HOTCUES AND LOOPING

In this last section, you will get started with hotcues, which allow you to move swiftly between different positions in the track. Additionally, you will learn how to set and trigger loops.

DEFAULT HOTCUE

The first hotcue is always the beginning of the track. It is stored for you by default and is stored in the white-illuminated pad. Press the pad to get back to the start of the track playing.

SETTING AND TRIGGERING HOTCUES

Listen to the track for a bit to find another great point and hit an unlit pad to store a second hotcue. The pad turns blue to indicate a new hotcue. To trigger a hotcue, press a blue pad. The playback position jumps to the hotcue position in the track and continues playback. You can set several hotcues and play them by hitting the blue pads.

ENABLING A LOOP

To enable a loop at the current position in the track, press the LOOP encoder. To increase or decrease the loop length, turn the LOOP encoder. You can set the loop length to anything between 1/32 of a beat to 32 beats by turning the encoder.

STORING AN ACTIVE LOOP

Once you have activated a loop, you can store it so it’s ready to be triggered again later. To store an active loop, press any unlit pad. In case you ever want to delete your loop, just press SHIFT and the pad. You can now retrigger your loops by hitting the green pads.

NEXT STEPS

After working through this guide, you should now have a good overview of how to use your controller. However, there’s much more to TRAKTOR. If you want to learn, for example, how to use samples, play around with transport modes or scratch using the jog wheels, check out the resources below.
The reference manual is your go-to for a comprehensive feature documentation - it’s really all in there. Here you can find the manual for TRAKTOR KONTROL S2 and a dedicated one for the TRAKTOR PRO 3 software.
To find out how other DJs use TRAKTOR and incorporate it into their workflow, check out the NI Blog.
COMING SOON - a TRAKTOR PRO 3 tutorial video will help you to get the most out of the software that is accompanying your controller.