Traktor waveform display scales to fit problem

[MiL0]

Anyone else bugged by this? Let's say you've got 2 tracks loaded up in Decks A and B. One is 4 minutes long and the other is 8 minutes long. When you view the waveform display, both waveforms are exactly the same length; they've been stretched/compacted so that they fit into a fixed horizontal space within Traktor.

Now, this is fine for most uses but how does it help when you want to time two tunes to drop at the same time? I guess you can set up a load of cue points and then use the track time cue display to work out how long it is until the track drops but that's really inconvienient. With vinyl, you can pretty easily work out that one tune is going to drop after a minute or so. This means you can easily time one tune to drop just as the other tune is breaking down. It'd be so much easier if you could set Traktor so that both waveforms were scaled the same amount.

Anyone else got any other ways of getting round this problem?

[BentoSan]

Use the beats to cue function in the track view settings - that way you can see how many beats/bars there are too the next cuepoint. Makes for eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaasy double drops

[janzak]

Bentosan, care to explain the use of that technique?

[DvlsAdvct]

It's really simple.

You put the Beats To Cue in your display window. This tells you how many beats there are until the next cue point. So, you have your cue points lined up on the drops for every song. You go into the breakdown, wait for them both to be the same distance and hit play. Voila. The breakdowns will be perfectly in line.

I use Beats to Cue for this, and I use Beats From Cue for cue-ing up my tracks to make sure they are lined up properly

[janzak]

Ah clever function! I've been meaning to ask you veterans how you setup your cue points. So you put one, let's say, 16 beats from the drop, where you put another cue point?

I'm assuming you use a system for cueing and I'm really setting up my tracks now so any hints would be helpful

[BentoSan]

So you put one, let's say, 16 beats from the drop

Actually i personally put that cue point right on top of the drop so i know how many beats there are until the track drops

[DvlsAdvct]

I'll set my cue point on the drop as well. If I have the space I'll put it at the start of the break and at the drop. This way I can do more complicated mixes where the tracks drop, then break and then drop again at the same time.

With a creative use of filters and loops that can turn into a really powerful mix.

[janzak]

Ok so silly followup question, you go to the drop cue point and then move back X beats using beatjump et voíla? I've been thinking about mapping beatjump to the controller but before I make a fool out of myself, maybe there's already a function for that?

Thanks guys

[miyuru]

I place cues at the major parts of the song (intro/bridge/chorus/etc.). I've never used beat-to-cue but I should. Instead I've just learned to read waveforms really really well And I know my songs really well. But yeah beats-to-cue would help out a lot, as a lot of songs will follow a regular 32 beat/phrase structure but then will throw in an extra 4 beats here and there.

[DvlsAdvct]

Ok so silly followup question, you go to the drop cue point and then move back X beats using beatjump et voíla? I've been thinking about mapping beatjump to the controller but before I make a fool out of myself, maybe there's already a function for that?

Thanks guys

This is how I'll do it for a standard double drop in the psytrance sets I've been working on.

Track A is playing
I have a cue at the breakdown and drop in both Track A and Track B.
I have Track B cued up to the break
When Track A hits its break I play Track B.
I follow the Beats to Cue (BTC)
If they are not identical I'll do a quick beatjump on Track B to line them up
I'll fade Track B in and EQ the two songs so they will not become overwhelming
Track A and B will both drop at the same time and create an deeper song.

This does take some prep work to make sure your grids are perfect, but if they are then you should be fine. Now, you can do some interesting Beat Jumping in this exercise with the two breaks, setting them off by 4 beats, or jumping around by 1 or 2 so that the melody changes for one, or both, of the breaks. Just be careful so that you don't mess up your drop points and end up a beat off