Traktor Audio 2

so why is it that traktor sell a soundcard that has problems for many people regardless of what drivers or settings they use when a cheapo usb soundcard from korea or an ancient behringer works fine with no tweaking necessary ?

jd.

 

Your computer sucks. My Audio 2 works fine on all of my 4 computers.

 

wow! thanks for the in-depth technical response - you obviously know your stuff, you should work for N.I. - i hear they are opening a uk office, could be a job for you there!

as i said.. ''a cheapo usb soundcard from korea or an ancient behringer works fine with no tweaking necessary'' - even when using then together with asio4all, so my computer doesn't suck as much as you suggest.

p.s. not everyone is well off enough as you to afford such fine quality gear.

jd.

 

Don't start off by blaming NI for your problems and you'll be more likely to get a helpful response.

As I said before, my Audio 2 works fine on all my machines, including two older Core2Duo models. Asio4All is a workaround hack and cannot be compared to using proper ASIO/CoreAudio devices. Cheap generic sound cards will obviously not come with dedicated ASIO drivers so that point is irrelevant.

 

The A2DJ or TA2 (same same) is one of the oldest hardware items available from NI and as such is not entirely compatible with newer (mostly) USB3 chipsets. It is not something that drivers can change, and NI are not the only company having issues.

 

usb3

thanks, frankle, for a more useful response, but it does make me ask ''why isn't this made clear by NI and their agents'? [or is it?]

p.s. i'm using usb 2, as are many who also report similar problems.

jd.

 

I have used Traktor Audio 2 on 4 computers and it doesn't correctly work on none of the 4. So I simply don't believe your story.

And this is clearly a driver problem and easy to verify with the standard windows performance monitor running task manager.

- You connect the Audio 2 with your USB port, but as far as you don't use it to play any sound through it you won't see any unusual on your computer and performance monitor
- Once you start to play a sound through it you will notice regulary CPU spikes up to 100% every few secondes in the performance monitor. The height of the CPU spikes depend on the latency you have setup your Audio 2. E.g. you could use a (not really useful) 20-30ms latency and the spikes goes up to 70%. All on an Intel I5 Sandy Bridge notebook with 2,9 Ghz and 4 cores (8 cores hyperthreaded) and Windows 7 64Bit, 4GB RAM.
- if you stop playing sound the Audio 2 causes some sort of constant strain on the CPU but on a low level (around 5-10 %). This stops immediately when you plug out the Audio 2 from USB.

BTW: I am not speaking of using Traktor Audio 2 with Traktor Pro ! I am speaking about Traktor Audio 2 and playing a MP3 with any MP3 player like Winamp or anything else, a single simple file, nothing else !

If you connect the Audio 2 with a USB3 port you still get the same behaviour but on a little lower level. In all situations you can get audio dropouts, the shorter the latency the more you get. Only if you setup the latency high enough to 30-50ms you can avoid the dropouts. But for this latency I don't need a high priced extra audio interface ;-)

As mentioned already, on the same computer with the cheap onboard soundchip or with Intel HDMI onboard and the asio4all driver no problems with latency around 10ms. I still have also an old Behringer BCD3000, their drivers are not very well for Windows 7 but don't give these kind of problems.

If this isn't enough evidence for a broken driver / hardware combination I don't know what more do you need to see the truth.

Too bad I lost 99 € for this piece of sh... hardware, NI had years to fix the driver but obviously no interests in fixing it.

All the advices to setup a clean notebook with disabling practically all other devices, drivers, services etc are sorry, Bul$$....
I have a computer to run different software (and hardware) on it and not a castrated piece of computer only to use one single device that requires to disable all other stuff.

Any advices what USB audio interface would do it better in the region of around 100 € for use with Traktor Pro 2 ?

 

You can believe what you like, but my Audio 2 works on all 4 of my computers without dropouts.

I have an old Core2Duo Windows laptop that needed a little tweaking, and has small CPU spikes every 15 seconds but only to around 30% which does not cause any audio problems.

I also have an old Core2Duo Macbook which works fine without any tweaks at all, same goes for my newer i7 Macbook Air. My Air also works fine with the Audio 2 while running Windows 8 without doing any tweaks at all and has no significant CPU spikes.

Finally I have an i5 Windows desktop that works fine with the Audio 2, again with no tweaks at all.

The Numark DJ IO is a similarly priced interface to the A2 but I've heard it has some compatibility issues with newer systems.

 

Hardware differences?

thanks, 'dduck' for a really useful post, i too have seen the same results.

there is a possible reason that some work fine and some don't...

the actually circuitry inside the case may vary, hence drivers work fine for some, not others

i worked in i.t. for years and know for a fact some hardware [even though model number was same] had this problem.

maybe ni have dome same over the years?

[no doubt i will be flamed for this, oh well!].

jd.