Slicer Function: Why Is It So Hard For Traktor?

[tehmeck]

Hi all, i'm a diehard traktor user because of all of its blatant superiorities in almost every facet of the wonderful program. However, recent developments are forcing me to consider other options, and honestly i don't want to do that.

I went over to do some tagging with my friend, he has the DDJ-SX, which i thought was a fairly nice piece of equipment, but nothing special. That is, until i started playing around with it and switched the pads to the slicer function. It blew my mind, its quite possibly the most utilizable live remixing function i've ever seen.

(Skip to 2:00, my timed link isnt working)


This was before Traktor 2.7 was released, so i googled it like mad and found out through Ryan Dejaegher's video (on a slicer workaround) that yes, traktor was going to be releasing this in a future update! I waited patiently for the update to arrive, and on the day of the release i spent hours mapping it to my QuNeo, only to discover that it doesn't work the same way.

Pioneer's slicer splits the phrase up into 8 parts, moves along them, and once it is at the 8th beat, it snaps over to the next 8 beats in the song, meaning you always have the current 8 beats available for slicing. It also cues up the buttons you press and makes sure that they are all in time; even if you hammer beat one 8 times in the space of 2 beats, it plays 8 instances of beat one all in sync.

Traktor's slicer splits the phrase up into 8 parts as well, but it does not do this automatically; you must toggle freeze mode when you want to slice. It also doesnt cue up the beats in sync; it acts like regular hotcues, where you have to hold them down for the length of time you want them to play for. If you have flux mode on it will jump(leap) to where you should have been in the song, but then you must re-toggle freeze mode, which makes it literally impossible to play with, say, the last and first beats of two 8beat phrases in a row.

This is not what i'm looking for. I have done lots of research into this but it seems like the only thing that might even closely resemble it is the VCI-400SE, which is very rare, and doesnt have a clear video showing how the feature works. Is there a way to get the pioneer style slicer in traktor?

Please, DJTT, please tell me i am wrong and i am just not doing it correctly, because i am seriously considering switching to Serato simply for this function.

[Stewe]

The Freeze mode works differently than the Serato Slicer function. It will rather freeze a track and let you play different slices for the part of the track which is selected.

Even though the Freeze Mode isn't designed to do Serato Slices that concept already lives in Traktor and can be "awaken" if you manage to automate the Freeze ON button to toggle on each 8 beats. (some mapping wizardy required)

[tehmeck]

Even though the Freeze Mode isn't designed to do Serato Slices that concept already lives in Traktor and can be "awaken" if you manage to automate the Freeze ON button to toggle on each 8 beats. (some mapping wizardy required)

Thanks for the reply

This is true, but it still doesnt solve the issue of syncing up the beats. Having to hold the cue button for just the right length is incredibly difficult, especially when trying to focus on other things like mixing. I've found the slicer to be a wonderful tool for transitions as you can create your own patterns/buildups on the fly.

[frankiefilth]

There must be something wrong with your mapping -- There shouldn't be any reason to hold the slice pads, just tap them like in your video. The only difference I see to your Serato demo is that Traktor won't automatically generate a new set of slice points once the current set has passed. If I understand your sync problem correctly, you should try activating global quantization. I'm pretty sure your beat grids are also going to play a role here..

[tehmeck]

There must be something wrong with your mapping -- There shouldn't be any reason to hold the slice pads, just tap them like in your video. The only difference I see to your Serato demo is that Traktor won't automatically generate a new set of slice points once the current set has passed. If I understand your sync problem correctly, you should try activating global quantization. I'm pretty sure your beat grids are also going to play a role here..

Thanks for your reply. I'm going to try re-mapping this and see if global quantization makes any difference. I'm fairly certain i always have it enabled, but i made this mapping so long ago that i lost it.

Is there any way, perhaps by modifier tricks, that it could auto generate the next set of slices?

[frankiefilth]

As Stewe mentioned, it may be possible to automate the freeze mode on command through some tricky mapping. I'm pretty sure you can get somewhat close to what you're looking for but, it seems you would have to commit to the same length and number of slices every time you freeze, for the sake of mapping. I could be wrong but, it seems this would involve specific beat jumps and other commands to execute this automation.

[tehmeck]

Any idea what tricks i would have to use? I'm familiar with mapping but i havent done anything with modifiers besides adding a "shift" button to my setup to allow for more controls.

[frankiefilth]

I'm not quite sure what all would be involved. Unfortunately I don't get enough free time to help you experiment with this, or I would. These links may, or may not, give you some information or at least some ideas: Link 1 Link 2

I hope you get where ya wanna be with this, good luck!

[Stewe]

Fun fact is that the article from your link#1 is inspired by the mapping ides somebody originally thought of in the forum thread by your link#2

Just saying...

[tehmeck]

There must be something wrong with your mapping -- There shouldn't be any reason to hold the slice pads, just tap them like in your video. The only difference I see to your Serato demo is that Traktor won't automatically generate a new set of slice points once the current set has passed. If I understand your sync problem correctly, you should try activating global quantization. I'm pretty sure your beat grids are also going to play a role here..

mymappingdoesntwork.jpg

I've got snap and quantize enabled, and this is all i have in my mapping, but i am still getting the issue where the slice only plays when i am holding down the button... as soon as i take my finger off it jumps back to where it should have been. Any idea how to get it to cue up the slices like serato?

I'm using a QuNeo if that makes any difference. Toggle mode on the mapping doesnt help. just keeps playing it until i hit it again.