Why isTraktor becoming the standard for djing

[ze2be]

^^^lol
yeah thats what i meant...
i feel sooo old
skool

im 35, dont know if its old or young? In between perhaps.

was very young when I started experimenting with my Commodores DAW with built in sampler. 100.000 music hacker pirates co working on one audio chip? Loved it! The Sid chip still rocks!!

Oldskool is your education!

[ze2be]

Serato perhaps

will they only support pioneer, numark or denon controllers? hehehehe!

id like to use the new stanton controllers, system 3. THEY support Serato.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQxzhQbB ... r_embedded

btw, 4 decks on traktor pro could be 2 decks and 2 samplers.


what is moot?

[Da hand]

there was once a huge thread about Live vs. Traktor i explained detailed why i personally prefer Traktor... for DJ-ing

even 5 to 10 seconds for a warp are to long, if you like to work spontanious... in Traktor you can drop ANY track and beatmatch even nicely manually with a midi controller... in ableton you can't that good... in Traktor i can easy do a back to back with a guy who drops records... all with midi.
because of the way the pitch and pitch bend works in Traktor, i can even 'work beats in'
in Live you can only tap tempo and nudge a bit the whole system tempo, that's it... (that is much ruffer in result then a smooth pitchbend while you go into the 'open mix') in short.

and you need to have prepped all tracks you possibly want to play... nerve wrecking and not DJ-ing to me!

this discussion is again endless, use what suits YOU, LIve to me is the worse DJ application...

Ok, I just want to say that everyone is entitled to their way of working. Also, whatever works for one may not work for the other, so I am not debating what people should use. I am just trying to debunk some views about Ableton vs Traktor that some Traktor users seem to have.

I find it funny that people are dissing warping a track in Ableton when you have to "warp" a track in Traktor as well. When you load a track, Traktor calculates the bpm of the track and the sets up a grid to match it. Are you telling me that when you load your tracks into Traktor for the first time that they are ready to go within 0.001 seconds? It takes a few seconds for it to calculate the bpm and draw the waveform. This is the same time as warping a track in Ableton.

Also regarding preparation time for tracks, are you saying that you never save loops and cue points on your tracks in Traktor? That is the same thing as setting the start place of your clip in Ableton or separating your track into clips for beat jumps or loop points. Once you do it once - you never have to do it again. You can save your collection of clips as songs - and then you can then drag them into your live set at anytime - all ready for spontaneous action.

"i can even 'work beats in'"

<-- what does that mean in this context?

"in Traktor you can drop ANY track and beatmatch even nicely manually with a midi controller... in ableton you can't that good... in Traktor i can easy do a back to back with a guy who drops records... all with midi."

Not sure what the above means. I do tag teams and DJ myself between Ableton, Vinyl, CDs and instruments and there is no problem in beatmatching Ableton to other sources.

"and you need to have prepped all tracks you possibly want to play..."

Most DJs will not be coming to gig after gig full of tracks they never loaded into their software before - whether it is Traktor or Ableton. 99% of tracks will already have cue points and loops on them. Again, the prep amount is just as much in Ableton as you would do with Traktor.

Of course, if you don't bring the track with you, you cannot play it in either software.

[sacredgeometry]

"and you need to have prepped all tracks you possibly want to play..."

Most DJs will not be coming to gig after gig full of tracks they never loaded into their software before - whether it is Traktor or Ableton. 99% of tracks will already have cue points and loops on them. Again, the prep amount is just as much in Ableton as you would do with Traktor.

Of course, if you don't bring the track with you, you cannot play it in either software.

i completely agree

people have some silly reasons for their arguments and try to justify them as if other people have never used this software...most people here have experience in decks cd, vinyl or midi/controller/serato most of us have or do produce, im guessing we all use live ...we all have varying levels of experience and no age is not necesserilly a factor as the older you get the more you tend to become stuck in your ways and form the nasty habit of "this is how we do it/any other way is just not the right way"

the fact is the more and more we free ourselves from the bullshit like beatmatching the more free we are to play music on the fly...fair enough if your deal is mixing two tracks together fine but dont critise people because they want to do more than just stick to decks...in the end if you are manipulating the music in anyway past pressing play and stop at the beginning and end of the night you are doing somthing.

(i will say that if you are not really doing anything and just load live just to look like you are then you deserve to be laughed at )

[drewbixcube]

Most DJs will not be coming to gig after gig full of tracks they never loaded into their software before - whether it is Traktor or Ableton. 99% of tracks will already have cue points and loops on them. Again, the prep amount is just as much in Ableton as you would do with Traktor.

Of course, if you don't bring the track with you, you cannot play it in either software.

While I agree with this statement, it also emphasizes the main difference between Traktor and Live. With Traktor, it isn't necessary to prep your tracks in any way, not even the beat grid (though you'd be missing out on a lot of the functionality). In Live, there's absolutely no way around it, you have to warp.

It's this difference that makes Traktor a much more "traditional" DJ software, which is why I think a lot of DJs are drawn to it.

Picture this if you will: You're DJing at a house party. A buddy comes up to you with a hot track that you don't own. You desperately want to drop it in your set ASAP. You use Live and you have to warp first, fiddling with the mouse while trying to keep the music going at the same time. Or, you use Traktor, drop it on a deck, beatmatch old school style, mix it in right away, then drop cues on the fly and juggle those around a bit.

Yes, this scenario is somewhat specific, but the point is you don't have the same creative freedom DJing with Live as you do with Traktor. To me, Live is all about pre-planning... getting things set up the night before so you don't have to spend too much time mousing around Live's browser. With Traktor, it's much easier for me to just let the night happen.

[starving student]

^^^ perfect example man, just what I need to get my head around, I think folks are going
to really understand after Live and seratto come out with whatever they are doing which is probably trying to put traktor in a coffin, then peeps will be feeling akward saying live/serato is not as good as live for djing

[sacredgeometry]

With Traktor, it isn't necessary to prep your tracks in any way, not even the beat grid (though you'd be missing out on a lot of the functionality). In Live, there's absolutely no way around it, you have to warp.

i both agree and disagree with this....depending on the kind of music you are wanting to drop in makes this task easier than traktor or a nightmare situation.

most 4 to the floor beats are easy to map with two grid markers providing they have a constant tempo which most have.

[SubFunk]

No prep required in traktor whatsoever... Of course if you want you can prep cue points loops, etc
i don't i work spontanius like with records...

The calculations needed fo. Traktor happen once you start the app automatically to all tracks in your assigned folders and if you have thousends of tracks it conrinous in the background... And you can drop any track without any analyzing happen and beatmatch perfectly at any point... Basically the behaviour can be 1 to 1 like records... If you claim otherwise you simply don't know traktor very well...

And traktor does not auto beatgrid tracks, it's not necessary.

I think the problem is that most people only know how to use traktor with all that auto nonsense / pre prep because they think that is the only way tracks stay perfect in sync.

In ableton there is always prep needed, no option.

[SubFunk]

With Traktor, it isn't necessary to prep your tracks in any way, not even the beat grid (though you'd be missing out on a lot of the functionality). In Live, there's absolutely no way around it, you have to warp.

i both agree and disagree with this....depending on the kind of music you are wanting to drop in makes this task easier than traktor or a nightmare situation.

most 4 to the floor beats are easy to map with two grid markers providing they have a constant tempo which most have.

if it is a nightmare situation then you simply can't DJ, period.

[SubFunk]

To the above, sorry i missread, please ignore

[sacredgeometry]

To the above, sorry i missread, please ignore

haha its ok its early, no harm done

[Minimal Justice System]

From reading through this the only thing everyone seems to agree on is that there is no standard setup for DJ's.

Serato users like to scratch (Even when they don't have an itch)
Live users like to plan their set and get really creative (Not saying traktor or serato users don't just that Live is a better setup for it)
Traktor users like the no fuss approach with it's effects, loops and great library layout (on the fly Djing at its best)
Users of other systems have thier own reasons best known to them (Not dissing, just saying I've never investigated)

Yes we could do the same thing with all of these systems (with differing levels of difficulty) but the fact is we find one that suits what we want to do and use that. There is no reason we can't use more than one, I use both Traktor and Live as they both have a place in my sets along with CD's and on the very odd occasion Vinyl (When I can't get the track on MP3 or CD).

The only standard thing for a DJ to use is music which makes this discussion rather pointless?

[starving student]

does traktor do anything to your files are most of you using traktor with your main library or are you making copies and using that with traktor?

[SubFunk]

It does f-all to your audio files, i use my main library and on top if you let traktor do any of that auto analysing bpm, etc. or store cue points or loops it creates similar to a .als file a data file in a different folder, i like that more then ableton mixing my audio with data files, if i want to select just audio to move it or copy, i need to select manually every second file in ableton ... annoying.

[starving student]

thanks sub thats good news now seeing as I'm a new vci-100 owner/traktor user hows about you showing a little bi-partisanship and letting a little vinyl back into your life