Advanced Usage Tutorials

Starting from a particular point in a track (for mixing in, triggering, etc.) is called “cueing”. Traktor lets you mark points for cueing and for directly jumping to particular positions—so called Cue Points. Cue Points can be stored for each track which allows you to re-use them at a later stage or in a later session. With the eight Hotcue buttons on the CUE page in the Advanced Panel, you can store your most important Cue Points (and Loops) and trigger them any time with a click. Besides jumping to particular positions of a track e.g., beginning vocals, instrumentals or breaks, Cue Points can also be used for creative techniques such as remixing parts of a track or beat-juggling performances.

Traktor provides several Cue Point types for several purposes. This section gives a detailed description of the different Cue Point Types available in the Cue Type drop-down menu, featured on the CUE page in the Advanced panel:

Cue Point types in the Waveform and Stripe.

To manage your Cue Points in a track, you need to open the CUE page in the Advanced Panel:

Setting Cue Points is straight forward. On a paused Deck:

When you now playback the track and you click the CUE button in the transport controls, the playhead jumps directly to the Cue Point.

Cue Points can be stored to the CUE List.

Cue Points can be nudged from the Cue Page in the Advanced Panel.

The Nudge buttons can be mapped to your midi controller via the Controller Manager.

When you have stored a number of Cue Points in the CUE list you can select them individually to jump to the respective position in the track.

Skipping to the Next/Previous Stored Cue Point

Selecting Cue Points from the CUE List

You can jump to Cue Point positions in the track by selecting the Cue Point directly from the CUE list:

You can rename any stored Cue Point in a track:

You can change the Cue Point Type using the Cue Type menu, which is featured on the CUE page in the Advanced Panel.

The following Cue Point Types are available in the Cue Type drop-down menu:

Procedure

If you want to delete a stored Cue Point permanently, perform the following:

This section explains how you set Fade Out Points and Fade In Cue Points for tracks to be mixed automatically. For this to work, you have to set a Fade Out Cue Point in one track and a Fade In Cue Point in the other track. While a Fade Out Cue Point always triggers the playback of the next track, a Fade In Cue Point triggers no action. Fade In and Fade Out Cue Points also work when using Cruise mode.

Defining the Fade Out Point in the First Track in Deck A

Defining the Fade In Point in the Second Track in Deck B

When you start the playback of the track in Deck A and the playhead crosses the Fade Out Cue Point, the track in Deck B will automatically begin playing from its Fade In Cue Point.

A Loop is a snippet of audio that repeats (loops). Loops are used as tools for remixing parts of tracks and as a way to extend track transitions. The length or size of Loops differ but are always beat-accurate. This means Loops always stick to the beat.

Available Auto-Loop Sizes

In Traktor you can trigger a loop using one of the following predefined loop sizes automatically:

You can also define the loop start and loop end manually with the help of dedicated Loop IN and OUT buttons.

To enable looping on a playing track:

By pressing the ACTIVE button when no Loop is activated, this will enable the next Loop stored in the track.

You can also enable Looping with a customized Loop size:

On a playing Deck:

To disable Looping:

As with Cue Points you can also store Loops and return to them at a later point. Loops are stored on the CUE page in the Advanced Panel.

To store the active Loop:

Besides using the Hotcue buttons you can alternatively use the STORE button in the CUE page to store loops in the CUE list.

You can also quickly move the current Loop across your track by using the MOVE tab in the Advanced Panel:

The Loop In and Loop Out modes allow you to move the Loop In Point and the Loop Out Point of the activated Loop. This will change the Loop size making it smaller or larger by a set amount when the Cue Move BWD/FWD buttons are used.

Procedure

Assigning FX Units to Mixer channels is straight forward. In order to assign an FX Unit to a Mixer channel:

FX Units can operate in one of three different modes, Single, Group, and Pattern Player. You can switch between Single and Group directly in the respective FX Unit, while Pattern Player needs to be selected in the Effects Preferences.

To select Single FX mode or Group FX mode for an FX Unit:

An FX Unit in Single FX mode can be recognized on the single dot next to the FX Unit number. An FX Unit in Group FX mode shows three dots.

To select Pattern Player mode:

In Single FX mode you have full control over all the parameters of one effect:

Selecting an Effect

Modulate the Effect Behavior

Control the Mix between the Effect Signal and the Original Signal

Resetting the Parameter Settings

In Group FX mode you can use and control up to three effects in one FX Unit:

Selecting Effects

Switching Effects On and Off

Controlling the Effect Amounts

Controlling the Mix of the Effect Signal and the Original Signal

Resetting the Effect Settings

The Pattern Player is a new Traktor performance tool that allows you to add rhythmic samples on top of your tracks to bring in more variations. This tool has been designed to be great for performance and create tons of possibilities to enrich your mix. The Pattern Player is only available for Traktor Pro Plus users.

Pattern Player Overview

The Pattern Player contains the following elements.

Note

This feature is exclusively available as part of the Traktor Pro Plus subscription. Learn more here: https://www.native-instruments.com/en/specials/traktor/traktor-pro-plus/.

1. Mode Selection: The Pattern Player is a new effect unit mode, as are “single” and “group” modes. It can be used in send, post fader and insert mode like any other effect. The Pattern Player is enabled by selecting it via the FX Mode selection. For more information, refer to Using the FX Unit in Pattern Player Mode

2. Volume knob: Adjust the volume of the sample and the sidechain depth if ducking is enabled.

3. Kit Display: Choose between different sample and pattern collections.

4. Pattern Selection knob: Select from among the different patterns. They are sorted by increasing activity to get the most intuitive feeling.

5. Pitch knob: Repitch continuously each sample from -12 semitones to +12 semitones. Note that there is no time-stretching algorithm involved to keep the sample best audio quality. This implies that up-pitching a sample shortens it and down-pitching a sample makes it longer.

6. Decay knob: Set the decay of the sample. Decay time is relative to the sample length and goes from almost-instant decay to full sample length. It also adjusts the release time of the ducking envelope from 200ms to 500ms.

7. Ducking on/off: When ducking is enabled, the track affected by the effect is sidechained to the Pattern Player sample. This is very useful if you want to push the Pattern Player sound forward. The amount of sidechain is modulated by the sample volume and its decay by the sample decay.

8. Sample selection: Switch to the next or previous sample in the list. There’s a kick, clave, snare, clap, closed hi-hat, open hi-hat, shaker and ride in the default 808 kit. Each sample has its own pattern bank that has been designed to be as musical as possible.

9. Pattern visualization: Thanks to the visualization you always know what the selected pattern looks like, where the play marker is and if the Pattern Player is running correctly.

10. Play/Stop: Starting the pattern restarts the pattern on the first beat and syncs it with Traktor’s master clock. Note that the first beat of the Pattern Player will always fall on the nearest beat to allow intuitive syncing.

Advanced Operation of the Pattern Player

The Pattern Player can be used in a number of advanced ways to add a pattern element to your Traktor performances.

Pattern Players Applied to a Deck

The Pattern Player has been designed to allow it to interact with the sound from a specific deck via the ducking effect. This effect can be used with every type of sample serving different purposes.

The most obvious use case is enabling ducking with kick samples to make a track more dancefloor-friendly when low frequencies are weak, but other configurations are possible.

Pattern Player as a Single Deck

To assign the Pattern Player to an empty deck:

1. Click on the FX unit Mode Selection dropdown.

2. Choose Pattern Player.

By using the Pattern Player this way you can have full independent control of the sample by using EQ and Filters.

For further creative options, apply other effects to this deck.

Note

Effects are chained according to the order : 1 > 2 > 3 > 4. This means that any effect you apply on this deck would affect the Pattern Player which opens up a lot of possibilities as Traktor contains a number of effects.

Pattern Player in Send, Insert, and Post Fader Modes

The Pattern Player can be used in send, insert or post fader modes.

• In post fader mode, the Pattern Player volume is independent of the deck volume, filter and EQ. This allows you to keep the signal from the Pattern Player intact during transitions.

• In insert mode, the Pattern Player sound is processed in the deck that it’s applied to. This means that you can use the EQ to add even more variations with the Mixer effects filters.

• In send mode, your Pattern Player can be treated as a fifth deck. This mode is only available in external mixing mode. You can also inject your external signal into the input FX (send) from your mixer and use the ducking function of the Pattern Player before sending back the result via the output FX return.

• Note

  Note that you can send several Pattern Player units, creating a whole drum machine that you can then treat externally and add to the rest of your mix via a live input deck or in an external hardware mixer.

Pattern Editing

The steps of each pattern can be enabled and disabled to create edits of the preconfigured factory patterns.

To edit a pattern:

• Click on the squares in the pattern grid to add or remove steps in the pattern.

Pattern Player Edits Retention

Edits that you make to patterns are recalled when turning the Pattern Selection control back and forth.

The Pattern Player control configuration can be stored using the Snapshot function in the Mode Selection drop down. This way each Kit will be loaded in its preferred configuration .

To store a snapshot:

• Click the Mode Selection dropdown on the FX unit and select Save Snapshot

You can save the current parameter settings in the FX unit in a snapshot:

A STEM File is a track in the file format stem.mp4 that contains four audio tracks (STEM Parts). Each STEM Part represents one of the key elements, for example, drums, percussions, synths, vocals, of the entire track. By default when a STEM File is played back in Traktor all STEM Parts are audible and summarize to an entire track.

STEM Files have to be Analyzed Before they can be Loaded

Due to the large amount of data that must be read from a STEM File, it is necessary that STEM Files are analyzed before loading into a STEM Deck. It is not possible to load and play a STEM File before it has been analyzed.

For more information on how to analyze tracks or STEM files, refer to Analyzing Tracks Manually.

To load a STEM File from the Track Collection:

In order to play back a STEM File:

In order to adjust the volumes for the individual STEM Parts or take them completely out:

Resetting STEM Part Volumes

In order to reset STEM Part volumes:

In order to apply a Filter effect to key elements of the music:

Resetting Filter FX in STEM Parts

In order to reset Filter FX:

In order to apply FX Send to key elements of the music:

Resetting FX Send Parameters in STEM Parts

In order to reset FX Send parameters:

A Remix set is a collection of Samples to be loaded into a Remix Deck at once. A Remix Set can contain up to 64 Samples organized in the Sample Grid. The Sample Grid consists of four Columns containing 16 Sample Cells each. When a Remix Set is loaded into a Remix Deck, the first 16 Samples are visible in the four Sample Slots, with four Samples per Sample Slot.

To load a Remix Set from your Track Collection:

The Remix Deck provides an internal Quantize mode in order to let the Samples trigger at the right beat in the internal timeline. The Quantize value can be determined in the Deck Tempo display in the Deck Header:

To enable Quantize mode for the Remix Deck:

In order to trigger Samples in Sample Cells, proceed as follows:

The Sample Grid can contain up to 64 Samples over four pages with 16 Samples each.

To scroll through the Sample Grid pages:

The volume level of any Sample Slot can be adjusted and the Sample Slot itself can be muted:

Adjusting Sample Slot Volume

Resetting Sample Slot Volume

Muting Sample Slots

Any Sample Slot contains a Filter control for applying a high-pass or low-pass filter immediately:

Resetting the Filter

To reset the Filter:

When adjusting the Remix Deck's tempo or syncing the Remix Deck to the Tempo Master, you can prevent the Sample changing its pitch by locking the key for the individual Sample Slots:

Using the FX Unit(s) assigned to the Remix Deck's Mixer channel has no effect by default. In order to use the FX Units the Sample Slots need to be send to the FX Units individually.

To route individual Sample Slots into the Headphone Cue channel:

When triggering another Sample in the Sample Slot, the new Sample starts playback from its start position, independently from the playhead position of the previous Sample. When Punch mode is activated for the Sample Slot, the triggered Sample will start the playback from the playhead position of the previous Sample.

To enable Slot Punch Mode:

When importing tracks into the Track Collection Traktor recognizes tracks shorter than 10 seconds and categorizes them as Samples. You can find the Samples in the All Samples subfolder in the Track Collection.

Before you can load Samples into a Remix Deck, you need to create an empty Remix Set. This is done by assigning a Deck to a Remix Deck:

You can load Samples into Sample Cells directly from Traktor’s Track Collection:

When a Sample Cell already contains a Sample, loading another Sample to the Sample Cell replaces the Sample.

You can capture Samples directly from Track Decks on the fly:

If the Track Deck you captured from was not playing a Loop, the Remix Deck will still capture a Sample from it, but it will instead take it from the current playback position. The Sample will automatically be cut to the length of the selected Loop size in the Loop control bar in the Track Deck.

When loading or capturing Samples, Traktor randomly assigns a color to the Samples. However, you can change the color of Samples in Sample Cells to your liking:

This section introduces you to the several parameter settings for adjusting your Samples in your Remix Set.

To export Remix Sets: