If I had to pick only two things: Itch elastic grids + the layout and way the gridding controls on the Twitch controller work.
Now some background, I have used Traktor ever since Final Scratch 1 and used DVS for years up until about two years ago when I started just using midi controllers. Started using controllers just for cue points but then realized that I really don't give a hoot about having jog wheels, only for scratching and in that case all that makes me happy is vinyl/DVS.
So then, when I saw the Twitch I thought, holy heartfailure batman!, I really wanna take that and map the sh. out of it for Traktor. Furthermore I thought, it would -perfect- that for A/B and a K2 for full control of Traktors effects and sample decks. Alas the K2 never came, hopefully comes soon but anyway thats another story... In the mean time I procured a twitch and used it alongside a MF classic and DN-SC2000, which actually is quite a fun portable setup...
It was then during nights spent mapping it I would take breaks (all mapping and no DJing makes = sad panda) and just use Itch as it was intended. It was then that I started to fool around using the elastic beat grids to grid songs on the fly and later grid songs with tempo drift in them. After getting use to doing these things I now look at the controller and don't have this nagging feeling: "do I need to check the grid? do I need to start using the mouse?"
Now you may well point out that for a large % of EDM traktor's gridding is fine or you are a 'mastergridder' and it only takes you .1 of a nanosecond to do it on the fly... Well for me, that doesn't hold true because:
- I have much music (DnB, bass music, old funk, soul, old hip hop + other) where the tempo is not constant
- I find it tricky to work with multiple traktor grids within a single song (maybe someone can chime in with best practices for this...)
- Assuming the downbeat is set okay I find even the most coarse gained grid expand control does not move the rest of the grid as fast as the way itch has it mapped on the touchstrip (and man I have tried to replicate this... again if someone can do this let me know...)
Other reasons I am enjoying twitch/itch more than the other traktor setup I described above are:
- Slicer feature - is very nice to use for transitions, not so much to alway completely mix up a song, (IMO that gets tired quickly) but as a subtle beat repeat and then ratcheting up the touch strip to increase the speed
- Loop roll - I know with traktor you can use Beatmasher2 but then you are using an effect and I like to be able to apply the effect on top of it, also the MF IG quantize settings are fixed as opposed to all the flex you get with the 3 modes on Twitch loop roll
- Fader fx effects - Now this I can map this on Traktor, but what I am talking about here is that some ( LPF/HPF/Flanger/Repeater) of the Itch effects themselves to me seem better suited to sticking on a fader. For instance the filters, the meaty part of the filters is really right there in the middle of the fader and really nice to play with. When I map traktor fx from group mode to the fader I am yet to find really awesome sounding ones that have the meaty part in the middle of the fader, most of the fun is at the end, with the beatmasher for instance. This could however just be a matter of finding some mapping parameters that work better...
- It is soooooooo god dam portable, I mean its almost silly how light it is...
- you can store 8 loops AND 8 cue points per track
I may as well finish with what I don't like about Itch/Twitch:
- The sound output is low, for me not a big deal after using mixer gain.
- The knobs suck, but thanks to another poster I found better knobs so no worries.
- I had one where the crossfader started malfunctioning, sent it back and got a new one and now its sweet as
- I don't like the echo effect, its weak
- I think the delay effect is okay but only when used as 0 or 100%, can't use it subtlely, and its not as good as echo freeze
- the finer time settings for most effects, flanger and phaser especially sound like a train wreck
- a bunch of things not supported by Itch, midi clock out, being able to midi map stuff
So then, I'm not done with Traktor yet but if the bridge ever shows up I may well be. Or if traktor added elastic beat grids and I could replicate the gridding controls from the twitch then maybe I would do 180 on the whole thing...
Diatribe over, portable setup pic attached (decks and mixer pic for another time...).
IMG_0413[1].jpg
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