Ableton Forum

Tarekith wrote:

beats me wrote:Was this also your introduction to the Traktor software? It sounds like some of your dislikes have to do with Traktor in general even without the controller (EQ, effects, gain) but I guess for your taste that might be incentive to use Traktor with an external DJ mixer. I haven't dug too deep into the effects section but from what I've seen they can be quite interesting and useful when you know how to stack them and map knobs to multiple controls sort of like Live's macro rack knobs.

A few months before the S4 came out I bought an Audio 4DJ, Kontrol X1, and Traktor Pro to use with my Xone62. The X1 impressed me enough that I was willing to give the S4 a chance.

The effects are so so only for me. They're either really plain like phasers and flangers, or too weird like Mulholland Drive. I normally keep them in chained mode, but then you're stuck controlling only the one parameter from each effect that NI thinks you should control. Meh, I'm spoiled on this front, I have dozens of custom Live racks for DJing that I was really happy with I guess.

Anyway, it's not a total knock on the S4 or a deal killer obviously, as I decided to keep it for now. It is fun to use, and I do like the all in one nature of it, combined with the ability to manually beatmatch if needed (or wanted). Live has a lot of faults for DJing too, so at the moment neither is a clear winner for me so I'll keep both.

beats me wrote: I respect other people's preferences but I'm not attracted to DJing with Live at all and effects usage isn't a big selling point for me. For me it's the ability to be the most spontaneous, manipulate and adjust audio in a way that is closer to traditional DJing, and I really like the ability of being able to create and adjust multiple cue and loop points quickly on the fly with a single file.

I go back to the time when I was fairly new to Traktor and was jamming with my friend who was using CDJs and has been DJing since long before CDJs. I was grabbing tracks and stacking and looping them like crazy with zero prep and a lot of tracks I didn't have deep intimate knowledge of and it just worked. My skilled friend was shuffling through his CD collection struggling to keep up and there's no way I would have been able to be as spontaneous if I was using Live.

Khazul wrote:

beats me wrote: I respect other people's preferences but I'm not attracted to DJing with Live at all and effects usage isn't a big selling point for me. For me it's the ability to be the most spontaneous, manipulate and adjust audio in a way that is closer to traditional DJing, and I really like the ability of being able to create and adjust multiple cue and loop points quickly on the fly with a single file.

I go back to the time when I was fairly new to Traktor and was jamming with my friend who was using CDJs and has been DJing since long before CDJs. I was grabbing tracks and stacking and looping them like crazy with zero prep and a lot of tracks I didn't have deep intimate knowledge of and it just worked. My skilled friend was shuffling through his CD collection struggling to keep up and there's no way I would have been able to be as spontaneous if I was using Live.

Thats when I enjoy with DJing the most - stuff that Ive barely even heard before never mind actually prepped and just doing whats comes on the fly

The only headache is when some arse sneaks in a 1/2 beat slip in their track on the buildup and you do this really nice mix that transitions beautifully to a total trainwreck

beats me wrote:

Khazul wrote:

beats me wrote: I respect other people's preferences but I'm not attracted to DJing with Live at all and effects usage isn't a big selling point for me. For me it's the ability to be the most spontaneous, manipulate and adjust audio in a way that is closer to traditional DJing, and I really like the ability of being able to create and adjust multiple cue and loop points quickly on the fly with a single file.

I go back to the time when I was fairly new to Traktor and was jamming with my friend who was using CDJs and has been DJing since long before CDJs. I was grabbing tracks and stacking and looping them like crazy with zero prep and a lot of tracks I didn't have deep intimate knowledge of and it just worked. My skilled friend was shuffling through his CD collection struggling to keep up and there's no way I would have been able to be as spontaneous if I was using Live.

Thats when I enjoy with DJing the most - stuff that Ive barely even heard before never mind actually prepped and just doing whats comes on the fly

The only headache is when some arse sneaks in a 1/2 beat slip in their track on the buildup and you do this really nice mix that transitions beautifully to a total trainwreck

Yeah, damn creative time changes.

I wouldn't recommend showing up to a gig with no plan or a plan to play a bunch of tracks you aren't too familiar with but it's comforting to know that if you're in a pinch good things can happen quickly.

Seriously, when I was jamming with my friend I'd leave a couple tracks looped and stacked and go out for a quick smoke break and when I got back he'd still be trying to figure out what he was going to play over it.

Khazul wrote:Maybe that future role of CD/vinyl die hards - to look busy while the 'real' DJ whos music is actually playing buggers off for a smoke/drink break

beats me wrote:This right here is pretty badass

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrNqFXnI ... r_embedded

Coupe70 wrote:And again I'm disappointed by NI, because they do not fix simple, but
annoying bugs in TPro 1 before releasing a paid upgrade which will
surely have loads of new bugs...

beats me wrote:

Coupe70 wrote:And again I'm disappointed by NI, because they do not fix simple, but
annoying bugs in TPro 1 before releasing a paid upgrade which will
surely have loads of new bugs...

Such as?