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NUMARK PRO-SM3 (with Infinity fader) Reviewed by: Maddog Ale With ever-increasing technological advancements and the exponential growth in popularity of DJing and turntablism, it is obvious that things will get more advanced and better. And, I didn't even get a chance to mention the stiff competition--Vestax, Technics, Rane, American DJ, Gemini, and more recently Stanton and Numark. There is no doubt that the Numark Pro SM3 mixer is a piece of high quality DJing equipment...Let me run through some of the features, before getting to the real deal--the highly innovative and much hyped Infinity Fader. The mixer has many pros including excellent sound quality, gold-plated 1/4 inch master outs, 3 individual grounding screws, 9 inputs (3 phono, 6 lines) plus an XLR and 1/4 inch mic input. The crossfader come equiped with assign, slope, and hamster switch. The channels feature separate -40db EQ kills, individual horizontal channel pan faders, process insert loops, gains, 8 position rotatable input toggles, PFL meters, 3 position slope adjust, and hamster switches. There are 1/8 or 1/4 inch headphone jacks with split/blend cuing, and the Pro SM3 is balanced master output, zone output. THE INFINIY FADER But, as mentioned, it is the ground-breaking Infinity Fader that deserves more attention. There are disparate views on the fader and for good reasons--it is a little difficult to get a feel for. The Infinity Fader is the world's first optical fader, which essentially means that it reacts to light lasers being cut off. What this means is that it produces the crispest and clearest sound possible, but not without certain drawbacks. The amazingly smooth ball-bearings on which the fader rests are the reason the technology is possible but also the source of problems. The first thing to be aware of is the noise that ball bearings produce--not while sliding the fader, but when reaching the ends. If you are heavy into beat juggling, beware--there comes a point when all you can hear is the loud clicking of the fader and not the beats that you are manipulating. Frustrating, to put it mildly! It gets to the point where the fader becomes a new (and unwanted) percussive element. If you have a mic hooked up, you will know what I am talking about--it picks up the clicking. Secondly, the remarkable thing about the Infinity Fader is its smoothness and lack of resistance. You don't need to blow hard to move the fader clear from one end to the other; regular breathing would probably do the trick. Because it is so loose, when you throw the fader, it bounces back to its starting point (with the loud click). Now comes the difficult part; this may come across as contradictory, but hopefully will be clear to some of you. The Infinity Fader feels heavy! Since it is so loose, there is an added momentum in the throwing motion, giving it an odd sensation of being heavy (yet so light) and thus difficult to stop at the desired cut-off point. Now, that probably made no sense, but it is the best I can do! THE FINAL VERDICT It is a brand new technology and certainly worth exploring, but there are definitely improvements that can be made. One suggestion we have is to increase the length of the fader, making it easier to handle. Also, getting rid of the clicking noise would be excellent. We have also heard suggestions voiced about somehow being able to control the smoothness of the fader, which would make it one of the most versatile mixers available. As it stands, the Pro SM3 is a wonderful mixer with all the essentials and much more--great for scratching, difficult for beat juggling, and definitely takes some getting used to. Other notes--it is rumored that the Infinity Fader is guaranteed for life. While we are not sure about this information, it appears to not be the case. On the other hand, the Pro SM2 which was recently released, also with the Infinity Fader, comes with a replacement regular fader. |
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