How to emulate elastic beatgrids in Traktor via Rekordbox conversion

Traktor misses elastic beatgrids. This is crucial for live drummers and old electronic music.

It is impossible to do perfect beatjumps because you cannot compensate with jogs.
Same story for perfect delay-based Effects.

Below a recipe to approximate Elastic beatgrids in Traktor using Rekordbox conversion, and putting a beatmarker every 4 beats using the accurate dynamic BPM value:

Steps:

• Select the specific tracks that really need elastic beatgrids: guide
• Analyse ONLY these tracks in dynamic mode in Rekordbox export mode (free to use): guide
• Export your collection.xml: guide
• Manually remove the non-dynamic tracks from the XML
• Use rekordbox_add_beatmarkers.py to add a beatmarker every 4 beats. This will be very accurate because it uses the dynamic BPM.
• Convert your collection without the 26-ms shift issue: guide
• Patch your files into Traktor using Traktor_clone_cues.py or import it manually as normal

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dj_estrela
I see that you are very experienced in Traktor and programming.
I ask you, since we are not all experts in python programming, I also have the difficulty of having to translate and understand from English, as I am Italian.
Could you do a video tutorial? maybe seeing the steps is easier to do it.

but above all, how do these python scripts start ????

Ps: But RecordBox has elastic Grids ?? so in this it is higher than traktor ??

 

Yes, RB has elastic beatgrids. Idea is to do it only for the tracks that really need it.

Then its just a question to convert these tracks from RB to TK.
Rekordbuddy, DCJU and rekordcloud all have user friendly GUIs.

About the python program: this is an optional step to improve the accuracy on the highlighted parts of the track (red ovals in the example picture).
If you dont do it its ok - the RB dynamic analysis is already much much better than traktor analyses by itself (for these difficult files of course)

 

in the simplified (less accurate) version:
- amount of the mp3 to be analyzed in RB.
- Analyze with Dynamic BPM
- I export the playlist with only the files that require dynamic processing (in my case only 1 test)
- I believe the exported test.xml file
- ?????
- Now how do I import this file into TRAKTOR since it requires an NML? (I tried to rename the file but it doesn't work) ---

yes .. I think a video guide would be ideal ..


ps: Do we petition for fluid, dynamic Grids or what do we want to call them in TRAKTOR?
I have seen requests for this features since at least 2016 ...
but to date I think it is a NON-negligible thing ...
how can we do??

 

Rekordbox and Traktor use diferent formats. There are paid tools to do this conversion in an user friendly way. There are free tools that are not user friendly.
https://github.com/pestrela/music_s...hich-dj-converters-avoid-the-26ms-shift-issue

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About petition: this was asked at least since 2010, please voice your request in eg here:
https://www.native-instruments.com/...t-girding-tracks-with-multiple-tempos.374651/

 

I was in the breakout group this morning with you in Ean's class. Thanks for the link!

I have several tracks already in Traktor that I've added loops, cue points, ins/outs, and metadata tags to. I beat gridded them manually, but I'd love to do the Recordbox elastic method you outline.

Question: If I export the tracks out of Traktor, import them into Recordbox, do the elastic analysis as you prescribe, export them, and then re-import them to Traktor, will I lose all my loops/cue-points, in/out markers, etc? What about my metadata? Will I retain that?

I've also stored some of these loops as samples for Traktor's remix decks. Will they have to be "elastiticized" in Recordbox as well?

Thanks in advance.

 

thanks for the interest.

Best is to apply this ONLY to the tracks that require this.
These are the unsteady tracks where the BPMs floats 1% up/down.
Examples: 80s tracks and live dummer tracks ( https://rekord.cloud/blog/should-you-analyze-your-tracks-with-dynamic-bpm-in-rekordbox )

In this case this simple method will replace the existing CUEs/loops;
such could be improved by customizing the python program.

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For transition tracks:
eg Magic Drum Oschestra that starts at 85BPM but then swaps to 115BPM (link below):
In this case Traktor forces a single Average BPM (100BPM in this example).
While every 4th beat will be perfect, the 3rd beat will have an accumulated major error(half-a-beat in this example)