Traktor on the Record #1

Hi all,

Welcome to the first issue of "Traktor on the Record"! This session has finished, you can find the Q&A below.

Regards, Thomas

 

Crackles, clicks or dropouts can have different reasons. Most are performance related, caused by low latencies in combination with activated key lock or other CPU-intensive features on slow computers. But even on reasonably powerful machines you can run into these issues if you set the latency too low.

We are also aware of a possible negative influence of the key lock algorithm on the sound quality. Certain audio material is notoriously difficult for time stretching algorithms to deal with, mostly sections with a significant dominance of low frequencies (e.g. low sinus tones).

At the moment, we are evaluating a new time stretching algorithm to enhance the sound quality of the key correction. If this algorithm proves to be a substantial improvement, it might even be included in the update that comes after 1.0.2.

 

Based on the tech support reports and the relevant discussions, we have now prioritized all the tasks for the next update that we plan to release in January. For general reasons it is impossible to guarantee any specific features and fixes before the start of the beta test, but some things we are currently working on are synchro start, easy access to playlist histories, an improved relative mode and adjustable pitch bend sensitivity. And of course also various fixes that include import date problems, import of rating and year tags, hot cues in relative mode and certain sync/master clock issues.

 

We develop full-featured controller mappings for all the manufacturers that join the "Traktor Ready" program. M-Audio has not yet decided to join in, while Pioneer, Denon, Numark, Vestax and various other companies are part of it. For the time being you can of course use the forum to exchange custom-made TSIs for the Xponent.

 

We are working towards faster and better integration in various ways. This includes providing TSI files for most available controllers through the “Traktor Ready” program, by sticking to standard MIDI conventions instead of coming up with exotic proprietary concepts, and by talking to hardware manufacturers as early as possible before a product launch.

At the moment not all manufacturers take advantage of this opportunity, but I think it’s obvious that the interoperability becomes more and more important so we will also continue to make further progress in that regard.

 

We have decided to take a slightly longer but ultimately more reasonable route towards display support for controllers like the DN-HC4500. We could do a quick proprietary implementation, but the word “proprietary” already implies that another entirely different solution would have to be developed for the next controller which needs to be supported. In the end, this would be an unreasonable waste of development resources, and it would also artificially inflate the code of Traktor, which we want to keep focussed and efficient.

For that reason, we are currently aiming to work out a more universal, standardized way to implement display support instead of pushing a “quick and dirty” proprietary solution for a single controller. My best projection is that DN-HC4500 display support will be available sometime in 2009, and that we will be able to give a more specific outlook in a few months time.

 

We are aware of this request and the reason behind it, but for now we will not enable the EQ and faders in External Mixer mode, because in Traktor 3 this created a huge amount of confusion among users because the sound was eventually affected by “invisible” interface elements.

 

That's a very interesting suggestion that I can totally see being implemented in the future!

 

In general we try too keep the file size as small as possible for downloads. But because many users who bought Traktor Pro as a download have requested the high-resolution material, we are currently working out how to make the 24bit/96kHz version available through the website or the Service Center. So this opportunity should only be a matter of time.

 

Yes, we plan to develop an LE version of Traktor Pro next year which will be bundled with various DJ controllers again. I am not sure if there will be something like an "upgrade path" from Traktor 3 LE to a “Pro LE” version, also since there is already a very good upgrade option to the full Traktor Pro for LE users.

 

This is a very accurate analysis This improved relative mode will be available in one of the next updates, probably already in the next update.

 

Traktor has never been completely rewritten all at once, though it’s part of good product maintenance to rewrite and optimize crucial parts of the application every once in a while.

In terms of the overall concept, the first major redesign was the move from Traktor 2.6 to Traktor 3, which was necessary due to the extension of four decks and the introduction of the effects section. Traktor Pro was the second redesign, where we ultimately straightened out and streamlined the concept and closed contradictions and gaps that we identified in Traktor 3 based on the systematic user feedback.

We are now very confident in the architecture and the interface concept of Traktor so we don’t foresee any major redesigns anytime soon. But nobody can really say today which new technologies and creative concepts will come up within the next years, and which kinds of design changes they might stimulate to keep Traktor on the cutting edge.

One thing is for sure, because we have now finally reached a professional user base with Traktor, we will put a much higher focus on backward compatibility in all future updates.

 

This concludes the first Traktor On The Record! Thanks for all your submissions, I think these topics are really relevant for a lot of people here.

I will open the next Q&A session for submissions next Monday, so stay tuned.