Questions and Answers - Fluky @NI (March 2015)

sooo... finally the answers from the questions i passed over to NI from the forum.

General Questions

1. Will there be further hardware cooperations with other manufacturers (also TSP certified)?
   These cooperations are always evaluated on a case-by-case basis. We have just integrated the Pioneer CDJ-900nexus and XDJ-1000, for example; these will be out in the next release.
   
   
2. Are mobile DJs still a target group? Are there any 19” rack mountable devices planned?
   NI does not have any 19” rack-mount devices planned at this point and prefers to maintain a focus on club-style (tabletop) and portable devices.
   
   
3. Can you say sth about the Win10 compatibility of TRAKTOR?
   As with any version of any OS, we will inform our users once Windows 10 has been tested and approved by our development teams. Until then, one should continue to use TRAKTOR on a supported OS version (a list of supported operating systems can be found on our website).
   
   
4. We like to have more public betas. Are more of them planned for the future?
   Yes, these will be happening with more frequency and participation from the community will be essential in helping us track down bugs and other compatibility issues.
   
   
5. We sense a lack of communication when it comes to new products or releases, the release notes are too thin as well are the known issues.
   We will now be making conscious efforts to include more information in our releases as well as Known Issues where appropriate.

Issue Related Questions

1. A lot of users encounter Service Center issues. New releases don’t appear or it crashes. Does NI work on these issues?
   Yes, we work on them, as long as they are properly reported to NI Support.
   
   
2. When – if any – will there be a solution to the M4A and ALAC issues?
   The M4A and ALAC issues on Windows stemmed from the same cause but will require different solutions. The M4A issue is something we hope can be fixed quickly since the Windows Media Foundation natively supports AAC audio (the encoding used in M4A files). However, the Windows Media Foundation does not support ALAC at all, so this is not a matter of simply fixing a bug. The only solution is to implement ALAC decoding directly in TRAKTOR since the Windows operating system itself currently cannot be extended to support ALAC.
   
   
3. When will Metadata Sync come back? A lot of users are missing the removed feature.
   It’s hard to say. Metadata Sync used to work by taking advantage of the “Persistent UUID” which iTunes assigned to every track in the iTunes Library. Previously, that UUID would remain unchanged for as long as the track was kept in the iTunes Library, and that same UUID would be copied over with tracks copied to the iOS device via USB. A change in iTunes (I believe it happened with iOS 7) has broken that functionality: the UUIDs assigned to tracks can now change unexpectedly, thus causing a UUID mis-match between the tracks on the computer and those on the iOS device(s). Without this mechanism for ensuring proper track matching between devices, it is no longer possible to transfer the metadata between the matched tracks. We attempted to solve the problem by looking at other features of the tracks, such as their length, name, and so on, but this only provided a “soft match” which was not 100% reliable.
   The only avenue we want to pursue is one which does not rely on iTunes at all for track identification as any change made to iTunes could potentially break the system again. This research is ongoing.

Feature Request Questions

1. HID-Support?
   This happens on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately, manufacturers have lots of freedom with how they wish to implement HID control and this prevents us from “just adding HID support” to the software – HID and MIDI are different communication protocols and have different messaging formats, even though they might not appear to be on the surface. Therefore, for now, all HID support has to be hard-coded into TRAKTOR based on the manufacturer’s published specifications rather than being “mapped” in the way one assigns a MIDI controller to TRAKTOR.
   
   
2. Further features for S8: Loop Recorder?
   Loop Recorder support will not be provided with S8 (though it may be possible to map the Loop Recorder controls to those on the S8 when overmapping support is provided for S8).
   
   
3. Maschine Integration?
   An integrated solution for using MASCHINE and TRAKTOR together is under development but will still be several months before it is ready.
   
   
4. 3band EQ for Mics on all devices?
   Unlikely. The solution here will be to use a Live Input Deck to EQ the Mic using a normal TRAKTOR Mixer channel.

 

Thanks Fluky, for all your hard work.

 

First things first, thank you so much @DJ Freshfluke for your effort in getting these questions delivered and the answers gathered. Those of us who have followed the process, know that it hasn't been easy.

Secondly, i'm glad to read some of the answers and i really hope they become real. To be more precise, i like the change of mind regarding beta releases, commitment on improving release notes, keeping an eye and explaining the status of controversial issues like the ALAC/Win issue, the metadata sync with TDJ, and the maschine integration, even though is not my lawn actually, for the time being.

However i also sense some "filler" Q/A, for example the service center issues (which absolutely secondary, IMHO), 3 band EQ for mic, mobile DJ's worried about 19" rackable devices.. (?), and... win 10 compatibility?

To conclude, i am frankly disapointed of seeing that smart playlists are still either an ignored topic, or a taboo topic. Several people (not me this time) mentioned this in the thread where the concerns/questions were gathered. Either this has not reached NI, or arrived to the table, and NI has ignored it.

@Keir @ NI , as a community man, link between this forum and NI i guess... could you please forward this post to @Friedemann @ NI or somebody else, and ask the company to please give an update about how close are we now, that more than 5 years have passed?

 

Great news on the HID functionality for the CDJ900NXS and surprisingly for the XDJ1000 ... I thought that would take even longer

Maschine integration is another that I've been wanting to see ... time to get my Maschine skills sorted!

 

Thanks ... Counting the days to Maschine integration. Disappointing news on metadata sync.

 

Personally, I find the news about metadata sync good. I want a sync feature, but I don't want it to depend on iTunes.

 

Some positive responses. Good to see that they haven't completely abandoned support for non NI hardware.

My guess is that you won't see smart playlists any time soon, otherwise they wouldn't have put any effort into improving itunes integration.

 

i just hope this includes adding complete functioning to the ddj-sz in the HID updating

 

do you think the rx will get hid too? Firmware 1.4 states Traktor pro2 Support - does this mean hid is coming? would be so great!

 

frankly spoken: I am disappointed.Thanks for the work and yet: Flexible Beatgrids?

I understand, that there are many many feature wishes around and any developer needs to evaluate and prioritize features, but this is like one of the key features, that could make the sync a rock solid feature... I'm waiting for the features the really help increasing djing and for the first time in years.... I'm about to check the alternatives...

 

I'm glad they are still investing meta data sync as it was really great to be able to prep tracks on the iPad and sync back to the laptop. This would be a killer feature in my book.

 

Serato doesn't have flexible beatgrids either I don't disagree with you about the need for it though, unlike serato Traktor is more closely aligned to its beatgrids if you don't have them done right it affects your ability to play songs so it is super important.

I've been DJing for a long time, when i started i didn't have a laptop i had to do everything by ear so its not a major issue but it would be nice to make loops and remixes on the fly of songs that aren't quantized. To me flexible beat grids, smart playlists that auto update based on id3 info are top priorities for me as well as using more than one core to analyze tracks and... more stability in newer releases!!!

 

Some interesting answers and even more interesting replies by my fellow forum goers in this post. Really hoping they're working on creating an elastic grid as mentioned by others

 

I'm glad to see HID support for more hardware is still in development because it was starting to look like we weren't going to see any more at all. Also, my friends who use Machine have been clamoring for Traktor integration for a while and I think it will open up interesting collaborative possibilities.
As much I'd like to see built-in smart playlists and flexible beatgrids, those things can be worked around with third-party software whereas HID and Machine can't. I think it's better to tackle issues with no workarounds first.

 

@DJKeo Serato DJ HAS fexible Beatgrids - and it works quite fine ;-)

 

...maybe an elastic beat grid for Traktor and Maschine is key to their integration plans? Traktor and Maschine users have been clamouring for it for ages. It would solve both Traktor's tracking issues with non-EDM music or music that has mixed tempos and allow Maschine to stay in sync. Perhaps I'm dreaming in technicolor here but I'd really like to see that and they need to catch up in this department to stay relevant with the competition.

 

huh well damn I stand corrected, i've never used the sync on serato before

 

Thanks

 

Thanks for this.

DJ Tech Tools blog post about this:

http://www.djtechtools.com/2015/03/...and-xdj-1000-support-for-traktor-coming-soon/

The post mentions "traktor on the record" from years past. NI should bring this back. Why was it stopped?

With the many questions and concerns that were originally raised..a lot of it was already on this board...Id like to see NI take a more proactive approach with user issues vs waiting for a meeting and than waiting another month for a response.

One of my biggest concerns with Ni is that they seem to move way to slow. Perhaps there are things that i don't know about but that is my opinion and perception based on NIs recent hardware & software releases and how they react to issues. I am sure many will agree with me on this.