If you're just mixing songs the traditional way, and you're using Traktor Pro, don't bother beatgridding your tracks. 99.9% of the time, it nails it. If you're doing juggling or more advanced techniques, it becomes a little more important.

Loops are nearly always flawless.

Keep a backup of your collection at all times. Especially if you integrate with iTunes. On my Mac, I run a Time Machine backup before doing anything significant (like a software update).

Mixing with an external mixer is more fun and responsive.

If you typically let Traktor sync your tracks, but you play with other DJs, make sure you have some way to adjust the pitch manually in order to beatmatch the traditional way (such as when starting after another DJ). Map a slider on your MIDI controller (mouse works in a pinch).

The effects in Traktor Pro are actually really good. Don't overuse them.

It's really handy to map a combined lowpass/highpass filter to a single knob for each channel. (Turn to left for lowpass, turn to right for highpass).

If Traktor detects tempo at half or double BPM of what it should be, hit the x2 or /2 button to correct.

I like setting mine up so that I hit a button and it switches to the full browser view when I'm selecting tracks, since screen real-estate is limited (especially with 4-deck mixing).

Just a few things off the top of my head.

^well done!

amazing ! thanks a lot mate

quote:

Originally posted by david.michael The effects in Traktor Pro are actually really good. Don't overuse them.

I'm not overly impressed with them TBH. When I used to use Ableton, the only effect I ever really used was ping-pong delay, and I find this pretty hard to replicate in Traktor!

I think that particularly for trance you have to play around with the effects a lot before you find good uses for them. I also feel that the effects were really designed to be layered on top of each other. Here are some of the more effective things I've found.

When your using chained mode always have some sort of filter in there. For instance a filter can really spice up the regular old beatmasher buildup.

The beatslicer is perfect for vocals. With the first FX button on you get a gating effect, and the second button changes how many measures. Try sampling a section where the vocalist holds a note, and use wet/dry to layer it over another section of the song where they aren't singing.

A well placed reverse grain at the end of the measure can spice up an otherwise boring loop. Same with turntablefx.

Effects can make layering another track over top work in places it usually wouldn't. For instance you could just bring in another track with drums, and use a filter to add some buildup to a track.

Or instead of another track it could just be something as simple as white noise. Add the right filters and you have an instant sweep.

Effects can make scratches more interesting too. The gater is an effective transformer. Add some reverb over top of it to make the sound more full, or any other effect for that matter to make it more interesting. I never found scratching very useful in trance until I started doing this.

quote:

Originally posted by david.michael If you're just mixing songs the traditional way, and you're using Traktor Pro, don't bother beatgridding your tracks. 99.9% of the time, it nails it. If you're doing juggling or more advanced techniques, it becomes a little more important. Loops are nearly always flawless. Keep a backup of your collection at all times. Especially if you integrate with iTunes. On my Mac, I run a Time Machine backup before doing anything significant (like a software update). Mixing with an external mixer is more fun and responsive. If you typically let Traktor sync your tracks, but you play with other DJs, make sure you have some way to adjust the pitch manually in order to beatmatch the traditional way (such as when starting after another DJ). Map a slider on your MIDI controller (mouse works in a pinch). The effects in Traktor Pro are actually really good. Don't overuse them. It's really handy to map a combined lowpass/highpass filter to a single knob for each channel. (Turn to left for lowpass, turn to right for highpass). If Traktor detects tempo at half or double BPM of what it should be, hit the x2 or /2 button to correct. I like setting mine up so that I hit a button and it switches to the full browser view when I'm selecting tracks, since screen real-estate is limited (especially with 4-deck mixing). Just a few things off the top of my head.

Good words.

Have you managed to set up a combined low/highpass filter without a MIDI translator then? Ideally you'd want it on an absolute rotary but I couldn't work out a way to split the range... I guess it might be doable on a relative/infinite rotary, but that would be a bit odd after I'm so used to filters on the Xone mixers etc!


What I would add, which you've sort of implied in some of the things that you've said, is that you get 1000000x more control if you can learn to program your MIDI map yourself. It can be seriously time consuming and confusing, but when you get there it's worth it. With correctly set up modifiers, you can fit loads more functionality into your MIDI controller than the basic maps and really tailor it to how you want to work.

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Stu Cox |