Xone DB4 Scratch Certification - NI please reconsider!

Yeah it's a bit of a feedback loop I reckon.

Not enough sales (bullshit reason IMO)
Licensing deal worth x amount
AH not willing to pay certain amount
Due to lack of sales
Why should AH give a cut of money to NI for sales effectively

Then now you have NI coming out with the 2+2 Ch mixer
Hopefully soon 4channel
Which would effect their own sales

Pioneer was willing to pay, as they throw money at their DJ division
So blame NI and AH equally the same amount

 

I've heard this but not heard any confirmation from either company. Whereas A+H has made public that the reason they were denied was NI's "bullshit reason" not enough sales (and I think somewhere in this thread is a quote from NI on the issue). A+H confirmed it again on their own forums about a month ago. Bullshit or not, I think it's the only issue in the way.

 

TSP2 is only €100 so I guess NI expect to get the rest of the money through hardware, which seems to be their current plan due to software piracy.

 

^ that's true they've got a new business model.

So what will the next bit of hardware be

 

I agree NI please make the xone-db4 a certified traktor mixer!

 

A&H is a small (almost boutique-small) shop. The whole company was recently sold for a mere 50 million. and DJ isn't even their biggest division.

 

Allen and Heath are still working on their drivers because they don't have a low enough latency got some users. Probably not low enough for vinyl control.

 

A&H isn't boutique size or anything like.
When you buy guitar FX pedals you realise what 'boutique' really means

 

I used the term "almost."

A&H is a pretty small shop. It's my understanding that, for example, Behringer mixers outsell A&H mixers by closer to two orders of magnitude rather than by one order of magnitude. The DB4 in particular is a small niche product. It sells in the thousands, not in the tens or hundreds of thousands. Sorry to break it to you but such a small niche product is obviously not a priority for NI.

 

It's a shame this issue never got resolved... Whilst I appreciate that CDJ's with HID are the best technical workaround, there is something organic about playing on vinyl (whether records or DVS).

At this point, I would even pay extra to open Traktor Scratch up and allow non-certified cards/mixers... I think even this would be against NI's model though.

J

 

Just for the record, I too would be willing to pay a fee to open up the option to use non certified soundcards/mixers.

I doubt it will happen though, there will be questionable reliability for a lot of hardware which could have a bad effect on N.I.s reputation.

 

I doubt it will happen either, but not for that reason. "Class compliance" is an actual thing for sound cards; unless NI is doing something proprietary and freaky in communicating with the Audio 8 or whatever -- which we actually know for a fact they are not -- there is no reason any properly class compliant soundcard (however crappy) wouldn't work with Traktor DVS. If the sound card is not actually class compliant then NI could not be blamed for the problem. And of course, none of this is an issue with superior sound cards such as the one in the DB4, which outperforms the Audio 8/10/6 in a couple of ways.

In any case, runningoutofspace is entirely correct in the posts above, I think - the best thing for DB4 users is to forget about certification. Playing real vinyl is a lot more fun anyway -- I honestly haven't even booted up Traktor in months.

 

[edited]

 

I have an Audio 10 and after fiddling about with it, there must be something proprietary about it because I tried the 'renamed aggregate' trick with my mixer and it doesn't work, the timecode inputs do show up but no signal passes through.

I don't have a DB4 though, maybe it only works on that?
---
I just mentioned this because someone was saying N.I. soundcards aren't proprietary

 

Guys, be aware that if this discussion goes into 'hacking certification' territory, the posts will be deleted and/or thread closed.

Keep it fluffy ya'll.

Karlos

 

Sorry, my bad. I had to try it out just to see what happens

 

There was never any limbo. It was obvious to both companies that sales numbers will be low, and that rules out any interest from NI.

The DB4 does not exist in the booth and is rare to see anywhere at all, so Traktor sales would not be significantly affected either way.

 

Awww can't believe I missed an insult directed at me; thanks for editing tho Karlos. Wasn't trying to diss anyone with that comment (and for the record I have booted it up since then and will be using it at my next gig), so sorry if I offended. But I still prefer vinyl to everything

 

Sorry guys, this may be a silly question, but would certification also imply NI having to optimize Traktor for the respective mixer/sound card, thus achieving lower latencies? I just bought an A&H DB2 and read about the issues people are having with high latencies.

I sold my TT a couple of years ago and only use controllers, which is why scratch certification is not a huge deal for me. I however would like to ditch the TA10 if possible.

 

No, NI would not have to optimize anything. There are (were) hacks that make Traktor Scratch Pro work perfectly with non-certified mixers. The DB2 issues are related to drivers for USB3 on Mac and are specific to this mixer (and are present in the "regular" version of Traktor Pro and the Scratch version). Allen & Heath have supposedly been working on improved drivers for a LONG TIME, and have only recently released a beta version that hasn't fixed all the problems. This is really a failure on A&H's part, but hopefully they will ultimately get it sorted out.

I LOVE my DB2, but I eventually had to add an A10 to my set up, unfortunately (audio dropouts).