Traktor 2.10 stress test
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  1. #1

    Default Traktor 2.10 stress test

    Hello everyone, let me start by saying that this post is not for everyone. After researching online, and finding a bunch of nonsense, I decided to to test and stress test some more traktor 2.10. I tested the software with my mid 2012 macbook pro, running 10.9.5 Mavericks. I noticed that the primary issues are all on Windows based machines running TSP. I am using midi (Denon sc2000) and a Z2 mixer.
    I must say this version seems very snappy, imports went smooth and cpu load is way below average. I was running 2.6.8 and cpu load was not bad but not as low as this. I loaded 4 decks, 2 track decks, 2 remix decks. I loaded to tracks with sync on, keylock, and 4 effects. The remix decks were loaded and I had deck C & D playing 8 samples. After loading and unloading tracks and samples traktor ran flawlessly. No glitching, or freezing. I tried my hardest and it ran perfectly. The problems encountered must be a Windows compatibility issue, TSP, updated versions of osx, and of course un-optimized windows and or macs.

    If your a seasoned DJ ignore this part, but for you newbies out there.
    First thing to to do is disable your screen saver!
    Second thing is disable sleep options, you don't want your computer to go to sleep in the middle of your set.
    Make sure to turn off airport and bluetooth.
    disable spotlight indexing
    Have you ever seen the Spotlight magnifying glass icon with a pulsating dot in the middle? Did you notice your Mac running super sluggish while this was occurring? This is Spotlight creating a virtual index of all the files and folders in your system (i.e., indexing), allowing Spotlight to quickly search your drives. For everyday use, this is fine and not too much of a nuisance, but when using resource intensive audio applications, having Spotlight suddenly start indexing in the middle of your set can be disastrous.

    The easiest way to prevent indexing is to adjust your Spotlight Privacy settings. The only hitch, Spotlight will no longer be able to search the drives you make ‘private.’ If you’re a Spoltight addict, don’t worry, you can easily remove your drives from the Privacy list to restore searchability after your gig is over.



    Open System Preferences by clicking the System Preferences icon on your dock.
    Click on Spotlight.
    Click on Privacy.
    Click the + sign in the bottom left corner, click on the drive you want to make ‘private,’ and then click Choose. Repeat the above process for each drive you wish to add to the Privacy list.
    To remove the drive, click on the drive icon listed and use the – key.

    Disable widgets! You might not know this, but those little Widgets, hiding out in Dashboard, eat-up your RAM, even if Dashboard itself is closed. The remedy is easy, open Dashboard and disable all Widgets except for one. OSX requires at least one Widget to be active, not sure why exactly, so leave something like Stickies running.

    disable infrared (IR) reception
    Disabling IR reception is seldom mentioned in Mac optimization articles, but definitely worth doing. All it takes is some joker in the club to point an Apple remote at your Mac and click a button to bring your set to a grinding halt. If you’re using OSX 10.6.8 or earlier, an Apple remote click activates Front Row—a media center application for viewing videos, photos, music, etc.—and completely overrides all programs you’re using, yikes! Your best defense is to disable IR on your Mac.

    disable automatic graphics switching
    If you’re using a MacBook Pro (15” or 17”) built in 2010 or newer, your computer may have two graphics cards, one for normal use and one for high performance. By default your Mac is setup to automatically switch between the two. When using graphic intensive programs for DJing or visuals, it’s recommended to use the higher performance card. The problem is, by default, your Mac chooses which one to use and when to switch. If you're experiencing intermittent stutter, lag or performance issues, this could be partially to blame. Switch your Mac to the higher performance card and take the guess work out of it.

    disable time machine
    I’m all for backing-up and doing it often. If you’ve never made a system backup or if it’s been more than a few months since your last backup, go do it now, I’ll wait.

    Good job, now don’t you feel better? Like I said, I’m all for backing-up, but I’m not down with Time Machine wanting to backup my system while I’m DJing; not cool Time Machine! Time Machine is set to backup your files every hour, which in my opinion is a bit excessive, but I understand the importance of it. To keep Time Machine off my back, especially while DJing, I simply disable Time Machine by turning it off and when I’m ready to backup, I turn it back on. Easy breezy.

    keep your computer cool with SMC fan control
    Heat is one of the main contributors to premature hard drive death and overall system lethargy. Hard drives, computers and electronics, in general, do not like excessive heat. As heat increases, thermal impedance increases, greatly impacting processor and internal component performance. An easy way to ensure your computer doesn’t go into ‘meltdown mode’ is to keep it cool by using a laptop stand—to increase air ventilation—and installing an easy to use application called SMC Fan Control.

    With SMC Fan Control, you can adjust the RPM speed of your cooling fan(s) within your Mac. Your Mac will automatically start the fan when your computer gets too hot, but once your Mac gets toasty in a hot club, it’s really hard to cool it down quickly. Using SMC Fan Control, I set the fan to a higher RPM (5000-6000 RPM) before I start performing. This helps keep my Mac cooler for longer—by increasing air flow earlier—instead of waiting until it’s scorching hot.

    For you windows users here is a cool article explaing what you need to do http://blog.dubspot.com/optimize-you...ic-production/. I followed this back when I used a DEll to perform. After doing this I never had any issues.

    I hope this post helps someone, because searching online is pretty much useless. Everything is a Serato against Traktor, and PC against windows. The way I see it, They all are inperfect, and need some tweaking. Thanx

  2. #2
    Tech Guru SlayForMoney's Avatar
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    Nice post.

    For windows users I suggest dual boot on a separate partition with all the unneccesary services disabled (either by installing a Lite version of OS or disableing via .bat files). That way, you get a laptop that can be used everyday and still be a 100% ready performance machine for DJ-ing.
    Denon X600 - 2x Denon SC-2000 - AKG K181DJ - NI Audio 2

  3. #3

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    That's a great suggestion, there are plenty of articles on pc optimization for dj's. Upgrading hard drives to the newer ssd drives is a another thing you can do. That alone, if everything else is up to spec and running good will give you amazing results. 5400 RPM drives just don't keep up in my opinion. They work, but so do old laptops, Dj software needs its resources quick and quick is what ssd drives do best.

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    Quote Originally Posted by SlayForMoney View Post
    Nice post.

    For windows users I suggest dual boot on a separate partition with all the unneccesary services disabled (either by installing a Lite version of OS or disableing via .bat files). That way, you get a laptop that can be used everyday and still be a 100% ready performance machine for DJ-ing.
    This is completely unnecessary on a modern windows machine. There is simply no performance benefit to doing this any more. Every time this comes up, someone claims that its always better, but no one has any benchmarks or evidence. My own testing proved that there was no difference at all on my own rig and I stopped dual booting about 7 years ago.

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    Tech Guru SlayForMoney's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ImNoDJ View Post
    This is completely unnecessary on a modern windows machine. There is simply no performance benefit to doing this any more. Every time this comes up, someone claims that its always better, but no one has any benchmarks or evidence. My own testing proved that there was no difference at all on my own rig and I stopped dual booting about 7 years ago.
    Your opinion is your opinion. I haven't had a single crash/hiccup in 5 years using dual boot. CPU meter doesn't go above 15% in Traktor (50-60% using Traktor on primary partition). Yes - I use and old laptop, old OS, old Traktor version.
    It's not about performance but stability. With dual boot you eliminate the need/risk of updating OS. Also, I have Traktor installed on my primary everyday partition - that way I have a "lower spec" backup for non-hardware related problems. And it cost me NOTHING.

    If you claim that same OS, on a SAME machine, can work eaqually stable and fast with and without antivirus, firewall, unnecessary services, drivers and other programs in the background...I think that's BS. I can accept that on modern windows machines the difference is smaller but it can never be the same.

    I'm glad that, for you, the difference is so small that you don't feel the need to do it.
    Denon X600 - 2x Denon SC-2000 - AKG K181DJ - NI Audio 2

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    Tech Guru Patch's Avatar
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    I'd LOVE to see evidence either way.

    My latest machine is Win10, i7, 16gb ram, 250gb SSD. Pretty damn powerful. And I have not even tried to optimise (although I always have on ALL of my previous machines).

    Can any one demonstrate for sure, that optimisation on a machine like mine is necessary? I like th eidea of having one machine for internet/office/music - but something just doesn't feel right doing audio on an un-optimised machine...
    DJ'ing: 2x1200MK2, DJM 850, Dicers, F1, Zomo MC-1000, Sony MDR-v700, i7 Win 10 HP Envy
    Production: Ableton Live 8 and a mouse, Sennheiser HD400, Sony VAIO

    Click HERE to D/L Free Tracks from Soundcloud!!!
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    Tech Guru SlayForMoney's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Patch View Post
    Can any one demonstrate for sure, that optimisation on a machine like mine is necessary?
    Dual boot + optimisation =/= optimisation.

    And I would say that it is not absoulutely necessary. But I like and recommend doing everything I can to ensure a stabile performance when using DJ software.
    Denon X600 - 2x Denon SC-2000 - AKG K181DJ - NI Audio 2

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    Tech Guru Patch's Avatar
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    Like I said - I always have. And I always have Dual Booted to an optimised partition for Traktor. But now I haven't. And I'm not seeing any drop in performance by not.
    DJ'ing: 2x1200MK2, DJM 850, Dicers, F1, Zomo MC-1000, Sony MDR-v700, i7 Win 10 HP Envy
    Production: Ableton Live 8 and a mouse, Sennheiser HD400, Sony VAIO

    Click HERE to D/L Free Tracks from Soundcloud!!!
    https://www.facebook.com/Patchdj

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    Quote Originally Posted by SlayForMoney View Post
    Your opinion is your opinion. I haven't had a single crash/hiccup in 5 years using dual boot. CPU meter doesn't go above 15% in Traktor (50-60% using Traktor on primary partition). Yes - I use and old laptop, old OS, old Traktor version.
    It's not about performance but stability. With dual boot you eliminate the need/risk of updating OS. Also, I have Traktor installed on my primary everyday partition - that way I have a "lower spec" backup for non-hardware related problems. And it cost me NOTHING.

    If you claim that same OS, on a SAME machine, can work eaqually stable and fast with and without antivirus, firewall, unnecessary services, drivers and other programs in the background...I think that's BS. I can accept that on modern windows machines the difference is smaller but it can never be the same.

    I'm glad that, for you, the difference is so small that you don't feel the need to do it.
    My main rig is a core duo 2, and runs Traktor like butter. No dual booting, no optimisation apart from tuning up the running processes. Goes on the internet all the time. Utterly stable. Runs antivirus. I dont understand why youd mention firewall in the context of audio performance, its irrelevant.

    There is literally no more performance to be gained from this machine by dual booting and removing services.


    Ive been a pro pc tech for a long time, and i come to these conclusions through testing and benchmarking. There is nothing wrong with running your machine that way, but times have changed and things like dual booting are really a thing of the past.

  10. #10
    Tech Guru the_bastet's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by SlayForMoney View Post
    Dual boot + optimisation =/= optimisation.

    And I would say that it is not absoulutely necessary. But I like and recommend doing everything I can to ensure a stabile performance when using DJ software.
    I agree that dual boot is nowhere near necessary. The same optimization works both for traktor and everyday use.
    Click Windows Key+R, type in msconfig
    Disable all un-needed services
    Now click on startup options (win8 and newer will redirect you to another dialogue). Disable all un-needed startup items.
    On the regular, clear cached images and date in your preferred web browser. In my case, chrome does so every 24 hours.
    Before opening traktor, disable wifi and bluetooth. Run Traktor as Administrator.

    I run Traktor on a cheap HP Stream 13" (Win8.1 pro) with dual core intel celeron running at 2.4ghz and only 2gb of RAM.

    I would die without my touch screen.

    I can run 4 decks, 4 fx units (with all fx running), audio kontrol 1 (total 11ms buffer), sync, and keylock and peak about 35-40% cpu usage.
    - Equipment - 2X Technics 1200, 2X Audio Technica ATLP1240, 2X XDJ700, 2X XDJ1000 MK2, Denon DNX-1100, Mixars DUO, DJM750 MK2, NI Audio 10, NI Aduio 4, Serato SL3, 4X Shure M44-7, 2X Ortofon Pro S, 2X Numark Groove Tool, Maschine MK3, Samson Carbon 49, Roland SE-02, Novation Launchcontrol, TouchOSC, Nocation Peak, Arturia MiniBrute, Korg Volca Kick, MicroKorg (Classic), NI Komplete Audio 6

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