First Timecode Experience

[city_boy07]

From what I saw today, it's worse than that... it actually skips FORWARD by like a quarter of a beat and then starts playing, makes it basically impossible to drop a track on time.

hmm thats no good. im sure ive played with djs that have accomplished this though... shame i dnt have any contact details for em

[mdcdesign]

hmm thats no good. im sure ive played with djs that have accomplished this though... shame i dnt have any contact details for em

Well that's what I always thought... might just be a configuration issue though, makar/Karlos will know for sure either way.

[makar1]

Ahhh... I just meant the software side of things. For example, starting off with one track at 128 and another at 126, actually adjusting the tempo of track B to 128 was a NIGHTMARE. The software fader jumping around like a maniac, etc. Well... not jumping as such, just uneven movement if you know what I mean?

Yeah, for some reason the software fader is completely useless in timecode. The audio itself should change very smoothly though.

Oh he REALLY won't be happy with that lol. It's a shame NI don't make things like that clear BEFORE you buy the gear :-\ The play issue was weird... basically, you can seek fine using the jogwheel, but then pressing the Play/Pause button on the CDJ causes the track to play from the 1st cuepoint (load marker), NOT its current position. It was very, very bizarre.

It's the same for all timecode system (AFAIK). I've seen the exact same issue on Serato too.
I think I've worked out what the playing from the beginning might be though. The track starts off with a temporary cuepoint at the start; if you scroll forwards through a track on Pio CDJs and don't set a new cuepoint, it will return to the last temporary cue point once you release the jog wheel. Obviously Traktor doesn't realise this until you press play, since timecode only updates from actual playback. Pay close attention to the time info on the CDJ screen and you should see it skip back to 0:00 or something when the jog is released.
Pressing Play twice will release it from the locked cuepoint.

From what I've seen of timecode's limitations today, it makes more sense for a Traktor purist to go that route rather than timecode off the 1000s.

Yep, the only reason to use timecode today is so you can have platter/transport control in pretty much any major club without having to bring any more than a sound card and some CDs. Vinyl is another matter of course.


Edit:

MARKA, i use my tsp with vinyl. but next week im going to have to use it with the timecode cds... when you say timecode dus not support instant cueing from standstill, do you mean that if i cue a point on the cdj and then count the beats of my playin track and press play on the cdj in time with the down beat it wont play in time??

if this is the case i might just do the whole gig with just the x1?

Yes, you can't just press Play or Cue from standstill and expect it to be in time. Like I mentioned before; to get accurate cueing you must press Play, hold the track on the platter, and cue it in like a real vinyl that's sitting on a moving platter.

[mdcdesign]

Yep, the only reason to use timecode today is so you can have platter/transport control in pretty much any major club without having to bring any more than a sound card and some CDs. Vinyl is another matter of course.

Tbh I'm surprised given these limitations that even MORE DJs haven't bought X1s/K2s/Contours :-\

Also, it seems people have been having this issue for years. Which I guess is why Pioneer added HID/MIDI to their newer players.

[city_boy07]

ahh i didnt know this... how do djs use the cd timecodes then just put the cdj into 'vinyl' mode? which i dont mind doing as i play on the timecode vinyl anway.

MDC - the lag on the software pitchfader only happend to me after update 2.5

[makar1]

Something like an X1 is really a necessity for any timecode user. For browsing+loading tracks if nothing else.

You'd need 2 Contours to get the necessary jog wheels, but as I've seen already they aren't the smallest of modular controllers. I have been in booths where adding even 1 Contour would be impossible. And a sound card is far less likely to be damaged than a controller in the booth.

how do djs use the cd timecodes then just put the cdj into 'vinyl' mode?

Yes, you need to be in Vinyl Jog mode to be able to cue in tracks properly.

[mdcdesign]

You'd need 2 Contours to get the necessary jog wheels, but as I've seen already they aren't the smallest of modular controllers. I have been in booths where adding even 1 Contour would be impossible. And a sound card is far less likely to be damaged than a controller in the booth.

Don't forget there's deck a/b/c/d switches in the top right, theoretically you just need a single Contour IE for a full 4-deck setup which is nice, but yeah... some booths are painfully small lol. I usually unhook the CDJs (if there are any there) and stick 'em under the booth for the duration of my set in that case, or just slide them outwards by about 7 inches each if there's space.

[bumtsch]

-Don't look at the numbers ! Just see how many threads there are all over the place of people using timecode vinyl (where playback speed WILL jitter much more) complaining about jumpy bpm displays.
-Don't look at the software pitch fader, just hide it in the display settings.
-button cueing is wank with timecode on cdjs. As far as I could tell, manual cueing, vinyl style felt laggier on timecode cd than timecode vinyl to me anyway... but that's just how I felt. In fact, with straight files from usb too. It's probably mostly the haptics of the cdj platters vs vinyl.

Timecode feels much better on vinyl I think.

[KS2]

I didn't realise there were cueing issues like that with timecode cds.
I'm sure I've seen people cueing up regularly running a laptop but I guess that could be HID mode? Always wondered why it was meant to be so much better.

[Hippie]

Try using Relative mode and letting it run and using cue points in Traktor to jump to the point you want to play from.

And switch off the pitch fader display lol