Hi all
I’ve just moved to Traktor from djDecks and have been dismayed that I’m having to re-configure all my gigabytes of tracks’ BPM and cues, or at least that the paradigm seems to be pre-prepped tracks - no minor feat when setting a grid point takes 7 clicks...I’ve got a sweet new S4 and I just want to play tunes! I often succumb to temptation and just start manually mixing tracks, but while doing so I’ve often wondered why Traktor can’t ascertain the grid from my mix and save all the fiddly, silent mouse-work that gridding involves.
I decided to link up an old controller (Hercules e2) to help with the gridding, (seven clicks into one..), and realized this might be just a mapping issue. If the track is locked in Sync to the other track by Traktor, the jog remapped to shift the grid cue point back and forth, (low sensitivity), and the tempo slider remapped to control the BPM (reversed), wouldn’t the experience be like mixing, but you’re mixing by directly controlling the underlying grid?
I’m not sure the Traktor engine is up to it – I’ve found Traktor threading far less stable than djDecks, and the sync skippy especially when altered on-the-go – but if I can get it working and feeling OK it would mean you could just be mixing in the old-fashioned way, (ie, not watching wave forms and skipping about a silent track), setting up your grids as you go, (using extra buttons for setting the grid cue and lock), almost without knowing you’re working via the grid.
I’m about to try it on my Hercules controller, but if the S4 mapping allows it without disabling HID, I don’t see why the jog and tempo sliders couldn’t automatically switch to this purpose whenever Sync is on for a slave track, as the jogs and tempo sliders on the slave sync track are inoperable in Sync mode. I’ll report back here with progress.
I would massively hugely prefer this way of gridding, and I think this would contribute towards, in its own tiny way, bridging the gap between those who have only ever digi mixed by numbers, for whom Traktor and CDJs are revolutionary, and those irrationally attached to their loft full of dusty vinyl for whom Serato is a verb, noun and adjective.
As exciting as it feels to me? Or a fundamentally flawed idea? Comments and tips very welcome – I’m completely new to Traktor hence posting this for any tips in advance.
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