Midi Controllers VS Timecodes

[alien2k]

My friends first of all I don´t wont to start a battle here. Just want to listen to other experiences which are always helpful.

The story is that I love technology and that is one of the reasons I digital dj, using the vci-100 plus an external mixer. Last week I was invited by my friend who is an experienced and very good techno dj to play with him at a gig. He has played with vinyl for years and now he is moving into digital.

I went a couple of times to his house before the gig, so we could practice some vs rutines and the programming of the night. He was using 2 pioneer TTs with the audio8 and Traktor Scratch pro. After a cuple of minutes playing together at his house his software stopped recognizing his TTs and he had to continue the mix with only the mouse untill i mixed in and he restarted the software. The same problem happened twice that day. But he told me that he would borrow some CD decks on the gig and that the software loved them and didn´t have this issue. I was not so worry because I new I was going to be on stage or near stage most of the time, so if something happened with his gear I could jump in quickly.

Finally at the gig the same happened with the cd decks... the software only recognized 1 in a realiable way. So my mate ended using the mouse... When I was playing he watched me for a while and commented me how nice would be for him to be able to play the way I was. And what he means is that he noticed that I had a steady gear which allows me to do my workflow and be in cotrol of the music. While he felt that the music was in cotrol of him because he was not able to develop a wrokflow because of all the technical dificulties he was encountering.

A couple of days later he went to my place and I told him that I had little experience with timecodes but that my opinion is that being on a digital domain we needed to keep things the digital way. I mean that what the timecode+ interface does is taking a relative frequency (relative because it depends on many factors ex: quality of deck, needle, capsule, quality of cd , cables .....) and transform that relative frequency in a digital signal, wich ends being a command for your software. On the other side we have a midi controller which is conected to a digital usb port which sends a fixed digital signal for each button/knob transforming that into a command.

He told me that it made sense to him that a controller had much less probabilities of failing that a timecode system, but he feels comfortable with that gear. But now he told me he is buying a controller to have hooked up in case one of the timcecode fails.....

So at the end he feels that he will eventually depend completly from a cotroller but he is not ready yet.

What experiences have you encountered with this technology? How can my friend make the timecodes more reliable? Is it true for your oppinion that a controller is more reliable?

Cheers!

[dj3du]

Is his laptop/PC intended just for DJing? A fresh OS and Traktor install may resolve those problems.

[wrong chris]

Perhaps time code is more reliable with turntables rather than cd decks? I've never heard of this problem before, sounds rare to me.


Personally,I use only midi controllers with Traktor and I've never had any issues with stability whatsoever. It's actually comparably more solid of a rig when compared to vinyl/turntables as some friends of mine have had issues with their mixer or decks last minute at our gigs.

[alien2k]

Is his laptop/PC intended just for DJing? A fresh OS and Traktor install may resolve those problems.

Yes he has a laptop just for djing, and I helped him optimizing the OS also. I was just thinking that maybe his traktor timecode cables may be failing...

Saludos a Guayaquil!

[alien2k]

Personally,I use only midi controllers with Traktor and I've never had any issues with stability whatsoever. It's actually comparably more solid of a rig when compared to vinyl/turntables as some friends of mine have had issues with their mixer or decks last minute at our gigs.

Same for me, I arrive to the gigs with very little mental stress for my gear, its very reliable. Have not failed me yet

[BentoSan]

Perhaps time code is more reliable with turntables rather than cd decks? I've never heard of this problem before, sounds rare to me.

Actually time code is more reliable with cds

[DvlsAdvct]

I have never had a problem with the time codes for traktor scratch. There's gotta be something going on in his set up to make it happen (cables, clashing software, latency settings, etc.)

[BentoSan]

There's gotta be something going on in his set up to make it happen (cables, clashing software, latency settings, etc.)

or drivers.

[alien2k]

Yes, defentely there is something going on, considering that the same error occured with 2 diferent tts and other cd deck. But as i got little experience with that system I was not able to identify the problem. Unfortunetely my mate left for a couple of weeks. But from what you are telling me this technology is as reliable as midi?

[BentoSan]

Yes, defentely there is something going on, considering that the same error occured with 2 diferent tts and other cd deck. But as i got little experience with that system I was not able to identify the problem. Unfortunetely my mate left for a couple of weeks. But from what you are telling me this technology is as reliable as midi?

Midi is better when executed correctly - timecode vinyl has its own issues - digial only devices are the future.

The whole way timecode functions leaves something to be desired.