Who actually utilizes Traktor's sample decks?

[Xonetacular]

I think they are a neat idea and all, I try to like them, but I still haven't really found a good use for them in my sets. So who has found a solid workflow for utilizing sample decks with loops and stuff for electronic music and any tips or anything? I really want to like them and be able to justify incorporating them into the mix.

[Santos10]

out of curiosity what kind of music do you play & what equipment do you have?

[Belmont!]

I'm still waiting on my MFP to get here, so I haven't fully implemented sample decks yet, but I have quite a few ideas for what I want to do:

1. Drops. There have been so many times when I see a DJ playing and I have no idea who he is and I can't find a flier or bill so I just give and stop caring. Having a drop for your DJ name that's interesting and doesn't take away from your mix too much feels like something really beneficial, to me.

2. More interesting mixes. Taking bits from the next song and turning them into samples can help sprinkle a little bit of one song into another. Obviously there's lots of room to go wrong here, but the idea is to blend the songs even further together. I've always liked mixes where I can't remember when the song changed over.

3. Acapellas! Wait a minute, I don't remember this song having vocals! I've always wanted to drop some really random or obscure vocal cut or quote from a movie or something into the breakdowns of some of my songs.

[MaxOne]

I'm still waiting on my MFP to get here, so I haven't fully implemented sample decks yet, but I have quite a few ideas for what I want to do:

1. Drops. There have been so many times when I see a DJ playing and I have no idea who he is and I can't find a flier or bill so I just give and stop caring. Having a drop for your DJ name that's interesting and doesn't take away from your mix too much feels like something really beneficial, to me.

2. More interesting mixes. Taking bits from the next song and turning them into samples can help sprinkle a little bit of one song into another. Obviously there's lots of room to go wrong here, but the idea is to blend the songs even further together. I've always liked mixes where I can't remember when the song changed over.

3. Acapellas! Wait a minute, I don't remember this song having vocals! I've always wanted to drop some really random or obscure vocal cut or quote from a movie or something into the breakdowns of some of my songs.

Can do most of that with 3/4 decks and loops as it is...

I don't use the sample decks at all. In fact I hate em.

Maybe one day i'll learn to love em.

[VirtualLogic]

I don't use them because I don't have buttons left to map them to, but I'm building a controller that will let me

[amidoinitrite]

I'll take 8 cues over 4 sample slots any day.

[photojojo]

The thing you can't do with three or four decks and loops is control the volume and filter of each sample. I'll usually run the deck volume full and control each slot individually with the X1.

As far as my workflow goes I will almost always grab a bit from either the beginning, a break in the middle, or the end. I'll incorporate samples from the upcoming song into the playing track. After a little while I've got several samples from previous points in the mix loaded into the sample decks that I can throw into the mix.

I find that at the most I'll have maybe four or five sample slots going at the same time with varying levels of volume. By the end of a two hour set all of the slots will be full, but not active. Usually, at least one of those slots is something from real early in the mix.

This is old, but probably the best example of all that that I've done.

Sunday Technohouse session

I also use them for radio ID's, but that's really a no brainer.

[MaxOne]

In fairness i don't have an S4...

But i tried mapping my LPD8 to them and just couldn't get into them.

Im toying with buying an x1 anyway, I'm sure there is a sampler mapping. I might get that and then get into em.

[carl]

I'll take 8 cues over 4 sample slots any day.

you cant play 4 of the 8 cues from the same deck at the same time, with a sample deck, you can

[Xonetacular]

out of curiosity what kind of music do you play & what equipment do you have?

S4, X1s, ipad midifighter... I've got plenty of gear to utilize them I still havent found a way to really incorporate them into a set though. It seems like a lot of prep work to do anything useful.

I would like to be able to pull an auto loop from a playing deck and make it so it seamlessly switches from playing the loop on the track deck to playing the loop from the sample deck and stopping or mutting the track deck so I can then move to somewhere else in the track on the track deck and bring the track back in somewhere else. It's hard to do that manually on the s4 to get it so you're not doubling up on the loop when you turn the sample deck you dropped the loop into on.