Denon 2900 / Behringer 4000 & Traktor Set up Help.
Hi Gents
Iain from the UK here. Glad to be aboard!.
Hope you guys don’t mind me jumping straight into a question, but i am a bit confused as a newbie to digital set ups.
I have been DJing Drum and Bass on vinyl on and off for the last 20 years using 1210’s in the most part, and about 6months ago i bought my first controller. A Pionneer Ergo. I have been really pleased with the results using Traktor and having lots of fun with it.
Anyway, i have decided that i want something more robust. set up wise. So after reading lots of reviews i have decided on the Denon 2900’s. And a Behringer DDM4000. I think for the entry level budget i have, the Denons are great value and the mixer has more features than i will ever use, but also will keep me happy learning lots of new things and plenty to play about with.
Question i have, is i want to hook up that set up to Traktor on my laptop. But having never done this before i don’t know the best way to do it. Am i right in saying i need an external soundcard?.. or a midi interface? - i am really unsure(as you can probably tell) of how to do it all.
Any pointers would be great, as i would like to order all i need at the same time.
The DDM4000 is not a USB mixer as far as I am aware, so yes you will need a Traktor compatible sound card. The mixer does have midi outs though which you could use to patch into the sound card for some extra control. The Denon sc2900’s, however, I can help you with as I use the sc3900’s. The Denons will generate a timecode signal that Traktor will happily read, so you won’t need the timecode cd’s. Also in midi mode the Denons can be set to control most of the functions within Traktor using the buttons and twiddly bits on the unit, and there are various .tsi files floating about with various mappings on them depending on what you want to do. I tend to use the bog standard midi mapping from Denon as I don’t bother with effects in Traktor coz I already have them on my mixer.
What he said. You can aggregate the two 2900’s to give you 2 stereo out channels for you mixer. I own 2 2900’s but haven’t tried the aggregate sound card way as I also have the X1700 Mixer which has a 4 channel soundcard built in.
If you’re using windows, download the Denon ASIO v2.22 driver, this should automatically aggregate both players for you. Not sure how to go about doing it on a mac, but I think it has some sort of built in agreggator for audion devices.
Both players must be connected to the laptop via USB for this to work though.
It should work in both midi and hybrid midi mode. I have successfully used them in both midi mode with traktor pro, and hybrid vinyl mode with traktor scratch pro and my x600.
Had another bash at this the other day, still can’t make it work so I’m thinking it’s me doing it wrong. I’m using my x600 as my Traktor sound card anyway, so it’s not actually an issue just something interesting to try.
It shall remain a puzzle to me.
I have bought TSP with the timecode CDs but reading i think i should have gone the controller mode way.
If i download that driver(i am using windows) and connect the players to the mixer and to the laptop via USB, i can then go Midi out of mixer using an USB adapter straight into the laptop without the use of a soundcard then and without using the Traktor interface to get the full benefit of all the features?? is that correct?
Sorry if i am following slowly, this is my first experience of setting all this up - hopefully i can find a diagram for this for me to follow.
Not quite. The mixer doesn’t have a soundcard in it, so unless you want to use the mixer for controlling parameters in Traktor you don’t need to connect the mixer to the laptop at all.
The SC2900’s have a soundcard built into them. By downloading the ASIO driver and connecting both of the SC2900’s to the laptop, you will be using the soundcard in the SC2900’s to output the audio from traktor. Connect the SC2900’s to the mixer via RCA, set the correct outputs in Traktor, and then just use the mixer as a mixer. You’ll have to download the traktor .tsi mapping files from the denon website as well to be able to control Traktor from the SC2900’s.
You’ll also want to watch DJ Semi’s vids on Youtube. He has a tsi that sends track data from Traktor to the SC2900 Displays. You don’t get waveform but you do get time and track names. Also read up on the Denon Forum. Not a lot of posting there but definitely some helpful stuff.
DJ semi’s tsi for getting the track name/time etc. to show on the displays is great, but I did find that it caused my laptop to slow down a lot and even got some stuttering in the sound a couple of times, so just be aware that the specific tsi for doing this could possibly cause some slowdowns. His general tsi’s for midi control using the 2900’s are great though.
In regular midi mode - no. Traktor doesn’t support track position midi out, Denon doesn’t wan’t to pay NI for HID integration (and NI probably can’t because of a deal with Pioneer).
You can switch it on before connecting with Traktor but it will be just for show (still, thanks Denon for that).
But, if you use Hybrid Midi mode (for which you need TSP licence and NI Audio card/certified mixer) the lights will work.
What he said. You can aggregate the two 2900’s to give you 2 stereo out channels for you mixer. I own 2 2900’s but haven’t tried the aggregate sound card way as I also have the X1700 Mixer which has a 4 channel soundcard built in.