Seamless transitions between large bpm ranges with Traktor using midi modifiers

[epsy]

This is something I had considered and plotted for awhile, before figuring out a way to make it happen. As a DJ that spins both faster and slower tempos of electronic music, it was important to find a way to give myself the flexibility of being able to transition seamlessly between say 140bpm to 170bpm, while also being able to beatmatch my set by ear.

Basically what this will allow you to do is press a button that toggles between the pitch fader range of 8% and 35%.
Here is the mapping you'll want to use. K. Let's get nerdy. For the sake of example we will assign the key that toggles between the fader range to the letter G on your qwerty keyboard.

---
modifier 1 / interaction mode "HOLD" / mapped to (G) / assignment "GLOBAL" /
modifier conditions - value 0
button options "set to value 1"
----
modifier 1 / interaction mode "HOLD" / mapped to (G) / assignment "GLOBAL" /
modifier conditions - value 1
button options "set to value 0"
----
tempo range / assignment "DECK A" / interaction mode "HOLD" / map to G / condition m1=0
button options "set value to 35%"
make a duplicate of this and assign condition m1=1 to the duplicate and set the value to 8%
-
tempo range / assignment "DECK B" / interaction mode "HOLD" / map to G / condition m1=0
button options "set value to 35%"
make a duplicate of this and assign condition m1=1 to the duplicate and set value to 8%
-
tempo range / assignment "DECK C" / interaction mode "HOLD" / map to G / condition m1=0
button options "set value to 35%"
make a duplicate of this and assign condition m1=1 to the duplicate and set value to 8%
-
tempo range / assignment "DECK D" / interaction mode "HOLD" / map to G / condition m1=0
button options "set value to 35%"
make a duplicate of this and assign condition m1=1 to the duplicate and set value to 8%
----

Now anytime you hit the G on your keyboard you will see that moving the pitch fader toggles between 8% and 35% pitch range. Now you can use your fader to beatmatch with 8% as one normally would. Hit the G on your keyboard and you can raise the pitch fader to start making the tune go from say 140bpm to 175 seamlessly. Then hit G again to go back down to 8%, and continue to melt face.

Here are some things to consider. You will run into these situations using this technique, so it's a very good idea to take the following into account.

1.Disable the musical note icons in Traktor's decks. You want the pitch to follow the tempo in this case like a real turntable. A 170 bpm tune slowed down to even 150 sounds horrible when traktor changes the tempo 20/30bpm +- without changing the pitch also.

2. Let's say you have a tune at 130bpm and you want to segue it into another tune at 160bpm. When in 35% fader range try to get the 130bpm tune as close to 160 before mixing in the next tune. When the 160bpm tune starts in. If you hit the G key and the music player over the speakers is say 2bpm higher than it's original tempo (162bpm), hitting G will suddenly cause the tune to go up like 8bpm instead (168bpm). It sounds abrupt and jarring.

3. find fast tunes that sound decent slowed down and slow tunes that sound decent sped up by 20+/- bpm. Toss them all into their own playlist in traktor for quick and easy access midset.


Now let's hear it in practice . Below is a recording from Beltek (roots 2011). Start listening around 35:30 in.
Instead of going the obvious route and ramping a 170bpm tune down to 140, I mixed a 170bpm tune with an 85bpm one and then brought the 85bpm tune down to 70bpm, before mixing in the 140bpm track. Actual bpms are surely different, but I am using simple figures for the sake of explanation.

It goes from a straight up dnb tune to massive attack and finally an addison groove track. The massive attack tune was half the speed of the dnb tune, so it was easy to mix in. Massive attack tune is originally 80bpm. I pitched it up slightly to 85bpm mix with the 170bpm dnb tune beforehand. 85x2=170. So once the massive attack tune is playing around 85bpm I activated the pitch fader to go 35% instead of 8%. I bring the pitch down from 85bpm to 70bpm. Then I mix in a tune that is 140bpm. 70x2=140bpm. After I mix in the last tune I hit G again to go 8%. Now I can beatmatch the next 140 range tune no problem and the music never stopped.

http://kobnet.net/~epsy/undrig/djsets/Undrig-Roots.mp3

[dj sterilize]

This looks like it has a lot of potential I'll map it and try it out this weekend and give you some feedback. Thanks for the input!