Announcing: Traktor Pro 3

Hello NI Team,


THANK YOU for listening to your user base and updating Traktor to finally have parallel waveforms. Your team is now being looked at seriously in the open format market as a major contender to Serato. Despite (in my opinion) Traktor being more stable than Serato, having less issues with direct mixer connectivity, and having much better timecode, there are still DJs who will not switch over from Serato to Traktor because it still appears complex. I have spoken with many DJs in my market (Miami), as well as other DJs in Texas, Indiana, and New York about this update; they gave me some feedback as to what they would like to see to be able to convert over to Traktor. With the feedback I received, I would like to help and contribute to the NI team as well as other DJs here who have long awaited parallel waveforms with a render which I just made not too long ago (see attached file).

Once again, thank you to the NI team and I look forward to future updates

 

Having worked on the Tractor Pro 3 since its release, today opened Tractor Pro 2, and... Oh my God, it looks like an app from the 90's! Felt like back in Windows 95))

 

I totally support this!!! I'm a DJ based in South Africa & the image does fit what some DJ's would want to have. switching from a Parallel View to a Horizontal View. Although also other DJ's might feel that the layout may feel a bit more cluttered ( speaking out in general ) it's really up to the DJ's to customize their layout to fit their layout style.

Just hoping NI is busy working on a Video Plug-In. It'll be quite the game changer.......

 

Happy to hear that you like it!
Thanks for contributing and the nice draft of the vertical layout

 

@ Fabian I’m sorry but I strongly disagree with that vertical layout mock-up. I don’t want Traktor to become another Serato wannabe just gain back market share. The main focus for Traktor should be to stay true to its roots, which are house and techno.

Sorry for being harsh, but the past six month have been a big waste of resources. So much effort to add parallel waveforms and you can’t get a solid, stable, crash-free release. Oh and on top of that the Keylock algorithm is still broken. All the DJs I know are NOT using Traktor “Pro” 3 at the club.

Please NI, work the issue with Zynaptiq ASAP and fix the damn crashes.

 

hey brian, thannks for your opinion. Right now there is no plan to implement vertical waveforms but i'm always up for discussing new ideas.
Keep in mind we are developing Traktor for many different users with different needs.
So unfortunately in fact with each feature decision we always make some users happy but some others unhappy.

I'm personally happy that most of the users don't think Traktor 3.x was a waste of resources
If it didn't get the features you need, i'm sorry. Staying with Traktor Pro 2 might be an option for you then.

We are aware of the issues you mentioned and we are working on fixing them.
I would suggest to use dedicated threads or even better our support forum to discuss them:
https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200318681-Traktor

 

Hi Fabian, thank you for letting me know you guys are working on it. It’s refreshing to see NI engaging again with the user base.

I absolutely love Traktor but for now I think I’ll stay on version 2. Stability and sound quality are not things I’m willing to compromise.

Hopefully the critical issues will be resolved in the next 3-4 months.

 

Anything on XDJ 1000 MK2 HID since some of u from NI are responding ?

 

hey MichaelKMusic, sorry no news here so far...

 

Thanks for the reply I do have to say that last year when Friedemann said that we can be quite confident in integration by the end of the year 2018. I was very optimistic but as it goes with NI Optimism is non existent. U know what you are the first reply on the subject since Friedemann made that announcement back in June of last year. I just don’t understand why it took so long for anyone from NI to say anything it blows my mind lol.

 

I see, actually i also think we should improve our communication to the users and i'm working on it while typing
Only downside is that this time is removed from development time but we just need to find a good balance.

 

I fully agree more communication is key for happiness If features come out or not it’s nice to get a voice once in a while with either a yes or no. And I am fine with that it’s just when no one replies it’s very frustrating especially on such a hot topic like the XDJ 1000 MK2 thread.

 

Personally, I love 3 so far and have been playing out on it since October. I use a Mid 2011 MBP with 4 GB ram and a 256 ssd along with an external fireware and have no issues. I didn't do the recent update yet so I cannot speak to the challenges that people had. I plan to update this weekend and make sure things are stable before taking it to play out. Not having to hack 2 to get a non-approved mixer was worth the upgrade cost alone. Being able to use a RANE mixer on Traktor with no hacks = DOPE. The new mixer adjustments in the software so that you can bypass the software's limiters or finetune the software to use it only on master and not the channels, this is the sort of pro-level focus on the sound that I wish other software had. In the US there are not too many people that play out with Traktor period, so I cannot speak to 2 vs. 3 and how many people use one vs. the other. What I can say though is that being able to plug into any mixer should be at the top of the marketing push for the US markets. There are so many DJs that gripe about mixer changeouts, etc and always rider issues. If there were scripts that would configure the audio and midi for RANE 72, DJM S9, and RANE 62 the same way that Traktor does for the Z2 with quick videos that show how to do it, how easy it would be to move from one mixer to another, etc. this would go along way towards grabbing U.S. DJ's attention. Even better if the process could be streamlined for the mixers with the largest market share. Bonus points would be to get Traktor on the screen of the RANE 72. From there just move through the other mixers that have a decent market share in the US. Another low hanging fruit would be to make an audio configuration file for the RANE 57 (assuming Traktor could support a USB 1 connection), there are still so many of those around and if NI showed that there is a way to resurrect them... this is an easy sell. I like the look of the vertical layout and think it would be cool to have more layout options, basically the same way you can dial in your midi settings but with display settings would be dope.

 

I love TP 3 BUT since 3.0.2, there is break to the link of Buttons Cue Mix and Cue Vol S5 with soft buttons Mix and Vol on screen Traktor !
This link It's necessary to use "Cue" with an external sound card :-(
Before I have use this function with all version of Traktor with S5.
But since 3.0.2, it's not possible to use this function ! Why ? NI don't like another sound card that NI ???
Also, now I must stay with 3.0.1.14 (the link is good with this version), I'm sad about this....

 

DJJL right now i'm not sure if thats intended behaviour, would suggest to report this to the support forum:
https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/community/topics/200318681-Traktor

 

Thank Fabian.
I have made a post about this there is few day to the support NI.
But It's hard for support NI to understand that it's a bug !....
Today, no answer

You can see my post there (it's in french) :
https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/fr/community/posts/360005091657/comments/360000495617
I add 2 vidéo (links dropbox) to show the bug
1) TP 3.1.1 with bug where the Cue link S5 > TP is break
2) TP 3.0.1.14 where the Cue link S5 > TP is ok

 

I see your point Fabian. I personally just get confused on NI's direction on this topic several times. For example:

 

Well, staying true to it's roots didn't go that well? I really can't wrap my head around this 'keep it real' bull****. I get it, you don't want visual aids or whatever, but nobody forces you to use them. I've never used a sync button in my life, but I ain't complaining to all the techno heads to keep it real...
(IMO, vertical wave forms are a way better use of screen real estate on a 13" screen than horizontal.) But I agree, putting time and effort into such a minor detail is a bit of a waste of resources....

I have zero issues running on Windows 10. Haven't used Traktor in years in a live environment (or in any environment for that matter), but now I've done two 6 hour sets without a single glitch. After installing Traktor Pro 3, I don't get eye cancer from that hideous Traktor layout, which is a reason enough to upgrade.

Looking at all the turntablist videos out there, with so many DJs still rocking the Z2, I hope NI pays attention and rolls out worthy successor to it at some point in the near future...

 

Your opinion is respected and I know a couple of Techno DJs that actually prefer Traktor 3 (without the parallel layout) over the previous version. I'm not going to pretend that I know your market, where it is located, and the people that you network with, however, I can tell you that in the overall market, the Open Format dj is far outpacing any other DJ. Let me give you an example from my city, Miami.

2004-2012, the market here was BOOMING in house & techno. Clubs like Space, LIV, Story, Mansion, and Basement (to name a few), were booking EDM acts 4 times out of the week. These parties we unwalkable!
What is the case today? These clubs are only booking top tier EDM acts (Diplo, Calvin Harris, Marshmello, sometime Eric Morillo, ect..), and they are only booking 1 time a week (except for Miami Music Week). The rest of the week looks something like this: 2 nights hip-hop, 2 nights open-format, 1 night EDM, 1 night latin, then there is Sunday Brunch Parties, which are mostly open format. And the trends are somewhat similar in other states around the US.

Now, here are some questions I have for you to possibly see it from another person's view point.
Would you want NI to stick to its Techno/House roots? If yes, realize that if they do, they risk loosing market share, money for product development, and this equates to less demand for Traktor.
Would you like to own a product which no longer will be able to get up-dates due to loss of profit?
A product which looses market share form other brands? i.e. pioneer, reloop, mixars, ect..? Because most of these companies produce products which are made for Serato.

My point here is, and keep in mind, I may be 100% wrong on this, if NI cannot evolve with the market and update Traktor to meet the needs of the DJs in the major market, then, there will be no point in having Traktor. They might as well concede to Serato now, and then you won't have a company for you to put you feedback/concerns/complaints about on these forms.

 

You're welcome.

I do think that NI should start putting in the time to get a vertical layout going.

I am not here to, excuse my french, bitch and cry about why it's not being done. It's merely a suggestion because NI has great potential! I simply tell you this because in Miami, I am literally the open format DJ which other DJs know about, that is playing at clubs and bars with Traktor. No one else uses Traktor actively in the venues here. And this is true in most other markets I have guest DJed in. Your team 100% has better timecode, I have less issues plugging into mixers at clubs, I have yet to feel any type of lagging or a crash in the past 4 years. Something that cannot be said by most serato users. In fact, one of the highest known club DJs, Konflikt, still uses serato's legacy software, Scratch Live, because it works better that Serato DJ Pro. He is dying to get out of that and to a better platform, but has yet to even bother with your product.

I would like to further help the team. I would even go so far as to say, if you can send a rep here to my city, I would be more than willing to show them around, go to different venues, talk to the DJs here, and get a better prospective on what the open format DJs really want to gain market share!

Regardless, thank you and keep up the good work! Keep listening to the users and better fine-tune traktor for us!