feedback from all beta users and testers

Hey everybody! I think it would be good idea to make one thread to any kind of feedback from all the beta testers, how good it is working, not only problems, but also if there's no problems at all. That way it could be determined how many of the guys test it and how well it works. So i think it would be even better if everyone says what kind on laptop/OS it uses and how well everything works so far. If by any means majority thinks, its' a bad idea the discard this thread. I haven't got time to download it yet but i will soon.

 

Reminder: Use the Bug Tracker. There is no point posting your findings here unless you use the Bug Tracker because that is were the Devs will be looking not in here.

 

First positive feedback from quickly testing some things on my Windows 7 RC partition:

The collection handling alone is worth the update. No more jumping to the top from midst of the collection while adding to preparation or other playlists. Playback works, effects also. Will test more at the weekend, especialy the broadcasting module and further handling.

And yes, for reporting bugs it is absolutely neccessary to use the bug tracker.

 

YES! YES! YES! FINALLY! (scnr)

 

Yup, i didn't mean it as bug reporting thread, but as a simple feedback fo other dj-s not the developers. So that if someone i installing beta, know a little bit ahead, what he/she's facing. Otherwise there are only bug reports, but not how many perfectly working copies. That's what i had in mind.

 

Couple of initial thoughts:
- Comment field in the deck headers (is this new?)
- 4FX - didn't think I'd use them as I only normally use 2 decks, but having 1 and 2 in advanced and 3 and 4 in chained will work really well with 2 decks. I can have my Nocturn do the advanced and set up preset FX chains on my Nanopad - happy days.
- I like the Beatslicer!

 

Yeah Beat Slicer is siiiiick.
A question for all you Midi controllin' maniacs... do any of you use Keyboard Hotkeys as modifier buttons to change MIDI controls? Did you even know you could in earlier versions? Does this loss of functionality impact you?

Phil

 

Yeah, this loss of functionality actually is keeping me from upgrading. I used a modifier set by the enter key on my keyboard to switch back and forth from controlling Decks A/B and C/D. Not particularly an option anymore, it would seem. Why does this make a difference? A modifier should be a modifier whether it's set by keyboard or MIDI.

 

NI Fails again

Woohoo! We've finally got a bug tracker. Wonderful

I can finally go and see all the bugs that other users have submitted, what's been confirmed as a bug, what's actually just my setup problem, workarounds, what's being done about them, etc...

Oh wait.... All I can do is post a bug? I can't even check if my bug has been submitted already? Ok, you have fun sorting through thousands of duplicate bug submissions.

Dear NI:

Please take a look at any OpenSource software project. See how the developers and the user community interact. See how to properly implement a bug tracker. See how to do it *right*


m.

 

We already have an Internal Bug Tracker that works like that.

This is a Public Bug Tracker. There is no need to cross reference and even then people would still post there own bugs whether there was a duplicate or not, thats how people are. There would also need to be a Beta email list for all testers. This isnt possible seeing as we already have the internal one and the public one would be a mess.

This is the way it is and it will provide valuable information.
Also be fair this isnt an Open Source Project.

If you dont want to submit Bugs and help out then dont . Its your choice.

I hardly see this as a fail.

 

Beatslicer ROCKS !

 

+1

It's a freakin beast!

 

This is not a bug tracker. It's a bug submitter

While it is true that Traktor is not an opensource project, I do believe that NI (or any for-profit software company for that matter) could greatly improve the overall quality of the product as well as the relationship with their users, or clients rather, by looking at some of the the best practices that have evolved in the OpenSource movement.

I do want to help make traktor better. But I would be able to do more with tools that aren't crippled. It's not a complete fail, since NI did take a step or two in the right direction by opening up a public beta test and providing a public bug submitter. However, it's not a complete win either, since NI didn't provide the complete bug tracker to the public, or set up a Beta Mailing list (which is actually easy, not impossible as you say).

It's a winfail.

But overall I am cautiously optimistic.

m.

 

i think it is definately a noticeable loss. i think it would be a good idea to provide 8 global modifiers along with the local ones. also why cant i mix keyboard, midi and hid ports?

however if i get the choice to go with the old way and the new way .. i will happily embrace the new approach.
---

Well a public bug tracker would help with two things:
1) i could close my own bogus bug reports
2) i could verify other peoples bug reports and add more context information

I dont really see the draw backs if making the bug tracker public as long as the bug tracker would also have a way to keep some notes and comments closed (many bug trackers have this ability), so that NI doesnt have to worry about internal notes being made public or having to duplicate the bug tickets into another system for this purpose.

 

Yeah I figure this is going to impact quite a few people and I'm looking to find out whetehr that position is true. The interesting thing is that the only thing the splitting of the modifier control domains helps is the people building the default controller maps for deck controllers. My contention is that in all other respects this only hurts the control map developing community by taking away functionality that users have grown to depend on. I spent a good deal of time studying the implications of the split domain and what it would me if the modifier domains were once again a shared entity. there are alternate solutions in every case I looked at (about 12 situations) and in most cases the alternate solution would mean _less_ work in future for control map designer/developers. so ultimately I feel like the user community is being penalized because the default controller map developers decided to take the easy way out, and that to my mind is the wrong solution. IF NI truly had no other alternative to make their functionality work I would say "well then, go for it", But there are several alternative options available to them which ultimately will make everyones lives better and they appear entrenched in their current beliefs that there is no other alternative when in fact there is.

The ball is squarely in NI's court now, for my part I'm going to be much less willing to expend _any_ effort testing and developing MIDI maps an d functionality for Pro when I cannot rely on any particular piece of functionality to exist version to version. You can be sure that in cases where I need to use my SCS controllers that I won't be playing on 1.2.x no matter how good it is unless I have the control functionality I need.

A friend just remarked its like having a ship with two engines and rudders and rudder controls but the people at the controls aren't allowed to talk to each to pilot the ship, they have to do their own thing.


Phil

 

I disagree with you. Because of this separation it enables me to more easily share my mappings with others, since they can safely import them without screwing up their mappings. I do agree though that there is a need to share states across logical controllers. See the thread I just created on this topic.

 

And i agree thats an important goal but there are other ways that are just as easy programming-wise that don't break / lock-out a whole bunch of users, and that you have to acknowlege that by making this change you have just broken a bunch of peoples workflows in the name of making it simple for others.

Phil

 

Well as I explained in the blog post .. which you probably did not read
To get the old workflow working again would not be that hard. Just add 8 global modifiers and I agree that this would be very useful for all sorts of things (again see the linked blog post if you want to see details).

If they dont do that, then for keyboard mappings you could use an external tool like Bome's to trigger MIDI from a keyboard. Of course that is not going to satisfy the needs of the average user.

However to me, the changes they have done are well worth the loss in functionality. So to conclude I am with you for asking for global modifier support but I rather only have local modifiers than only global modifiers.

 

...Ahhh, see now there you would be wrong... [Side note about the blog post, an interesting read but like I tend to often do, it went off on a tangent a couple of times]

To get the old workflow working again would not be that hard. Just add 8 global modifiers [/Quote] and this exactly what I proposed for one of the solutions earlier in the week... BUT We should NOT be in a position of writing new code to restore old functionality. For 1 you as a user needing such functionality should have it afford by creating new modifiers that did not break those of us that need the original behaviors to stay in place. It is a quntessential tennet of software design that you do not break published working functions and APIs simply because you find it convenient to do so. For 2 there are Modifier programming options present in both 1.1 and 1.2 that let you do what you need and which would not break others.

I already use Midi Translator but there is a snag the templates for DaRouter are encrypted meaning you cannot modify them so adding back the functionality there. That being said if this were done right I would not need to.

Sure many of the changes are awesome and its also good we agree to disagree while asking for the right solution to be implemented. We should not be in a position of having to do so however for the reasons outlined above. I fear as time goes on however you'll keep your current functionality and I'll have to keep b!tchin' about it and this like many other changes will be swept under the technical rug.
In the meantime my controller map with its 1244 MIDI entries in it, has 402 that don't work as designed because of this change.

 

+1 to global modifiers. Just saying.