Is anyone's laptop good enough for key lock in all situations?
 

I run Traktor Pro 2.1.2 on my MacBook Air 2.13 GHz Core 2 Duo. Not the fastest out there, but meeting the minimum requirements.

The CPU runs pretty cool for the most part, but gets pretty hot when (1) tempo shifting between -86% and -76% (2) with key lock (HQ/Normal mode) on. The good news is that it's not quite enough to introduce any audio drop outs or any overload related artifacts that I can tell of. But the bad news is, when I scrub a track to prep for the next mix, it almost always generates a glitch or audio dropout in the sound playing out - usually the other deck. I'm pretty sure this is related to the CPU spike when pitching down a lot, because scrubbing often makes Traktor key lock at a very slow speed.

So, my question is, does anyone's laptop - I mean if the specs are high enough - work just fine with the key lock (HQ/Normal mode) regardless of the playback speed?

If the majority is having a problem here, I thought it would be something for NI to consider addressing.

Surely, there is the "scratch mode" that forfeits key locking at around -30%. Perhaps this is established as kind of a mean-point geared towards the needs of Scratch users that most definitely want the pitch to change when they change the rotation speed of the vinyl via scratching.

Not that great as a CPU-saver for non-scratchers though... If one pitches down big time with key lock on, he's usually expecting the time stretching effect that "normal mode" offers -and even does so without necessarily dropping out (sorry this is based just on my laptop). And even if to prioritize stable audio over the desired effect, -30% is way too early to give up. I bet most laptops can push it a lot further.

Given that scratch users are satisfied with the scratch mode, I propose both of the following for the non-scratch users.

(1)Adjustable safe mode. Disables Key lock at pitch fader % values the user can specify.

assuming that might be a hassle...

(2)Active mode. Disables Key lock when neither playing or cueing.

I actually did a workaround to get (2). I just mapped key lock to hold with my cue button, and toggle on/off with my play button. Easily done for the mappers, but perhaps good to have as a configuration option too?

You never want to just meet the min. Requirements.

How much ram do you have and what OS are you running?

4GB, Lion, and my laptop is not just meeting the minimum requirement (which is simply "core duo") at all - but you're missing the point.

Just to be sure, I am not complaining nor asking for a personal advice here.

I am asking how higher spec laptops handle key-lock in the specific situations I wrote.
And that's the question part.

The other part is sharing some observations, and suggesting a workaround for anyone who's having the same issue as I am.

I just got a brand new MBP 2.8 i7 with Lion and it came standard with 4gb ram. It ran slower than anything I ever owned. Lion eats up a lot of ram. I put in 8GB and its smoother than ever.

No I am not missing the point. You don't have enough memory. Download a system monitor in the app store and watch all your memory disappear.

Hi BryonStout,

Thanks for the advice, but unfortunately I don't own a MacBook Pro so I wouldn't know the benefit of having more RAM on it. There are only two choices with MBA (2 or 4). My MacBook Air isn't sluggish at all, by the way. Could be that MBA handles RAM quite different from some other models due to its SSD.

I did download a system monitor but, the memory didn't disappear at all. Safari used a lot of memory, but I don't run Safari when I DJ. And Traktor used around 10% of the what-little-memory I had, regardless of how much available memory there was, or how hard I was pushing the software.

It's really generous of you to try to help me out but please understand this, I am not after advice to fix my issues personally. If my spec is too low to handle key lock at -75% but yours is not, great! I will still DJ with my MacBook Air, knowing that it has its limitations, and I will be happy for you and others that share similar specs to yours for having one less limitation.

What I am more interested in is that you seem to have started two threads with symptoms that sound very much like what I am talking about here.

http://www.native-instruments.com/fo...d.php?t=109590
http://www.native-instruments.com/fo...d.php?t=143500

These two threads have never reached a conclusion. Why not we pick up the venture here and get to the bottom of all this?

Did you try DiscoNova's suggestion to try HiQ/Scratch?

Or did buying the brand new 2.8/i7/8GB make it go away?

This could be really helpful, because a lot of the glitch/pop/drop-out reports are coming from DVS users, who are more likely, however the degree, to scrub the audio.

- It could be that a good portion of pop/drop-outs could be avoided simply by checking their key-lock mode.

- If surpassing a certain CPU level conquers this issue, it is great information to be shared.

- Beyond that, it can be discussed whether a good portion of users could benefit from alternative options in the key-lock modes.

Cheers, and for those of you who saw the pre-editied version, the current way of putting it is a lot more true to what I really want to say.

i would expect all kinds of issues with such a hardcore pitch! :eek:
key lock IS very ressource hungry, also i dont think it sounds very good if pitched so hard.

exactly that's the reason.

Wow, really keylock?
I have glitches and all sorts of troubles using any hiQ setting for sure
I agree it would be nice to hear if this is remedied by a better laptop or a mac or remedied at all.
Maybe a kelock toggle mapping for when scratching or jogpush at all would work?
But really I can't seem to hear much difference when HiQ is selected anyway, but then again maybe it is just the slower cpu I have?

Also I was told by a very computer savvy fellow, that a duo-core is not a multi-core computer, that to take advantage of any process with multi-core capabilities I need a quad core and such.

Really since that option was introduced to Traktor i think there needs to be abetter explanation of what is required to use it?

I hav not checked the manual though, maybe NI updated it.

Away from the point of this thread i am, Does HiQ work for anyone? And system specs please?

I have an i5 Sandy Bridge, 6 GB RAM and I don't really have any issues, as long as I disable my network card, and disable my anti-virus.

If I have anti-virus on it's bad, and if I have my network card enabled, every 20 seconds there's a stutter.

Outside of that no problems, other than the fact that the control records attract a ton of dust, which makes me have to clean the needles after every few tracks.

I do mix some hip hop tracks where the pitch is at +7% and the other track is at -7% or so, and the vocals actually sound pretty good. I don't do this often but for certain tracks it can sound decent.

So really no issues with the HiQ keylock. It's a great feature.

I run keylock on both decks at all times, never turn in off. specs in sig.

I use highest quality key lock, but only use up to 20% pitch adjust. The only glitching I get is occasionally when I'm running Nicecast to broadcast whilst running traktor. This is only a short stopping of the wave display, nothing audible.
Bearing in mind that I'll have Safari running for the Radio station's Shout-box, its handling things quite well. I'm not a heavy user of effects, but don't notice any additional glitching when using a delay or filters.

HTH :cool:

Hi, thank you all very much for your replies!

>DJ Freshfluke
Yeah. It's pretty hard core. But It does play, nonetheless, without any glitches when just playing. I don't think it sounds good in the way we discuss how certain tracks "sound good". I would never turn down the pitch down that much to play the whole track but sometimes it sound good with a loop. Have you ever heard fat boy slim's earlier tracks? At any rate, what I am saying is that my very limited laptop is capable of hardcore pitch shifting except from when "scrubbing". So, I wanted to hear how others are doing.

>zephry
hey comrade! If you are having glitches without the described hardcore usage of key locking, your specs might not be good enough for the software. If your hardware is above the "minimum requirements" you should be complaining at Native Instrument. Your suggestion is a good one too, I think, the key lock could be mapped to disengage when "jog is touched". This doesn't work for the Vinyl users, though. That's why they introduced the "scratch mode", I think.

And away from the point of this thread, yes, my laptop is okay with HiQ, except when scrubbing. 2.16 GHz MBA core 2 duo 4GB RAM 256GB SSD OSX Lion.


>Magnetite
Hi! Thanks for answering zephyr's question, but how about the original post? Would you be kind enough to "scrub" deck A at various speeds while playing out deck B? And tell me what you hear?


>djmgj
Hi! Thanks very much for commenting! I am glad you can always keep it on! But please be a bit kinder and comment specifically on the "situations I wrote". That is, please run deck A and scrub on deck B at various speeds and share what you heard/saw. (CPU meter, glitches, etc...)
---
>bossysimon
Hi! Thank you so much for commenting! Great info!

Please don't be offended, it's my fault for naming the thread as I did. What I want to know is how everyone's laptops handle the situation I wrote in the original post.

Namely

(1) Playback with pitch shift between -75% ~ -85% and key lock HiQ/Normal on

and

(2) Scrubbing Deck B while playing Deck A. (Please listen carefully! Small audio drop outs are sometimes ignorable)

Thank you!

With 2.0.3 i never have any glitches/spikes/etc, and i am constantly working my system heavily. Always running effects, samples, EXTREME tempo adjustments(mixing moombahcore w/ dnb w/ 4X4), HEAVY scratching, etc.

Altho with 2.1+ i get CPU spikes so i dont even bother using it. I havent even given it the chance to test it out thoroughly since im not gonna risk a mishap just for the sample keylock(i play live alot).

Hope this helps.

>djmgj
Thanks for following up! I guess we can conclude that with your specs it's likely to get CPU spikes in 2.1+.
HP DV6 - 1.7G QUAD CORE - 8G RAM - 640HD

We're making some progress here, I think.

Anyone with 2.1.2 willing to run the tests?

Thanks again, djmgj.

Just a couple of thoughts here.

When and why do I need HiQ keylock?

And as far as scratching (at least on a controller not timecode, sorry) I have been informed that snap and quantize are an abnormal setting.( this may be some of the problem with keylock?)

I also have noticed in other dj software that the pitch range settings effect cpu load as well, maybe a lower pitch range with hiQ keylock might respond differently?
This is all speculation, but things I have run into outside of Traktor.

yeah, as an artistic effect it can be quite cool, i agree :)

i have to admit i dont do so hard pitches i would have to try how my laptop performs, but i imagine, not soooo well. (it's 4yrs old)

yep, that should be possible.
nope, the scratch mode just leaves you doing natural sounding pitches. you can use that with jog wheels too, btw.