-in curve but only to reduce the lag / dead zone on the side a bit. Cable ties seem to work although it was a bit fiddly:

[Guest rasteri]

Rubber o-rings are the "proper" way to do it, love the cable tie though, haha.

 

On the ranes you can just bend the little magnetic sensor towards the end stop, it shouldn't damage it.

[Guest broke]

I've never needed to put washers in or do any kind of physical mod, I've always just bent the hall sensors and lubed the rails a tiny bit.

 

But I have been thinking about rubber washers just to reduce the click noise on the new white Rane carrier - can anyone recommend an easy source for the right sized washer?

[evil98]

I used a rubber oring and a thin washer.