The "reset" button on a SL1210mk5

BaZmO* · 16-10-2006 3:48pm #1

Been trying to find out online but can't find anything. What exactly does it do?

monkey tennis · 16-10-2006 5:30pm

Resets the pitch to 0 I believe. What I can't figure out though, is what happens to the pitch slider when you press this button - is it motorized?

BaZmO* · 16-10-2006 7:24pm

monkey tennis wrote:

Resets the pitch to 0 I believe. What I can't figure out though, is what happens to the pitch slider when you press this button - is it motorized?

Yeah, that's the thing that I don't understand. Does it slide it back to 0 or does whereever you have the slider become the new 0????

Alvis · 16-10-2006 7:44pm

When you press the button it locks it to 0, when you depress, it disables the lock and it goes back to the pitch that the slider is in. The slider does not move or neither does it become the new zero. At least that's what I think, I wish I could afford one

BaZmO* · 16-10-2006 7:51pm

What's the point of that? Can't really see any benefit in justing locking it to zero. Think I'll just stay with my mk2's then!

tman · 16-10-2006 8:32pm

BaZmO* wrote:

What's the point of that? Can't really see any benefit in justing locking it to zero. Think I'll just stay with my mk2's then!

was just thinking the same:p
gotta love em, 0% pitch dip and all...

Bambaata · 18-10-2006 1:57pm

first off theres no sticky pitch on mk5's which is the best addition ever. i detest mk2's, the older the get the worse they get too as the pitch bends around that 0 mark! the pitch lock at 0 is very importnat for me too when i record my vinyl to wav's for playing digitally. mk5's are simply better built. i love mine to bits. i wish the bloody clubs would follow, i hate coming across mk2's which are basically everywhere as you have to keep it at least .5% away from the 0 mark on mk2's. I also use the picth for correcting which is made harder on the mk2's.

monkey tennis · 21-10-2006 7:38pm

BaZmO* wrote:

What's the point of that? Can't really see any benefit in justing locking it to zero. Think I'll just stay with my mk2's then!

The problem with making something almost perfect in the first place, is there are only so many add-ons and modifications you can make when you get to mk5

Helix · 21-10-2006 7:44pm

id imagine that the point of it is: while you have the button held, the deck returns to 0bpm, when you release it it goes back to where the pitch slider is

basically turning the button into a pitch bend, for minor tweaks that wont be heard in the mix

BaZmO* · 21-10-2006 7:57pm

Helix wrote:

id imagine that the point of it is: while you have the button held, the deck returns to 0bpm, when you release it it goes back to where the pitch slider is

basically turning the button into a pitch bend, for minor tweaks that wont be heard in the mix

That would actually be useful but according to Bambatta it doesn't work like that. All it is is a lock that holds the pitch at 0. I think? I'm still not quite sure what it does though.

Helix · 21-10-2006 11:50pm

could be for consumer use so

BaZmO* · 22-10-2006 1:34am

Helix wrote:

could be for consumer use so

Ya what now???

Helix · 22-10-2006 5:03am

as in for people who arent djs and are just using the turntable for listening to records

if they bang on the reset switch, they know everythings gonna be at the speed it was intended to be at

Bambaata · 24-10-2006 2:48pm

thats all i can see it as. Its like the sticky point on the MK2 but they realised the majority of people buying the deck were DJs who didnt want to set it to 0 and the sticky point is a slight hinderance.

deevey · 06-11-2006 7:06pm

I dont see their logic in adding a quartz lock button as well as the sticky point ....

solution ?......
When your pitch fader or target light goes (and the 20 or so screws have been removed from the botton of the turntable) you "could" dissassemble the fader itself (few clips) carefully and remove the ball bearing + spring that makes the click. Have seen it (and done it) on a few technics decks and it makes life much easier (and vestax'y).

Better to test on an old fader first if you have the option, either that or the tech might do it for ya.

Just an idea if it really bothers you.

Helix · 06-11-2006 8:27pm

the clicky 0 point bit was removed from the mk3 onwards

BaZmO* · 06-11-2006 10:29pm

deevey wrote:

solution ?......
When your pitch fader or target light goes (and the 20 or so screws have been removed from the botton of the turntable) you "could" dissassemble the fader itself (few clips) carefully and remove the ball bearing + spring that makes the click. Have seen it (and done it) on a few technics decks and it makes life much easier (and vestax'y).

Hmmm.... Didn' tknow that you could do that. Although im sorry i found that out cos I've to replace my 2 target lights and you've got me thinking now......

deevey · 08-11-2006 11:05am

Should mention its no walk in the park replacing your faders so unless you are 80% sure you can do it ...DONT!

Also the fact that you have to dissassemble them AND still keep em working is also a little tricky (opening em is the easy bit)

If in doubt .. get a decent tech (the crap ones will probably go .. errrr ahhh ohhh ... why ?) :P

Laters

BaZmO* · 14-03-2012 12:50am

I don't always resurect Zombie threads, but when I do, I go for at least 6 years.

I'm bumping this because I finally got the answer to my original question here while looking for something else. Interesting enough, and explains why the pitch can go crazy around the zero mark. It's basically about pitch calibration. Fairly interesting (or boring, depending on your nerd skills) vidjo here that shows you how to calibrate your deck, which someone actually linked to somewhere on here recently.

FruitLover · 14-03-2012 12:58am

Jaysus, I wonder how many people who posted in the original thread still have their 1210s? :eek:

joker77 · 14-03-2012 5:52pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

I don't always resurect Zombie threads, but when I do, I go for at least 6 years.

I'm bumping this because I finally got the answer to my original question here while looking for something else. Interesting enough, and explains why the pitch can go crazy around the zero mark. It's basically about pitch calibration. Fairly interesting (or boring, depending on your nerd skills) vidjo here that shows you how to calibrate your deck, which someone actually linked to somewhere on here recently.

That is a fecking sweet find BaZmO*. Now for the courage to actually go ahead and implement the change....

BaZmO* · 14-03-2012 6:17pm

joker77 wrote: »

That is a fecking sweet find BaZmO*. Now for the courage to actually go ahead and implement the change....

Even though the mod would be reversible, I wouldn't be too keen about cutting resistors on the circuit board, especially when you could just rectify the problem by calibrating the deck as detailed in the video. Although it is interesting the amount of mods you can actually do.

Scubadevils · 14-03-2012 6:19pm

Nice - just tried both my decks and fine at 0 but the dots are not static on either when pitched to +6, in my case they are static around 5.5. I've often wondered should I get my decks serviced, I've had them about 18 years and only ever replaced cartridges, stylus and slipmats.

I'll have to see if I've the balls to open them up now at the weekend and sort out the pitch!

BaZmO* · 14-03-2012 6:20pm

Scubadevils wrote: »

I'll have to see if I've the balls to open them up now at the weekend and sort out the pitch!

oooooohhh!!!

Scubadevils · 14-03-2012 6:22pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

oooooohhh!!!

Ok, the courage :pac:

Scubadevils · 14-03-2012 6:24pm

It doesn't look that difficult a procedure anyway, I think I'd be mega cautious though and unplug them rather than just power off.

BaZmO* · 14-03-2012 6:38pm

Scubadevils wrote: »

Nice - just tried both my decks and fine at 0 but the dots are not static on either when pitched to +6, in my case they are static around 5.5.

Just to add.... As the first link explains, they will always be fine at 0.
The reason is that the deck resets to a true zero value once you have the the pitch in the marked 0 position (green light on) regardless of the what the pitch value should actually be, relative to the rest of slider. Essentially giving you 2 zero values, one out of calibration zero value, and one true zero value (when it has the green light on) The mod in the link is to stop it resetting to true zero when the light is on.

That's my understanding of it.

Scubadevils · 14-03-2012 6:42pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

Just to add.... As the first link explains, they will always be fine at 0.
The reason is that the deck resets to a true zero value once you have the the pitch in the marked 0 position (green light on) regardless of the what the pitch value should actually be, relative to the rest of slider. Essentially giving you 2 zero values, one out of calibration zero value, and one true zero value (when it has the green light on) The mod in the link is to stop it resetting to true zero when the light is on.

That's my understanding of it.

Ah ok, I didn't watch the first video yet. So what difference would it actually make in terms of mixing and pitching tracks? Surely beat matching will be no different, just where you pitch on each deck is 'technically' not the correct level as per the original setting?

BaZmO* · 14-03-2012 6:55pm

Scubadevils wrote: »

Ah ok, I didn't watch the first video yet.

First link isn't a video, it's just a link (http://technics.junglist.pl/hacking_technics.html) that explains what Quartz Lock is and how to stop it happening.

Scubadevils wrote: »

So what difference would it actually make in terms of mixing and pitching tracks? Surely beat matching will be no different, just where you pitch on each deck is 'technically' not the correct level as per the original setting?

It doesn't make any difference really. The problem only occurs when you get to the green light zero.

You've said that the smaller dots on your deck are static at 5.5 instead of 6.0, that means that it's out of calibration by 0.5, so your true zero value is at 0.5 past your green light zero.

So as you're sliding the pitch to zero you'll be going in steady increments, and if you had no quartz lock (the deck resetting to true zero), when you got to the 0 it should actually be -0.5

I hope I'm explaining this right (although I know I'm not) I work better with diagrams!!

edit: here's a pic that shows it.

Scubadevils · 14-03-2012 7:31pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

First link isn't a video, it's just a link (http://technics.junglist.pl/hacking_technics.html) that explains what Quartz Lock is and how to stop it happening.

It doesn't make any difference really. The problem only occurs when you get to the green light zero.

You've said that the smaller dots on your deck are static at 5.5 instead of 6.0, that means that it's out of calibration by 0.5, so your true zero value is at 0.5 past your green light zero.

So as you're sliding the pitch to zero you'll be going in steady increments, and if you had no quartz lock (the deck resetting to true zero), when you got to the 0 it should actually be -0.5

I hope I'm explaining this right (although I know I'm not) I work better with diagrams!!

edit: here's a pic that shows it.

Yeah get what you are saying alright, well explained - it was what I had figured but what I couldn't figure was if it actually made a difference to pitching a track - I suppose even being aware that they are not properly calibrated is somewhat annoying, even if it doesn't actually make a difference. Removing the pitch lock is another story though, that really bugs me.

Scubadevils · 14-03-2012 7:38pm

Fck that, just read over the description of how to remove the pitch lock and I definitely would not take that risk - snipping wires and removing resistor 'TP17' :eek:

BaZmO* · 14-03-2012 9:48pm

Scubadevils wrote: »

I suppose even being aware that they are not properly calibrated is somewhat annoying, even if it doesn't actually make a difference.

My starting point for playing most tracks has always been around +2 so it's never really a problem. It's just good to finally have a definitive reason as to why the pitch always tended to jump around the green light zero, in fact, it makes perfect sense now.

But yeah, it's annoying that it's not perfectly calibrated, but it's not too difficult to fix, as explained in the video.

Scubadevils wrote: »

Fck that, just read over the description of how to remove the pitch lock and I definitely would not take that risk - snipping wires and removing resistor 'TP17' :eek:

Haha. It seems a crazy thing to do when you could just calibrate it, which is something I might have a look at doing sometime.

Scubadevils · 14-03-2012 10:23pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

My starting point for playing most tracks has always been around +2 so it's never really a problem. It's just good to finally have a definitive reason as to why the pitch always tended to jump around the green light zero, in fact, it makes perfect sense now.

But yeah, it's annoying that it's not perfectly calibrated, but it's not too difficult to fix, as explained in the video.

Haha. It seems a crazy thing to do when you could just calibrate it, which is something I might have a look at doing sometime.

I always assumed the jump at +/- 0 was just because there was a physical element at 0 so a less smooth or jump in transition of pitch, if that makes sense!

Yeah I might try to calibrate sometime - definitely going to continue living with the pitch lock though, no way am I messing around with no TP17!

BaZmO* · 14-03-2012 10:36pm

Scubadevils wrote: »

I always assumed the jump at +/- 0 was just because there was a physical element at 0 so a less smooth or jump in transition of pitch, if that makes sense!

I always assumed the same thing too. You can take the click out (it's just a little ball) to make it a smooth transition through zero and I often toyed with the idea of doing it but apparently it's a really tricky thing to do so I thought better of it. :edit: it's actually mentioned earlier on in this thread

Scubadevils wrote: »

no way am I messing around with no TP17!

Haha. Why did I read that in a Mr.T voice?! "I ain't messin with no TP17 foool!"

Scubadevils · 14-03-2012 10:51pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

Haha. Why did I read that in a Mr.T voice?! "I ain't messin with no TP17 foool!"

Ha - I had that more or less in mind, I was going to add 'nigga' at the end but didn't think it would be too pc... :pac:

eZe^ · 15-03-2012 12:48pm

I'm going to do both of those hacks in a few hours and tell you how I get on. Snipping a resistor / wire is no big deal at all, they're easily resoldered. If it required a huge amount of soldering work to begin with I wouldn't risk it, but this is minor work really. I'll let you know how I get on.

BaZmO* · 15-03-2012 1:01pm

eZe^ wrote: »

I'm going to do both of those hacks in a few hours and tell you how I get on. Snipping a resistor / wire is no big deal at all, they're easily resoldered. If it required a huge amount of soldering work to begin with I wouldn't risk it, but this is minor work really. I'll let you know how I get on.

You don't need to do the two of them. If you calibrate the pitch slider you will only have one zero value so there is no need to disable the Quartz lock.

eZe^ · 15-03-2012 1:19pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

You don't need to do the two of them. If you calibrate the pitch slider you will only have one zero value so there is no need to disable the Quartz lock.

But doesn't quartz lock (even when calibrated so that true 0 is at the centre of the pitch fader) mean that when any pressure applied to the turn table (while the 0 light is on) the motor overcompensates in an unnatural manner? That's my understanding of it anyway. Infact, quartz lock is probably the thing that should be disabled when calibrated correctly, as the 0 pitch section would be unneccessary.

BaZmO* · 15-03-2012 1:44pm

eZe^ wrote: »

But doesn't quartz lock (even when calibrated so that true 0 is at the centre of the pitch fader) mean that when any pressure applied to the turn table (while the 0 light is on) the motor overcompensates in an unnatural manner?

Yeah, but what difference does that make? The only time you'd be applying any pressure is when you're slowing down the platter with your finger.

eZe^ wrote: »

Infact, quartz lock is probably the thing that should be disabled when calibrated correctly, as the 0 pitch section would be unneccessary.

Oh my brain is starting to hurt now!

eZe^ · 15-03-2012 1:55pm

BaZmO* wrote: »

Yeah, but what difference does that make? The only time you'd be applying any pressure is when you're slowing down the platter with your finger.

The way I'm seeing this is;

Quartz lock : when the centre light is on, quartz lock is engaged, this means that the motor over compensates for any pressure put on the turntable, so if when you're mixing you like to physically touch the platter to slow down/ speed up the song, the quartz lock will over compensate in an unnatural manner (if you compared the same process to when the pitch fader was set at say +4%). So disabling this means that when the central light (at 0% if calibrated correctly) is on the motor acts in the exact same way as if it was at any other value on the fader. We all know how fine movements have to be to get perfect beatmatches, so this little bit of 'give' may make all the difference when we're mixing in a record at approximately the centre of the fader.

0% pitch : the turntable is calibrated in such a way that no matter what, the big dots look stationary once the pitch is centred. So over the years you might find there's 2 points on your fader where the big dots stay still. Cutting the orange wire means that wherever the big dots stay still is your 'true' 0%, so if you have it calibrated properly, this will be at the centre of the fader anyway, so there's no need to cut this wire if you only have the one 0% pitch (as this the true 0% and default 0% coincide at the same place, the centre).

I could be reading this completely wrong btw, I've only owned turntables since november, but this makes sense to me....

BaZmO* · 15-03-2012 9:42pm

eZe^ wrote: »

0% pitch : the turntable is calibrated in such a way that no matter what, the big dots look stationary once the pitch is centred. So over the years you might find there's 2 points on your fader where the big dots stay still. Cutting the orange wire means that wherever the big dots stay still is your 'true' 0%, so if you have it calibrated properly, this will be at the centre of the fader anyway, so there's no need to cut this wire if you only have the one 0% pitch (as this the true 0% and default 0% coincide at the same place, the centre).

This bit makes perfect sense to me, especially the bit about the dots, and confirms that you don't need to touch no damn TP17.

eZe^ wrote: »

Quartz lock : when the centre light is on, quartz lock is engaged, this means that the motor over compensates for any pressure put on the turntable, so if when you're mixing you like to physically touch the platter to slow down/ speed up the song, the quartz lock will over compensate in an unnatural manner (if you compared the same process to when the pitch fader was set at say +4%). So disabling this means that when the central light (at 0% if calibrated correctly) is on the motor acts in the exact same way as if it was at any other value on the fader. We all know how fine movements have to be to get perfect beatmatches, so this little bit of 'give' may make all the difference when we're mixing in a record at approximately the centre of the fader.

The first part is correct in that the motor compensates for any pressure applied, but it only happens when the pitch fader is at the green light zero. You'd never need to mix while exactly at that point, and if you did, you could just move the pitch fader on the other deck a slight notch to balance it out.

hans aus dtschl · 21-03-2012 1:09pm

Too lazy to read the whole thread. Just posting to say I've done the mod. It's easy but it doesn't really make a whole world of difference.

hans aus dtschl · 21-03-2012 1:13pm

eZe^ wrote: »

The way I'm seeing this is;

Quartz lock : when the centre light is on, quartz lock is engaged, this means that the motor over compensates for any pressure put on the turntable, so if when you're mixing you like to physically touch the platter to slow down/ speed up the song, the quartz lock will over compensate in an unnatural manner (if you compared the same process to when the pitch fader was set at say +4%). So disabling this means that when the central light (at 0% if calibrated correctly) is on the motor acts in the exact same way as if it was at any other value on the fader. We all know how fine movements have to be to get perfect beatmatches, so this little bit of 'give' may make all the difference when we're mixing in a record at approximately the centre of the fader.

0% pitch : the turntable is calibrated in such a way that no matter what, the big dots look stationary once the pitch is centred. So over the years you might find there's 2 points on your fader where the big dots stay still. Cutting the orange wire means that wherever the big dots stay still is your 'true' 0%, so if you have it calibrated properly, this will be at the centre of the fader anyway, so there's no need to cut this wire if you only have the one 0% pitch (as this the true 0% and default 0% coincide at the same place, the centre).

I could be reading this completely wrong btw, I've only owned turntables since november, but this makes sense to me....

The only benefit to disengaging the quartz lock is the lack of calibration needed when a deck's zero point is after floating around.

I don't think the quartz lock causes any noticeable difference in platter reaction.
You could, however, attach a little push button switch to TP17 and turn your Mk2 into a Mk5...meh...

The "reset" button on a SL1210mk5

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