FREEZE ! nightmare on stage !

..."post your impressions"...

- well - i will:

saturday night,

...after downloading TP on the very first day available, after reading the whole manual, the midi-tipps from the traktor-bible, after reading/posting in here about several matters, - AND - after diving into the new Beatgrids (used to play with FinalScratch and TraktorScratch) so beatgridding the first 600 of my 2000 tracks
- AND -
after diving into midi-mapping my controller so it suits me the best....

... AFTER ALL THIS PRECIOUS TIME I SPENT ON MY NEW SETUP,
deciding that it`s time to take the step, to go without vinyl, taking my DJing to the next level because the software felt less buggy like others before,

i startet on saturday night !

i went down to the club, set up my xone:92 , my mpd24 midi-controller, my external F/W-hdd , my macbookpro - and startet to play a set.
everything looked very good, i felt as if all was back in time, when i startet DJing ...

50 min. into the set - the nightmare happened.

Traktor stopped playing all 4 decks.

my setup is: i play on deck A/B something like i used to with tt.
so A/B are the "main" decks, where i mix from one track into the other, using the Xone:92 channels 1/2 with the filters, to filter out bass-frequencies from one and vice versa.

the decks C/D are here to play around with additional bits of sound,
effected and looped, mostly.

so all 4 decks stopped playing with a very unpleasent hiss-sound.

so the dancefloor was quiet.
everyone starring at me.
cool, not the first time. like i sayd: i used to play out with FinalScratch, wich always was a little buggy, as long i played with PC-laptops.
after the switch to mac, it was very much better, in fact it never happened to me again.

but now.... QUIET.

ok, restart.

TP asked me if i would really like to quit, because decks are playing.
well, of course, the Play/Pause buttons would not response anymore,
the mouse had no impact anymore, when i was pointing on the waveform itself, trying to move the track "myself" that way.
- ... of course : restart.

after the embarassing long (felt) time of restarting the system, i started up TP once again, as soon the folks would spot the apple on the back of my laptop lightning up again, there was applause, i loaded a track and pressed PLAY -

still .... NO SOUND AT ALL ...

wtf......

IMAGINE THIS.

----------------------------------

i still don`t know what happened, i updated at home my TP to 1.0.1. - and tryed to update the available AudioDJ8 driver, wich would update, and after this ask me if i would install NIUSB... and after deciding i would, it refused to, there should be a newer version installed already.

after the update, TP would play back a track - finally.
after 3 min. the decks stopped again with this noizy sould, and this is as far i am now.

just in case,

... my impressions at the moment ...

do you really want to know

 

What version of TP where you running on the night?

How did you finish off your set?

 

version was the one i downloaded the very first day.
since i found out about the update 3 days before the gig, and i never had any issues while testing at home (used it for quite some time with all the beatgridding and testing....) i didn`t want to update - to avoid any problems.

but the update didn`t work. it still stopps playing halfway thru the first track.

did not finish my set. nothing would play anymore.
lucky me, the DJ supposed to play 1 1/2hours later was already there, and because i had my own setup (mixer ect.) he could start playing straightaway.
but the club-owner wasn`t very amused.....

 

hello my friend! Welcome to TP World.!
**** Buggys ALL THE TIME. !

good reality no ?

 

Well you don't need me to tell you somethings gone badly wrong. Not having the luxury of a Mac, I can't really help you with that.

My only thought is that check out it isn't a hardware problem - change your USB cable and make sure all the right lights are lit up on your Audio8 DJ.

TS 1.0.1 was released before TS was officially available and although it probably contained some critical fixes I don't think that will be the problem.

Oh, and always, always have a plan B!

 

hardware: i am testing all the time, changing cables, plugging/unplugging external hardware ect..

about the DJ8 i am not sure, i wanted to update to the newest driver with the 1.0.1. update for TP - but it refuses to, because there is a newer version installed on my system (crazy, not ? )

about the update itself: i downloaded a version before 1.0.1 (don`t know wich), but i did hear about the update to 1.0.1 last week and downloaded it, and installed it TODAY,

and about plan B:
good idea,
but after deciding to play out with TP - after some testing and no problems, i didn`t want to bring another set of 2 tt and the whole TraktorScratc setup with me.
i had TraktorScratch on a hp laptop and switched to my macbookpro for T Pro,
another thing: i used to play with a looping-tool (RedSound SoundBite, wich is not longer working - so for me the time to swithc was just perfect, instead of getting another loop-player) and now when i COULD have 4 decks to play with, instead of 2 and some loops - PLUS the new FX, there is so much i can`t do with my old setup, so many limitations to go back to,
that REALLY hurts.

but, like i said:
hopefully i (with help from TechSupport) will find out what it was and i can go back to a stable system to do what it`s supposed to do ,
even in that early stage.

one thing that worries me is:
in another thread about a crash - i had to read word from a mod, saying:
what also is not right is taking brand new software out for a live run without testing it extensively and thoroughly to ensure its stable.

why in the world would anyone make a nice microsite, showing all the good news to us users, telling us that Pro is for the Pro,
showing us videos from a release-party in berlin, where all the big shots use TraktorPro,
and then write in the forum that it`s not clever to play out live ?

but that just as a sidenote,
i don`t want all the discussion to take place once more.
i love traktor.
i used to play with FS on linux. then on to FS 1.5 for Windows, then TraktorScratch, and now i hope to get ready with my system to play with "PRO".

 

I feel your pain, question, have you tested the setup you had in the club at home first? I've had problems with tpro but usually it was my fault, wrong setting or setup. another thing is, i will only use tpro outside if ive tested my setup for hours and hours with no problems. another thing is to have back up like a prerecorded, mixed by yourself cd so you can try to fix the problem without ppl waiting. in my case i have my denon hs5500 as a backup plan also. depending on what im djing, like a wedding, always good to have backup, house party who cares etc.

 

God this is scary. I hope the upcoming updates really fix a lot of this stuff.

 

Richie Hawtin, Dubfire , Carl Cox and Chris Liebing using TRAKTOR 3.
I am sure about this, just check lasted links on youtube.

BUSSINESS IS MARKENTING !

 

yes, i did. several hours, with no problems at all.
suddenly, in the club - TP would start to make problems, and it does since.

ok, but when you don`t have anything to complain, and i`ve used it for a long time (nov.1st to dec.6.), you start to feel ready.
about the setup: i don`t know what could be wrong with my setup, i changed the external hdd, i changed all cables, unplugged the usb-switch, with only the midi-controller and the ADJ8 plugged in, directly.


one thing i certainely will do is having a bunch of vinyl with me the next time i use it, just in case.
i usually set up beside the TT, and therefore i could - in case of emergency - switch to the DJ-booth.
another thing is to carry a CD-player and plug it into the mixer, just that the audience doesn`t have silence anymore, so it gives me time to fix the problem.

but for the moment it seems, i have to wait for TechSupport, for an answer, and maybe an update.
TP didn`t freeze anymore, for 2 hours last night and 3 hours today (at home, of course) - but every now and then -
a awful "hiss"-sound will come up and the beat will stop for one bar, and then jump in again, not good for dancing.

i wait and try...

 

Hmm... that "hiss"-sound you describe sounds an awful lot of what I get when using the Audio8 (not at home with the computer's internal soundcard, though) and I do some action I haven't done before during the session; turn keylock on/off, modify eq on internal mixer, turn fx on/off, etc.

 

Isnt that such a coincidence that you never, ever see these top 100 djs have a crash...Why is that, what are they doing differently or what is NI doing differently for them to ensure that wont happen?

 

I don't know much about software/hardware configurations, etc... But I would guess that most pros use their dj laptop for one thing only: dj'ing. Most of the general buying public uses their laptop for lots of different things and with several different programs, downloading mp3's from bittorrent, etc.

I've never had a single problem with T3.3 but then again I've never installed anything else on my laptop except for Traktor, the Amazon mp3 downloader and the iTunes/Lame encoder.

 

I have a laptop dedicated to djing and I have plenty of problems. Only time i get on the net with it is to research those problem and find updates. I have Traktor Pro and Ableton

 

I saw Sasha crash once when I saw him around two years ago, uses Abelton I know, but a crash none the less. Crowd was groovin, then all of a sudden blip, silence, visuals all die.... then mad cheering!

He seems to have a tech support guy in his booth for just such an emergency( now thats a back up plan ), sound stops he steps back, other guy goes to the computer and a few minutes later party is back on.

Just wanted to share ;-)

 

Who knows man. Maybe I'm just lucky?

There's a video of DJ AM at this HUGE halloween party....he's dressed up as daft punk, starts the show for hundreds of people...and then...silence. Someone said it was a power failure but none of the lights in his booth or on stage flickered at all so I'm guessing Serato crashed on him and his new Macbook Pro.

Thank god this hasn't happened to me yet (fingers crossed).

 

that is a very good question.

and what this guy reports -a crash and problems after having tested it for several hours with no issues-, is one more proof of the fragility of this entire piece of software.

in the end however, it will seem it has been his fault due to 'improper use' of the software, 'wrong' configuration or settings, bla bla bla and not the fault of the software.

"oh, how can you blame the software, you forgot to keep in mind that variable AR-4308 was set to 0 instead of 1!"

please...

 

I guess there's a reason why the well-off pros of all kinds have complete backup systems on stage. Now people have moved to software for sample replay/softsynths/software mixing (for the insane creative possibilities offered), they have to be prepared for Murphy's Law kicking in, and the damn thing crashing.

The well-off guys have complete backup systems on stage, and techs ready to switch them over if there's a crash. I guess DJs can always leave a pair of decks hooked up to the mixer too, so if the fit hits the shan, they can throw on some vinyl or CDs meantime- or failing that, some people have uber-emergency-emergency measures like shoving an iPod with a high bitrate audio collection into the mixer while things are rebooting.

You can only do your best, use the most stable components, test them to death, keep it all clean and be as diligent as possible. You still have to assume that sometimes it's gonna fall over, and have a backup plan, I guess.

There's a problem with proving that software can never screw up, you're veering into Formal Systems Theory territory there, and dear old Mr. Turing's halting problem, but maybe that's a bit too technical to go into here

The headline is have a good backup plan, keep a cool head and don't sweat it if it falls over. The real pros seem to be the guys who cope with the problems gracefully, bounce back and keep on movin'.

 

my tsp freezes and glitches w/ old 5500rpm external harddrive
its a buffalo 500 gig.

on a maxtor mini drive 150 gig.faster rpm in the 700s traktor tsp dont

my advice is to replace external drive

 

Keep in mind there are folder access issues in the current Pro releases.

Once that is corrected, direct folder access shouldn't be a problem.

Traktor Scratch/Traktor 3 could rip through folders like Freddy Krueger.

So it will get better once the fixes are applied.