The new Traktor Pro

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:15 am

I think its excellent! From a DJs point of view, this seems like a far better option to Live...

I have been Dj'ing with Live for a few years now, but the current version of Traktor is very tempting for DJs like me, its user interface which is MUCH more conducive to Dj'in in a night club.

I'm tired of having to struggle to read file names and locate tracks in Live.... i think Ableton need to take a cue from them and offer a different interface which would suit Djs better... maybe a different version of Live, targetted at Djs?

I use Live to produce as well, and its great for that, no doubt... but from a performance/dj'ing point of view, its current interface is becoming a challenge...

What do you guys think?

Tarekith · Post by **Tarekith** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:21 am

I think is the Ableton forum and the answers you will obviously be biased towards Ableton.

For sure there's room for improvement in Live, but nothing in the new Traktor really makes me want to switch apps.

j2j · Post by **j2j** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:24 am

I own traktor.....

The two programs, live and traktor..... r so different.

Traktor is basically, built on what it is to dj.... it is the computer version of turntables....

With Ableton, you can actually produce your own original music live.

That is the direction ableton needs to go in. Not targeted at dj's... but at producers who want to put out all original material, in a live situation.....

I'm going to upgrade to the new Traktor, but you can't really compare ableton and traktor.....

two, totally different tools.......

roby · Post by **roby** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 6:38 am

looking at the new traktor pro videos, i can see the new effects are pretty rad. for a bit i thought the would have included VST support and i was hoping they didn't... and i'm glad they didn't (hides)..
for those of us familiar with traktor, what in the hell were they thinking when they removed the native mix recorder?!?!?!? really? com'on!!

i'm not sure i'll be upgrading to pro any time soon, but traktor is an awesome application.

8O · Post by 8O » Sun Oct 19, 2008 7:58 am

Exactly what j2j said! But I didn't know there was a new Traktor - damn it, there goes my money! Luckily the Traktor Pro microsite won't open for me under firefox on mac - anyone else the same?

teejay · Post by **teejay** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:05 am

I havent tested the new version, but i'm sure version 3 has native mix recording.

As you guys have stated, Live is great for what it does. My issue is that this ONE interface for Producers, Live performers and DJs is starting to show its age.

Djs of today want Live's functionality with an interface thats more suited to Dj'in and thats exactly what Traktor have done so kudos to them for that.

Atomikat · Post by **Atomikat** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 8:14 am

I have Traktor and never use it... Live is all I need to play live. Here... where I'm living now,everybody use Traktor or virtual Dj, or Final scratch...I'm the only one who uses Live...so...this kind of "uniqueness" makes me feel fine

oh...and I found I'm also the only one who owns a full version (purchased). Got to live with cracks all around.

musick · Post by **musick** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 11:58 am

This will solve the limitations of Live DJing I guess

http://www.serato.com/news/id/2233/
http://www.ableton.com/serato-partnership

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:12 pm

teejay wrote:I think its excellent! From a DJs point of view, this seems like a far better option to Live...

I have been Dj'ing with Live for a few years now, but the current version of Traktor is very tempting for DJs like me, its user interface which is MUCH more conducive to Dj'in in a night club.

Buy Traktor then, problem solved, right?

Not saying that to over-simplify and definitely not trying to come off as snarky, but if you think about it there really is no reason why you can't use both. Think of it as an investment in your career or hobby, whichever the case may be. I also DJ but I use Serato for DJing and Live for everything else.

I don't think Live needs to emulate Traktor, but I do think that Live has definitely lost its focus a bit, starting around version 4 or 5, and really needs to edge back towards its "Live" performance roots and stop trying to focus on being a DAW. This would obviously benefit the DJ's using Live as well, so maybe in that sense we agree.

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:14 pm

musick wrote:This will solve the limitations of Live DJing I guess

http://www.serato.com/news/id/2233/
http://www.ableton.com/serato-partnership

That's pretty cool.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:14 pm

traktor and live are totally different things, very different... i love both and use both...

and yes looking forward to traktor pro, being a heavy traktor3 user.

one thing i would love to see in ableton is to specialise like traktor...

traktor is for DJ-ing, nothing else, period. that makes it sooo good.

live should be for live performance of your self created music, not another DAW or a classic dj tool. (traktor totally blows it in that area anyway)

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:18 pm

smutek wrote:
musick wrote:This will solve the limitations of Live DJing I guess

http://www.serato.com/news/id/2233/
http://www.ableton.com/serato-partnership
That's pretty cool.

i think it's a bad move, serato...? com' on ableton why working with useless companies together?

AAS, cycling... those are smart moves... but serato, jeez they are far away from even getting close to NI (traktor being the apps)

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:21 pm

SubFunk wrote:
traktor is for DJ-ing, nothing else, period. that makes it sooo good.

live should be for live performance of your self created music, not another DAW or a classic dj tool.

Exactly. That's really how Live started. It still excels at what it does IMO, but imagine where it might be right now if the majority of whatever focus that had been put on DAW features had been instead channeled into Live performance innovation.

You know, I'm not saying completely abandon the DAW side, tit's certainly good to have a way to record and arrange your tracks, but once you get to a certain point kick it over to Logic, or Cubase, or whatever you use for that stuff. The primary effort should be on performance, not arrangement IMHO.

Hell, I favor video development over the DAW stuff, as long as it applies to performance I think it is cool.

SubFunk · Post by **SubFunk** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:29 pm

smutek wrote:
SubFunk wrote:
traktor is for DJ-ing, nothing else, period. that makes it sooo good.

live should be for live performance of your self created music, not another DAW or a classic dj tool.
Exactly. That's really how Live started. It still excels at what it does IMO, but imagine where it might be right now if the majority of whatever focus that had been put on DAW features had been instead channeled into Live performance innovation.

You know, I'm not saying completely abandon the DAW side, tit's certainly good to have a way to record and arrange your tracks, but once you get to a certain point kick it over to Logic, or Cubase, or whatever you use for that stuff. The primary effort should be on performance, not arrangement IMHO.

Hell, I favor video development over the DAW stuff, as long as it applies to performance I think it is cool.

of course not kicking entirely the daw side...

but yes i think / feel that ableton lost direction... they started of like, wow... finally there is something that turns a computer into an electronic instrument... YEAH!

and then people realised that you can also use it for dj-ing (poorly, IMHO) and for producing in the studio... (VERY COOL, IMHO) and ableton tried to catch / focus onto those "side effects" of the apps. not a good move IMHO, because i thing concentrating on making live an apps which turns the comp into an instrument will always carry those "side effects" that is all we need for everything else... there is perfect stuff out there...

one more example to explain what i mean...

imagine a lot of people would realise that you can actually use traktor with 4 decks to stick loops and samples into it and record an arrangement on the fly... with effects and all, hence creating a track... what a cool and different way... of creation...

do you believe NI would go... oh wow, now we have to build a lot of stuff into Traktor so people can create even better tracks that way...

and produce the 100.000.000s DAW ???? i don't think so...

because they are clear what the apps is actually all about.

ableton find back your direction... TURN THE LAPTOP INTO A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. no one does it, and that is what we need!!!!

not another there are already hundreds to choose from apps.

serato, hey!?!

smutek · Post by **smutek** » Sun Oct 19, 2008 12:33 pm

SubFunk wrote:
AAS, cycling... those are smart moves... but serato, jeez they are far away from even getting close to NI (traktor being the apps)

I'm not sure I agree with you here but I think this comes down to a matter of personal preference.

I own traktor as well, but I jumped off at version 2.5 and bought Serato. Traktor is certainly feature rich, and admittedly the current offering is definitely enticing, but the thing a lot of people (myself included) like about Serato is that it does one thing and does it well.

It allows me to take advantage of digital media while still perfectly emulating a traditional setup. It's rock solid and light on the CPU. I learned how to DJ on turntables and this is what I did for my first 5 years DJing. Then about 4 years back I spent about 2 years on traktor Djing with a computer and a mixer only. In the end I found this solution wasn't for me and for the last 2 I've been on Serato and have been really happy with it.

One can easily argue that only 2 decks and the omission of a lot of other features and effects makes it a weaker choice, but for some those are precisely its strengths.

The new Traktor Pro

The new Traktor Pro

Re: The new Traktor Pro