Ableton sound not as good as Traktor

[aGhost]

Perhaps the issue is with your audio settings on Ableton. Try switching your sample rate to 48000hz which is Traktor's default. For some reason Ableton defaults to 41000hz, so even if you're using the same soundcard, your sample rate might affect your overall sound. Also "Default SR & Pitch Conversion" should be on high quality, and mess around with your buffer size so your CPU can handle it appropriately. Hope it helps!

[xstevenx]

If you're using a Traktor Audio 6 and a DJM 800, why aren't you just sending externally to Channel 1 & 2 on the DJM and using the mixer as your master? Also, keep 44100hz as your sample rate. Rarely do you get a file with 48000hz, especially mp3s.

[tekki]

Sorry to hear about your epilepsy.

Getting back on topic:
The sound is one of the points why I moved away from Ableton to Cubase.

[deevey]

Pro and Complex warp modes dull the sound tremendously - I try to use beats mode whenever possible, but it does mean a lot more auditioning of tracks the whole way through as weirdness can occur at breakdowns or instrumental segments.

[Ronin1973]

If you're playing your selections at 0dB on each channel (assuming the songs are mastered at or near 0dB), if you put a limiter on the master section that is set a few dB below zero, you're going to be squashing your entire set unnecessarily. That's definitely going to dull the sound of your output and possibly add some distortion to the output.

If you're operating live at 48kHz and your song is at 44.1kHz, that means your rig has to spend CPU cycles calculating the sample rate conversion for how ever many tracks you have going at once. The same applies to any compressed file formats (mp3s, etc.). Decoding a 44.1kHz MP3 (even 320s) and then upconverting them to 48kHz loads your system unnecessarily, especially when you're eventually outputting to analog through a mixer or other analog input.

48kHz is usually for digital audio synced to video. Upconverting from 44.1kHz to 48kHz doesn't make the audio content sound better because of the higher resolution. It downgrades the quality, especially when transcoding in real time.

If you're going out to a mixer, then you can give yourself a very reasonable amount of headroom. You never know when something is going to accidentally come in louder than it should or if an effect is going to get carried away. Once you hit digital zero, you're sending some horrible stuff over the PA.

If you want to push a track up in volume for any reason, having the digital headroom will let you do that as well.

I come from a technical background and not a DJing one. So let me put a disclaimer on the advice. But I think it is pretty universal when talking about gain-staging audio and sample-rate converting.