Lightweight software to record and loop midi clips synced with Traktor Pro 2?
Hi, first of all I didn’t know where to post this so if this is in the wrong section, feel free to move it to the corresponding one.
I use Traktor Pro 2 to dj and I’m wanting to add some live elements to my sets using a midi keyboard. I’m looking for a not-so-heavy software (not Ableton Live) that allows me to sync the bpm to TP2 Master Clock and load some VSTs. Then, allow me to record, for example, a X bar loop and re-loop it until I stop it.
This would be for Mac OS X.
Ableton Live is not especially heavy on CPU. The VSTs that you use will have far more impact on performance than Live itself.
I used to run Scratch Live and Ableton together via the bridge on a very old and low-powered MacBook Pro, and it ran just fine; but that was just working with audio clips. Get multiple instances of Massive running, for example, and you’ll be hammering the CPU with any base program. Stick with fairly undemanding VSTs, and I’d say in terms of the actual functions you’re after, Ableton Live is by far the best choice.
The only other “possible” way I can think you might be able to get your VST’s and loops etc without live might be Deckadance - as it can handle recording external sources, to which you could apply loops VST’s etc, however It seems more of a hog on the CPU than live ever was - even standalone I find it “sluggish”.
Ableton is about as light as you’ll get which will do everything laid out you need it to do. It defiantly isn’t a resource hog on the CPU even alongside Traktor. The VST’s on the other hand, well it’ll depend how taxing they are on your ram/proc …
Live 8/9 and Traktor together run great in tandem even on my old 2009 Core2Duo Macbook Pro (8gb ram) with 4 instances of Turnado running, effects racks on 8 channels, 4 send return and about 200 full length clips and 200 loops loaded on the grid and routing being done via sound flower.
So long as your Tempo’s don’t fluctuate wildly they will stay in sync pretty well, however Ableton prefers to be the master clock.
Live Lite would be the only thing I can think of that might be less resource heavy but AFAIK Live Lite is exactly the same package just without the add-ons enabled seeing as it can open Full live files as read only.
Maybe its possible you could do some fancy routing in Traktor which would enable you to use the remix decks for recorded loops output to (or input) to stompy and re-routed everything back into 2 regular traktor decks for playback ?
There are looper VST’s but again the more VST’s you add, its going to tax your processor / ram / add latency more I’d imagine than Ableton doing the same tasks which is what you wanted to avoid in the first place though and you are adding more things into the effects chain that could potentially break. Also sounds like it’d be a real PITA to setup the chain and routing to be stable enough.
Mind me asking what puts you off Live seeing as seems the most perfect choice for what you are intending - are you worried more about the cost of the software or CPU ? If the latter I would guess its your VST selection that would cause more problems than the host. If the former Live Lite would probably do the trick for you and you could probably pick up a cheap copy that someone got bundled with an APC or something.
What system are you running Anyhows and what/how many VST’s simultaneously
I’ve noticed live has problems being midi slave. Which isn’t a big deal if you want it to act as midi master but if you use timecode vinyl then it’s a no go.
I’ve been working on a max/msp midi sequencer for my Ableton push but I’ve hit a couple snags I’ve yet to overcome. But maybe you can build something in max/msp easier than me. A lot of effort but could be worth it in the long run.
What are you using to control Traktor, emzero? If it’s a ‘stable’ BPM source, like a controller, or CDJs, not vinyl, then I wouldn’t bother syncing Ableton to Traktor at all.
It’s easy to midi map Ableton’s tempo and nudge functions, and use the software as if it’s another deck, beatmixing it to Traktor manually.
