What's a DFA button?

Bass player Leland "Lee" Sklarhas this switch on his bass called the “producer switch”, when a producer asked “could you alter the tone of your bass just a bit” he would flip this switch which does absolute nothing, it’s not connected to the circuit, and it works every time.

In college we were taught how to look like you were turning an eq knob without changing the position for this reason 😂

I have co-workers with keyboards where all the buttons are DFA buttons !!!

All the Instagram djs must have 50 DFA sliders and pots on their mixers 😂

I knew a recording engineer that was the master of this. He’d adjust the volume by just a touch or add a reverb. Just something that would make the artist want to switch back.

GNDN pipes in Star Trek - "Goes Nowhere, Does Nothing,"

A variation of this happens in software where you'll intentionally add something like a button slightly out of place before an internal demo so that when you ask for feedback, the bosses all say "yeah that one button needs to be moved over" and that way they feel like they contributed without them actually messing anything up.

I was a live music sound engineer and often had to do pretend adjustments. Usually it was the lead guitarist being fooled.

as a former musician: we’re not usually fooled, we just realize this engineer can’t help us

How much of the satisfaction is “This guy did nothing 3 times in a row. I can’t be bothered to continue this nonsense so I’ll just put up with it” vs actual comfort?

I also use the TAB button, "there and back" for colour grading. Add a bit of yellow, it's wrong, bring it back to what it was. 👌 perfect! Add intermediary steps if needed

I'm a musician and producer and I don't really do this trick because you can tell the difference between doing something over doing nothing. It's better to say "sorry, if I raise it up more it will distort and not have enough headroom"

Or maybe they stop asking because they lose faith in the possibility of a change Either cuz the one they are talking too seem to not understand or because they feel that they have created enough inconvenience and it's not that big of a deal anyway

It’s like when someone says the food lacks a pinch of salt and you pretend to salt it. After that they say it’s perfect without having done anything 😂

Same as the close door button in the elevator. I’m convinced that it’s a placebo. That shit doesn’t close any faster once you press it but you feel better.

In fashion there's a thing called a "Parisian refit" or a "French alteration" (the name changes slightly depending on where you are). You go over with a needle and thread, you do nothing at all. Then ask if it's better. They always say yes.

if i asked someone to change something and i watched them change a diel or button... i would think ok its still the same nothing changed ! but they are clearly trying to do something and its not working so i guess they cant change it so i would give up asking them to try. almost like weaponized incompetence.

The EMS Synthi 100 synthesizer at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop had one. A producer would sit in on a project and say "It's not quite right". The composer would point out a knob and say "Just turn that gently until it sounds right to you."

I don’t know man… I think they notice it ain’t improving but just get sick of dealing with it (him/her) so just say yeah all good thanks 😅

I had a producer do this to me. I told him to turn me up in the mix. Nothin. I asked again. Nothin. I asked a third time, “hey, man I can’t hear myself.” And then boom I physically heard the open note I had ringing fade in. It’s actually just really annoying when you’re trying to get something done and the producer doesn’t listen because “they know all”. Producers can actually be the worst sometimes.