4/4 tracks w/ an extra measure
I’m finding more and more tracks to be a bit irksome in a place or two. Standard 4/4 time signature, but at the top of a buildup (or worse… just kinda stuck in there towards the end) they’ll throw in a wonky little measure or something. Presumably, for a effect, but this can crush a mix. I’ve got the hankering to just use a DAW and get them to my liking, but that seems a little asshole-ish. For those that do long mixes, how do you deal w/ these? I know Traktor has the “Move” feature which I’m not so good at.
I havent noticed this in any tracks Ive got,but if theres a track that I like that doesnt quite work for me I’ll chop it up and change it or totally re-edit it to suit me.
I wouldnt worry about that,Most likely you wount be playing the artists track anyway without changing it(cue point juggling,effects etc)
You could always save a cue point at the start of the new measure and skip it in traktor
True, but I’m usually dicking around figuring out what I’m going to play next… too often to have to rely on skipping something anyway. 
happens all the time with psytrance ..
eg. big build up, you’re ready to go 1,2,3,4, boom! right … then they slip in a 3 or 5 bar gap lol. usually wasted by that stage too so the mixing can go downhill later in the night 
Haven’t noticed that myself but I can imagine it would be annoying. Buildup buildup buildup buildup buildup…dro…no…drop.
Cue points and beat grids are the only way to solve this for now. I posted a long time ago to traktors feature requests page that I want an option to add an automatic jump to any track so that you can skip over parts of the track you want to without having to remember to do it manually each time. Functionally the same as “fixing” the track in Ableton I suppose but it’s better because it’s nondestructive - you can have the option of making it active or not like you do a loop, so you can play the whole track when you feel like it or skip over the annoying bits instead.
Or just don’t mix over those parts. I like long mixes but it sorta defeats the point if you wind up train wrecking it… Mix out, let the breakdown happen, and have a new gridmarker ready after the breakdown so you can mix back in easily.
I just put a cue there to remind me of it.
Photojojo’s is the least intrusive… still gotta “skip” it though.
I store everything on a RAID device, and then copy it to my Macbook. If I edit, I edit the original, and save it as “whatever_edit.wav” so I’ve got two. Also, good if you’re ever playing CD’s out.
Anyhoo, glad to see I wasn’t going crazy.
Depends where it is in the track to be honest. I like to do long mixes but I’ve rarely seen this happen less than 3minutes to go on a track. So while it might mess up my loops, which I have a fix for, it never messes up my mixes.
Mark it with a cue then drop a new grid marker when it goes back to normal.
I’ve added my +1 to the exclusion cue thread on the NI forums for this very reason.
Another option would be to beat jump but I’d much rather I could automate it.
I find alot of tracks are adding extra measures and beats for no apparent reason or breaking the traditional 16/16 or 32/32 measure intros completely ..
Generally I add a marker at breakdown, downbeat and set my cuepoints counting backwards from there using the beatjump so everything stays in time.
Never noticed weird timings ever being an issue when everything was on vinyl (with very few exceptions).
This is something that’s been bugging me lately, too. I haven’t thought of any solid workaround beyond just knowing every track that I use when playing out and remember to loop any other playing tracks accordingly to compensate for the break.
got a few like that, loop is your friend
God damn Chemical Brothers - Electronic Battle Weapon 1.
or one beat jumps if you wanna kick something in on time after the breaks
I HATE that.
i had some tracks i was looking forward to playing and its like 16x4 beats for the intro, then ANOTHER 4 as a SECOND build up right after the first one ENDS.
pisses me off
So I assume it’s not in TSP2… I’ve not upgraded yet. That seems like a nice, fair solution. Basically I could see it fighting in as a special type of queue.
As for the other responses, I’m a minimalist when it comes to actually cocking around w/ this stuff. If possible I like to just throw the tracks on and use the waveforms. Hell, I purposely try to forget my tracks so they’re fun the next! Just kidding… but, yeah, I guess I’m irked b/c I don’t want more prep work than I have to . That’s my main argument against my friends that DJ w/ Live. All that warping – no thanks!
I find it is usually the size of one extra bar (four beats)
So it doesnt screw your beatmatch, but for sure it screws the measure match, and also (obviously) the phrase match.
SO, I usually have a cue point set there, with a “second drop 1 bar late” in the tracks comment section.
When I have that track layered with one (or more) other tracks, as soon as you hit the beginning of the extra measure click a 4 beat loops on the track that doesnt have the extra bar, and at the same time I usually cut that tracks fader out (for added emphasis on the weird “expirimental” arrangement) then cut the fader back up on the actual drop, and kill the loop.
And now everything is back on measure/phrase match.