NI Traktor 3.0 (4 decks, integrated Beatport, etc...)

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 2:16 pm

Yep. Worked absolutely fine.

Drag ' n drop faders, knobs, buttons, switches, ball & joystick thingies... incredible!

No more scrolling through scenes to launch them. You can have multiple pages of buttons assigned to scenes, clips, anything you want, and labelled with the name of what they do!

You don't even need to see the Live screen if you've got this set up properly.

claudek · Post by **claudek** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 3:29 pm

Yukk..with that Beatport crap looks like a Dj digital advertisement.
UGLY and over bloated. Like to hear the simulated Allen & Heath mixer eq's though.

dCross · Post by **dCross** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 3:34 pm

hambone1 wrote:It's all about talent. The Live DJ who can rock the crowd with tracks they know but are enhanced with Live's capabilities that are outside of the scope of Traktor, will rule.

Eventually.

My opinion only.

First off, let me say that in principle, I agree with you. I wouldn't be spending all this time with Live if I weren't.

I've learned to have a healthy amount of skepticism regarding comments that attribute vast changes to technology, though. I think saying the "Ableton Live DJ will rule" is an example of that. Props to Ableton, but I strongly doubt this will ever happen. The entire face of DJing would have to change for this to occur, and Ableton can't do it on its own.

In my opinion, it distills to one point:
The perceivable difference between the Ableton Live DJ and the bread-and-butter DJ is not significant enough for dancers and club owners to care.

Beyond the initial gimmick factor, there's little reason for a dancer to choose one playback method over another. These people will continue to be apathetic until somebody does something truly creative with Live DJing, something that transcends traditional DJing, yet is understandable to the masses. Whether this will ever happen is a mystery to me.

In addition, even if Live helps to solve problems and enhance creativity within the craft, there isn't much wrong with the existing DJ world. Currently, the only people excited about Live are the forward-thinking DJs. The club owners and sound guys just see it as a hassle, the chore of setting up additional space for a DJ when there's a perfectly usable DJ booth in the club.

This isn't to say that putting the time and effort into DJing with Live is a waste, but surely it's more of an uphill battle that you make it out to be. Having "star" power to control riders and press releases helps significantly, but that isn't an option for most of us.

Just my 2 cents.

hambone1 · Post by **hambone1** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 4:07 pm

drc24 wrote:In my opinion, it distills to one point:
The perceivable difference between the Ableton Live DJ and the bread-and-butter DJ is not significant enough for dancers and club owners to care.

I disagree. It's about more than just the music.

I personally choose to lead and not just follow the masses. I sequence and control scanners, washes, floods, strobes and VJ two large projector screens from Live, as well as playing percussion and DJing the music.

It DOES make a difference.

kabuki · Post by **kabuki** » Wed Sep 21, 2005 4:35 pm

Ehem, back to Tractor: Not THAT impressed. I've used it (V2) and I HATE the beat synch method they use. WONKY. 4 Decks? STILL limited. Beatport browser: I think it is good that beatport will have the increase traffic, cus then more labels will use Beatport to sell choons, so that I can buy them and use them in Live... The AnH Mixer... eh. If it models the Preamps: cool. Otherwise, Live has them trumped.

I think that they are answering the call to Live's MP3 support/DJ usability in the new version, but they have a LONG way to go to really compete.

GK · Post by GK » Wed Sep 21, 2005 5:10 pm

I think the most clever comment was that

' a dj-version of Live , will own the market. '

And since we have [inevitably] a traktor/live debate ,lets see the facts:

1.Noone doubts the bugless-solid as a rock-professionaly looking-with lots and lots of extra possibilities of Live.
2.Noone doubts that traktor is a lot easier to use.
[a]Beatgrids get setup within a matter of seconds.Warp markers require more time.
With traktor you can just load and play , mixing with the auto-detection of the bpm and beats/highs...With Live you should have everything ready.Or you should warpmark every track you have/get/buy/d/l
[c]To be able to actually take advantage of the many many functions of Live,you really need a controller/ext mixer. With traktor this ain't obligatory.

So , from my point of view , two different tools.

If Live,comes up with a new [FASTER,EASIER]way of beatmapping , then we have a winner,
and again , if Traktor comes up with a BUGLESS-crash-free piece of code, with a more accurate beatgrid/detect function , .. etc.