Need help, I'm lost: traktor pro 2 / s4 / ableton

[Yul]

Ok, just don't throw me stones yet: I'm made my researches first and what I've found are half answers, tutorials for mac, threads were few answers were given, etc... I'm fully aware parts of my question(s) have been answered partly somewhere but I'm just lost. I have seen endo's tutorials, Armyofme's one but that wasn't of any help either. I checked blog entries from djtt but as they're quite a bit old, they didn't help too. I used Google and different searches here and on NI's forum, I really tried to do my homework before asking but if one could give a hand, that would be awesome (and you'll get eternal recognition, you'll get cookies and lot of maidens in the after life, I promise - well, kind of).

This what I'd like to do:
I want to route the sound coming from tp2 to ableton so I can use vst effects on that. I don't want to route each deck individually. I do have a pc 'so get a mac' isn't a viable answer. I've used Loopbe1, jack audio, tried and tried and tried but really no luck. I'm lost with jack audio, not sure about the settings. Only managed to get a signal from TP to ableton it seems but then no sound coming out from ableton. In the end I'm not even sure I can do that with only the internal soundcard of the s4 (and eventually the built-in one from the computer).

A clear step by step for dummies like me would be great. And if one exist (for windows), now you can send me stones.
Please? Thanks in advance.

[padi_04]

I'm not familiar with doing it on a PC, but your soundcard shouldn't matter, as everything is managed virtually until Ableton outputs.

[Yul]

I finally managed to do it (kind of); routing tp2/s4 output to an audio track inside ableton using jackaudio. And getting sound out of Ableton hopefully (but not a clue about routing it back to Traktor's master out so it went to the main computer's out). But then, the latency induced by jackaudio being ridiculous (tried different settings with no success), trying to use vst on that is just out of the question. As for syncing traktor and ableton, not really any luck (I mean in practical sense considering once again considering the latency and using loopbe1). By the way, that may be a dumb question but if the s4 is using hid protocol how I'm supposed to send midi clock here, don't really understand. It seems it worked in a sense but not that okay.


So....I suppose get a mac could be the answer in the end. That sucks.

[BrokN9]

mmm, Im interested in how its done aswell... I tryed with midiyoke... didn't work well

[emaceratus]

-Hey, been messing around with the same idea, on Mac, but I found out it's not even necessary to route everythin back. And there is no simple step by step tutorial available, simply because it isn't simple

-But you will definitely need a virtual soundcard for windows environment (like virtual audio cable)

-Have a look at dj Endo's 2 tutorials on Syncin Ableton with Traktor, just to understand the how and why of it. (Google it !)
Then have a look at this tutorial http://www.djtechtools.com/2008/04/0...-with-ableton/

-Why not route it back ? Mixing within Ableton allows you to correct every move you made after recording a set. Look on the web for Tarekith dj-fx vst (it's free), it's the best dj-eq for Ableton I have seen so far. It contains a preset for a xone 4-band eq and a 3-band eq both with 0db at the centerpoint of the knobs.
Another possibility is Maffialife's djm-vst (also free), it's only for Windows-environment, so I have no experience with it.

-Yet it is possible to send everything back, route your collected sounds to a traktor deck, set as live input, then route the outputs from the same deck straight to your speakers.
In Ableton you'll have to route the sound back via the master output or a return track.

-Also know that you need 2 virtual inputs laterally/straightly connected to 2 virtual outputs, per link between Traktor and Ableton.
And that S4 controller can be configured in ableton as soundcard-output bypassing the virtual soundcard.

-The S4 has a major drawback in this situation, the only way to get the S4 to work as controller in Ableton is to set it in midi mode (try shift+browse button). But then you'll lose the high resolution for jogs, pitchfaders and the default mapping !


Anywayz...

Happy experimenting

[Yul]

As I said, I finally managed it , I also mentioned I did look around but most of the tutorials are for mac and really of not much help, especially when it comes to the windows version of jack audio.
But my main issue was latency (maybe because I was lost in the settings of jack audio - not as straightforward as a mac), I can't tell why exactly for sure but in the end that wasn't practical and realistic so I leave that for the time being and save pennies for a mac, one day.

Thanks for your input.

[smiTTTen]

I just spent the last 24 hours screwing around trying to set this up. Audio routing through JackAudio is simple enough - the midi piece is bugging me right now..... Yul - do you have any tips mate?

SmiTTTen

[Yul]

What do you call the midi piece? You mean configuring the s4 so it can control ableton? If so, not much tips. Use the controller editor to set up buttons mainly, buttons are set to 'gate' type. Note that using shift doesn't send a midi signal in itself but changes all the midi notes and messages for all other controls. I'm not literate with Ableton, may be Padi should be the best one to ask.
But really I didn't even reach the stage where I needed to control ableton by midi, I was stuck at the audio routing and didn't push forward. Same thing for syncing the two because of the high latency.


What's the latency you got with jack audio, mine is way too high (23ms as the buffer size is 512 and can't be changed) so it's impractical to play with ableton (or even inside traktor by the way)?