Traktor Pro feedback thread - post your impressions here!

constructive criticism on Pro

hi there

installed pro and have been playing with it for a while...

personally haven't found that much difference with T3 in the functionality, FX aside.

here's what i think should be implemented:
- T3's CURRENT PLAYLIST: pls add it again, very useful to track what one had played and the ability to export track/titles/artist to text/html.
- On the same topic, it's really hard now to export playlists to text, unless one has created a "real playlist" folder for it.
Wouldn't it be better to be able to highlight tracks from the collection and right-click on them and have an "export track names/titles to html"?
- COLLECTION: Where's the "import from itunes" (right-click on collection) from the collection gone? It was super useful. Now to import from itunes seems more complicated than before
- COLLECTION: on the manual it says that one can "lock" the order of the playlist, and i thought of the Collection as well, by "control +right-clicking" on the parameter desired and choose "Consolidate".
Well... it doens't happen so in the Collection. Each time i open Pro, the collection is ordered in a different order.
I keep everything ordered by "import date"... but if i "control+right-click" on the tab "import date" i don't get any "consolidate" but just a list of more parameters to add or change.
Grrrrr.....rrrr
- Cues/Loops: in T3 it was useful to have the Cue List identified by each custom label (i.e. Kik in, Break, or Gruv or whatever i labeled that cue point to be).
It's no use to have the Cue/Loops color cordinated or "numbered"... because i could have two or three "cue" points in the same color but not know if that was for an Acapella, or HH or gruv or whatever else UNLESS i clicked on it... which means that while the track is playing i would have to GUESS which is the right cue/loop point i'm looking for.
- Also, when i prepare my tracks, there's an un-necessary step of having to press "cue" in order to set the marker, when in T3, it would cue it to whichever point i had the "red marker" on. way faster that way
- Interface Cue/Move/Grid: poor.
Unless one has mapped all different maneuvers to a midi controller, one has to constantly switch between "move" and "cue" in order to get creative and move around the track.
It ends up being time consuming.
It was better in T3, where all the "panels" where independent and accessible without having to hide/un-hide them.
- the LOOP ACTIVE color: when "active" is On is TOO LIGHT or PALE, and looking at the screen is not always clear if the loop is still on or no. Why not changing the color to a brighter color (orange or red) so that is immediately evident if the loop is on or off? Pale yellow on a white/light grey back ground doesn't cut through.
- DECK Size: too big now! i mean... to access cue/loops infos you can do that ONLY if the Deck is in full size, which ends up taking too much screen space!
Wouldn't it be great to access that panel ALSO when the deck is minimized?
Would be great to have a third intermediate size to choose from.
The full deck size is great when preparing tracks, gridding them, inserting cues and loops etc... but when playing is un-necessary to take out all that space, especially if you're using 4 decks... it's too much!

ok hope this can help the NI team for future implementations
thank you
m

 

Traktor Scratch Pro Just Terrible....crashing All The Time .....terrible Master Tempo

 

I just played with it live on Saturday.

I spent about 3 hours with it in my studio, and my set was about 1.5 hours.

I used TSP with Audio8, CDJ1000s, DJM800...nothing really to report...it worked fine.

For some reason though, I want to map out the rest of my DJM800 to do some crazy shat! ha

 

Nice one Gafi, you have hit the nail on the head with the things I am hoping for too. I have been using it every spare moment I have to master the program and dont have many of the problems that I read about from other people.

I definately agree here and so do many others, after having a few beers and playing, I hate to go back the next day and find which tracks I used.

This is a HUGE point, I now have absolutely no way of knowing what that Hotcue point is for, other than knowing all my tracks inside-out. My idea is to have a Hotkey/MIDI key that could drop down/hide the list of cue points inbetween the coloured Hotcue points. There is a space there and the list fits perfectly inbetween, I just dont want to be using a mouse or the trackpad at all.

Actually, I didnt know it was possible to map a MIDI controller
to change between 'Map-Cue-Grid'. And now thanks to your comment I've done it, haha. Excellent, thanks a lot! (View - Select Advanced Panel) if anybody else missed it, simple really.

100% in agreement.


Now the only other problem I am having is the Browser List is rearranging the order of its columns on its own. In other words, I always have it (from the left) Icons - Cover Art - Title - Artist etc,etc. But sometimes after playing for 1 hour, Cover Art is over to the left (AND only half visible) and the Icons column is between Title and Artist.It doesn't happen very often, but it does happen.

WAIT! I just thought of another problem I am having.
First I would like to say that all my tracks are beatgridded manually, and I have the Master Clock set to Manual. If I have a track playing and I am using a loop on a 2nd or 3rd deck, when I cut the loop shorter than half a beat, and come out of the loop (this button also doubles as Sync) , it takes maybe 4 or so beats before it syncs back perfectly in time. Again, it doesnt happen all the time but it happens more often than not.
Ok guys, thats everything. Cheers.

 

Do you guys bother to read manuals anymore?

Section 6.7.2
1. Set the Cue Point using the Cue button in the Transport Controls.

2. Click Store.

a. Use the Next/Previous Cue Point buttons to skip from one Stored Cue Point to the next.

b. The Cue Position Display shows the position of the Stored Cue Point within the track.

c. You can assign a name to a Cue Point within the Cue Name Display. This can be found to the right of the Cue Point Display. Simply click in the display to highlight the name, then rename it.

d. You can skip to a Stored Cue Point directly using the dropdown menu to the right of the Cue Name Display, or by using one of the Hotcue Buttons.

e. Special actions can be assigned to a Cue Point by changing its type in the Cue Type Selector.


You didn't know it possible to map a midi controller?

I mean seriously, WTF is wrong with everyone? Do you all expect to purchase a piece of software and think that you know everything there is to know about it by just messing around or reading messages from the idiots that post in here?

 

chilli,

there are people in here who read manuals, including me...

but it seems that you're missing the original point.

Having to click on the drop down menu to choose which hotcue to choose from, is not the same as having like in T3 the cue list with all the names right there. What one needed to simply do, is click on the name of the hot cue, and bam you're there.
This new way of displaying them i believe is not efficient.
If Tpro is simply encouraging users to get creative and re-mix on the fly & get their own flavor in the set, well... the way these new hotcues are accessed doesn't really make life easier.

A useful workaround, would be to show the name of each cue point instead of the "number".
Keep the colors, keep it the way you have it, just simply make it possible to substitute the number with the "new name" one gives to that particular cue, instead

possible?

x

 

if that is truly your beef, then fair enough...but you stated and agreed with the post that the colors don't tell you anything...you can still display the names, it's just a little different man.

 

i think you're mistaking me for johnnybounty.
my original quote says something different...
but don't worry, we could go on forever.
just take my last suggestion/work aroud as valid
;-)
thank you

ps i'd be interested in knowing how you use Tpro, i see you're using the trigger finger, i'm saving my new basic tsi ... i'll hit you on this in a different forum

 

Here goes another slagging match.

1.This thread is called 'Post Your Impressions'. I was posting my impressions, which where that I was very happy, except for a couple of points where I agreed with djgafi.

2. I too have read the manual, which is why I don't post on the Forum very often, but do spend a lot of time reading it. On one of the points I realised I had missed something that was possible, admitted it , said thankyou to djgafi and moved on. Obviously I should have kept my mouth shut.

3.If you had read the 2 posts Chilly, then you would surely have got the gist of what we were talking about, instead, (as usual) you got on the offensive.

4. Without using the mouse or trackpad, I have found there is no direct way to drop the cue point list down. And as we have said before , whats the point of having a Hotcue row of buttons without an immediate visual description of what that button does (not just cue/loop/load/grid).

Cheers.

 

My bad!

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

My impressions so far on TPro? Too many people complaining way too quickly before having, or posting, all the relevant information. So since no one else will stand up for NI, I will. Case closed. Use the forum's Ignore feature if you have an issue with your feelings getting hurt, or write a poem.

 

At last we agree on something.
I think this Forum would be about a quarter of the size it is now if it was possible to get rid of questions that have been asked twice (or more).
Chilly, any chance of you volunteering to go back through it all and dumping all the repeat questions, or posts where people have asked a question ...and then followed it up with 'Nevermind, Ive sorted it now'. Then this Forum could actually become a place full of useful information.

 

Lol...yeah...what are the chances you can hand out MOD tags? hahahaha :-D

 

How many Filipino Canadians say "y'all"? LOL

 

My Impressions

There are sooo many posts on this thread so I will surely repeat some points. But I'm sure N-I will collect the impressions.

UPS:

THE NEW GUI ROCKS!
I understood all of the T3 panels and still found myself desperately flipping pages to find a beatjump or whatever. The TP layout is much more straight-forward.

THE NEW EFFECTS ROCK!
Never again will I touch any venues dj-mixer effects. The new effects are versatile, high quality, easy to use.

THE NEW MIDI CONTROL
Well I didn't use to have a controller, so I know nothing about the remote architecture of T3. But I do know that I've managed to reprogram just about every knob on my new remote with little hazzle.

DOWNS:

THE NATIVE MIX IS MISSED.
This function WAS ambitious, and maybe over-ambitious.
I often used it in T3 and always had to "work it" to work it so to speak. Especially events of track-loading were hard to redo.
I often dreamed about a full-blown graphic editor (and kinda thought N-I owed us one for T3 to deserve the 'DJ Studio' moniker), but I realise that such an editor would be very complex.
Perhaps N-I should team up with somebody more experienced in doing timeline editors, and return someday with the ultimate Traktor DJ Sequencer

A LOT OF ANNOYING SMALL BUGS
of which only one has really got to me: Drag'n'drop is randomly ignored:
http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?p=457099#post457099

but I've made posts about others:
Where's my iTunes artwork?
http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?p=459526#post459526

Load Cue Strange Behaviour:
http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?p=459646#post459646

And also once during a gig had the Decks showing vividly different BPM and still being in sync (this being on two tracks w. perfect beatgrids) - but I cannot reproduce this.

Summing up I still say: Congrats to N-I and all of the passionate Traktor DJs here!

 

I dunno why it's overly ambitious. It works perfectly well in T2.5.3.

 

Here we go. I purchased TS Pro last week, I've been using M-Audio Torq for two years now and I've loved it - what made me switch to Traktor is the possibilites for more than two decks.

I've gridded about 800 of my tracks and yesterday I played an hour or so at home. Tonight I'll try it out for the first time in a club - I'll be doing a five hour gig. It better not crash - will bring backup cds just in case though.

However, here are my first impressions.
The analyzation of songs are far better for M-Audio. For R&B and hip-hop tracks TS Pro almost never gets the tempo right. And when it does, the grid is of. The manual tempo adjusting and gridding features are however much better in Traktor than in M-Audio Torq.

I don't really like the browser, but maybe I just need to get used to it. Also, I experience it being a bit slow, which is annoying.

I also really liked the waveforms placed on top of eachother in M-Audios Torq. I really hope NI could include this as an option in the future. This made it easier to mix really really tight, especially with tracks that aren't quantisized (even though those tracks are few) since you could see the waveforms related to eachother, and you weren't dependent on the grids. Since you can't zoom in all that far on the waveform in Traktor it's also a bit of a hustle to have the grids placed out correctly. A better zoom function would be highly appreciated.

I'll be back with more inputs tomorrow after my gig tonight. Wish me luck

 

I'm definitely wishing you luck, because after testing a whole, solid hour and deciding to play out with the thing, you're gonna need it.

 

I feel a massive sense of Deja Vu coming on with this.

One hour of testing and then using live? I have fingers crossed for you (brings luck if you arent familiar with it).

But dude saying "it better not crash" after 1 hour of testing....... :S

 

Just to be clear, my point isn't whether native mix has bugs or not, and don't put your harm on me. I'm just a user, I didn't remove this feature from your software

Main difference between a flat .wav grap of your mix and the Native Mix is that the Native Mix is editable, right?

You can wind back and redo a transition etc. But you can only do this live, and it's often hard to assess excactly which parameters are affected, reset, etc. May be working perfect for you, I sometimes got quirky results.

It's like if Logic Studio was a sequencer and audio-recorder yes, but you could only record LIVE into a blackbox: No piano roll editing, fading curves, arrangement views. etc. I just wouldn't think it deserved the 'studio' moniker then.

I think N-I are thinking hard what to to with Native Mix. Like I said it would be awesome with an full-blown editor, that put your native mix on a timeline, showing curves of knob-movement, tempo change etc.

This is in no way simple to design nor build, but you could do mixes and edits swiftly that would take weeks in traditional music software.
And IMO this would make Traktor a real "DJ Studio", and thats why I said that Native Mix was perhaps over-ambitious.

 

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I have rarely ever edited an NMX file. What I like is that I can record without having to add to the stream on my HD. Recording audio on Traktor requires continually saving to the HD at the same time it is streaming tracks from the HD, which I think is just asking for it, especially in a live situation. NMX recording is simply one bigass macro that doesn't seem to tax the RAM overly much. And you can write to wav after the fact and not only get a perfectly clean audio file (no outboard recording involved), you'll also have a saved set list.