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Are rotary mixers better?

djmag.com

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Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#21

Post by exitb »

Moru wrote: post #14
jonesjohnson wrote: post #8

The title is a bit misleading IMHO. It's more like analog vs digital. After all, from an electrical point of view they're usually just potentiometers and you can build them either as rotary or as linear potentiometers, but it's just a wiper on a resistive conductive track... (of course there are exceptions that work differently and use hall effect or optical sensors). The article only talks about the actual circuit t…

Yes, this is the same for controls in a car. Whoever thought a touch display was the way to go? Our old car had twisty-nobs that you could feel direction already on the grip. No need to look on the symbols what they adjusted. Our "modern" car has still twisty-nobs (we made extra sure of that) but you can't feel the direction because they are perfectly round with a tiny tiny nob for direction. Why do I get the impress…

> Whoever thought a touch display was the way to go?

A lot of people talk about as it was primarily a design decision, but I suspect touch screen controls are the cheapest one out there right now.

Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#22

Post by fragmede »

exitb wrote: post #21
Moru wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is the same for controls in a car. Whoever thought a touch display was the way to go? Our old car had twisty-nobs that you could feel direction already on the grip. No need to look on the symbols what they adjusted. Our "modern" car has still twisty-nobs (we made extra sure of that) but you can't feel the direction because they are perfectly round with a tiny tiny nob for direction. Why do I get the impress…

> Whoever thought a touch display was the way to go? A lot of people talk about as it was primarily a design decision, but I suspect touch screen controls are the cheapest one out there right now.

Especially when sisterly countries with sisterly regulations are taken into account.

Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#23

Post by grujicd »

scott01 wrote: post #20
DidYaWipe wrote: post #10

Not in a computer UI. It's depressing that audio software still widely subjects users to this skeuomorphic failure, trying to do everything with on-screen "knobs." Ugh.

Why do you think on-screen knobs is a failure? I personally find them very convenient for the purpose.

If it's operated by a mouse you're not sure where to click and hold, and how it will react when you move mouse in which direction.

I assume you're using it a lot and then it's intuitive. For novice it's not. If I click on bottom part will it operate in another direction compared with clicking on top part? Or what about if I click on left or right edge? Can I also move mouse up-down and left-right or is only one direction allowed? Is mouse-up turning knob up or down? Are these rules same in all software or knob behaves slightly different everywhere? I have no idea for any of that except if I try and see. And since I rarely use them it's always a source for frustration.

Especially compared to linear slider which is impossible to misunderstand and you can't operate in it wrong way.

Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#24

Post by frabert »

scott01 wrote: post #20
DidYaWipe wrote: post #10

Not in a computer UI. It's depressing that audio software still widely subjects users to this skeuomorphic failure, trying to do everything with on-screen "knobs." Ugh.

Why do you think on-screen knobs is a failure? I personally find them very convenient for the purpose.

As long as they support dragging up and down as a way to make them rotate

Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#26

Post by grujicd »

jeffreygoesto wrote: post #6

Oh. I first thought it would be about blenders and thought "what other principles would be there?"

Even when started reading I still didn't know what it was about. When DJs were mentioned I thought it was something related to turntables, as they are the rotary thing? Vinyl was mentioned in few places so it must be it? Then audiophiles were mentioned which is super strange since audiophiles don't use mixers at all. You're not mixing anything when you listen to music.

Turned out it's just about rotary vs linear potentiometers. Or I misunderstood everything.

Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#27

Post by WJW »

jeffreygoesto wrote: post #6

Oh. I first thought it would be about blenders and thought "what other principles would be there?"

You could have at least three types of linear mixers:

- One where some type of spoon goes back and forth. This would probably just be worse than a rotary mixer though.

- One where the entire "basin" oscillates back and forth like a seesaw, like the machines they have at the blood bank to make sure the blood mixes well with the anticoagulant in the bag(s).

- One where the basin is airtight and vibrated up and down vigorously. I could see this work quite well for dry-ish mixtures of different particles, like if you have flour and sugar together in a container and want them mixed.

Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#28

Post by rzzzt »

grujicd wrote: post #23
scott01 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think on-screen knobs is a failure? I personally find them very convenient for the purpose.

If it's operated by a mouse you're not sure where to click and hold, and how it will react when you move mouse in which direction. I assume you're using it a lot and then it's intuitive. For novice it's not. If I click on bottom part will it operate in another direction compared with clicking on top part? Or what about if I click on left or right edge? Can I also move mouse up-down and left-right or is only one direc…

The scroll wheel usually works for these as well.

Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#29

Post by ssl-3 »

grujicd wrote: post #23
scott01 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think on-screen knobs is a failure? I personally find them very convenient for the purpose.

If it's operated by a mouse you're not sure where to click and hold, and how it will react when you move mouse in which direction. I assume you're using it a lot and then it's intuitive. For novice it's not. If I click on bottom part will it operate in another direction compared with clicking on top part? Or what about if I click on left or right edge? Can I also move mouse up-down and left-right or is only one direc…

> Are these rules same in all software or knob behaves slightly different everywhere?

They're different everywhere.

My own opinion is that on-screen knobs for audio-type work can be fine as long as one can grab any part of the knob with the mouse and adjust it by moving the mouse up and down (er...well, physically forward and back).

But things are not always this way so it seems that opinions vary.

Re: Are rotary mixers better?

#30

Post by intsunny »

How an entire article about rotary mixers fails to mention Rane or their legendary MP2016 mixer is wild.

It became one of the most commonly available rotary mixers, was the house mixer for many NYC clubs, and one of the mixers commonly found on tech riders of DJs who were the last to transition to CDJs.

Random bit of trivia: if you see old school photos or videos of rotary mixers in American clubs, sometimes it wasn't actually the Rane MP2016, but the Phazon SDX 3700: https://www.integralsound.com/sdx-3700-mixer It was the house mixer for Tunnel/Limelight.

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