Maschine + Traktor Q's

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
, , , ,
1

Maschine + Traktor Q’s

Hey there,

These questions may have already been answered in the forum but I have a few so I thought that it would be a good idea to ask them all together and hope that I get a helpful reply or two.

I currently use Traktor (haven’t upgraded to 2 yet..) for my live sets, I’m a mashup artist/DJ and I mostly pre-produce tracks and then throw them together with some basic mixing when I play live, I use a lot of effects and such for the mixes and transitions between each little mash snippet - more often than not the mashes are at completely different tempos.

I am currently using a VCI-100se and Audio 2 with Traktor Pro.

What I want to do:

I want to get a Maschine, I want to only use the Maschine for my live sets. I want to be able to map Maschine to Traktor (watched a few dubspot vids on how to do this) to be able to cue, play and effect the pre produced mashups that I have.

What I also want to be able to do is to play beats live as transitions. So when one mash track is finishing I will play a beat over the end of it and continue that beat through for a couple of bars and then blend it into the start of the next mash. So that the music and beat will be continuous with hopefully not much of a drop in energy between the mashes.

What I want to know is:

Can I map Maschine to Traktor and still be able to make use of the Maschine’s beat making and playing functions at the same time? So can I Play a mash in Traktor on deck A, put some beats in between with the Maschine, then play a mash on deck B?

Another question is, if I CAN do the above, can I adapt a Midifighter mapping to one of the Maschine’s banks? Because the Maschine has the same amount of pads as the Midifighter has buttons I thought it would be good to be able to have one bank controlling Maschine functions, one bank controlling Traktor functions and one bank controlling Midifighter functions?

I may be biting off more than I can chew here, but where else would I possible go to ask such questions. I don’t want to go out and spend the little money I have on a Maschine if I get it home and realise that I can’t do with it what I want to do.

I also realise that I can do this all if I keep the VCI-100se and the Maschine and use them in conjunction. Well I’m pretty sure I can do that anyway - the problem with that is that I’m not made of money and I don’t want to be lugging too much gear around.

Answer away my friendly DJ tech nerds :slight_smile:

2

sorry, im not reading all that. im assuming you want to use your maschine with its software AND traktor

if so, the only way i can see this working in traktor is if you have a spare button mapped to be a modifier.

then have all your functions mapped to be when m1 = 1

then have it in revers in maschine, if thats possible.

esentially you want it so that in traktor, when m1= 0 the buttons do nothing in traktor, but in maschine the map is in reverse, so now it works there.

now when m1= 1, everything in traktor works, but not in maschine

i think i spelled maschine like 3 different ways. my eyes hurt.

3

Worth it!

Thanks dude, I thought it might be something along those lines..

4

You could also Switch Maschine From MIDI to Native mode. But yes, everything is possible.

5

So it’s possible to do it all without the need to have the VCI as well? Or would I still need the VCI? would switching between the maschine and traktor functions be a simple thing that I would be able to do a lot in a live set?

6

To be honest, shifting from mode to mode, using a single button for multiple task is not my cup of tea, but yes you could do everything without a VCI. As long as you’re not too drunk, everything should run smoothly :wink:

7

wait… so i was right in my theoretical way of doing this?

holy crap. i feel like a god.

8

God damn, now I think I have to go out and buy a Maschine and see what I can do - guess I’m not eating for a few weeks.

Does anyone else use a Maschine? Is it tops?

9

ME! ME! ME! And hell yeah, I like it.

I’m nowhere a long time and skilled Maschine performer/musician, but it does what I want, the way I want.

10

Key Wee, what do you use it for? And do you use it in conjunction with something else or as a stand alone?

11

Like any proper Groove Machine I guess, create some track, beats, rifs at home, use/remix them on the fly, add some samplings on the fly, can also be used as sampler, synced with Traktor via MIDI cable to my Traktor computer (S4 or Audio 8).

I also route Traktor Audio in, sometime apply some VST effects. Sometime I also use it to “process” the audio (Limiter, Pre-Emphasis Eqs) & launch some “Audio Clip, ads” on my web live shows.

I use Komplete 7, Deep Freq, The Mouth and a list of VSTs.

Lots of fun, and still learning it.

12

Maybe I’m going about this the wrong way?

Maybe I need to figure out how to use ableton and work from there? Man too much stuff, someone needs to lend it all to me for 6 months so I can figure out what works and make a decision..

13

Ableton is good, you can use Maschine within Ableton too. Since Maschine now support VSTs, I no longer use it… or just to warp some tracks.

As you’re actually use Traktor, I suggest Maschine… maybe we could see some Mashine/Traktor integration some days… if so you’ll have everything.

14

Hmm Yeah well I know my way around Traktor and it’s taken me a while to do so, so changing programs may not be the best of plans. But I’m thinking that the Maschine is the way to go, especially for production stuff as well. With the mashes that I make I’m always tapping away on my desk with a beat in my head that would work and I can never find and/or make one that sounds as good as the one in my head.

I’m thinking that if nothing else Maschine would be great for that.

Cheers for your help bro!

15

Ok, this just popped in to my head. What’s the go with soundcards etc for this?

How does it go at a live gig? Usually I just rock up to the club with my VCI-100 and my Audio 2 and plug in to their mixer, I’m guessing this would be the same deal?

Is the Audio 2 suitable or will I need to upgrade?

Thanks!

16

One day or another you may need to record some audio sample… you’re a bit stuck with the Audio 2 huh?

Audio 6 gives you more than you need, 1 output for Traktor, 1 Output for Maschine and 1 Headphone output + some input. From there you can even route Traktor output into Maschine or the way around and still have some spare input.