Master/Slave in Traktor Pro
Hi there,
I’m a total n00b to the whole dj, but I’m up and coming. I just recently subscribed to the gospel of eangolden and got myself a VCI-100 and Traktor Pro. The issue I’m now seeing is setting Master and Slave tempos (as in the tutorial ean has up on youtube). TPro doesn’t seem to have this functionality?
I read up on the NI forums that their aware of this issue, but does anyone know if this issue has been addressed with the 2 updates already available?
Thanks…
Instead of Master/Slave you have Master/Sync. Sync, in my opinion, is pretty much the same thing as Slave. One deck (or clock) will be the master and the other decks will be sync’d to it.
Yeah, but it doesn’t really work the same. I think it’s a little buggy. The NI forums don’t really help that much either.. see here → http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/showthread.php?t=72960
A lot of people point this out, but I’m trying to figure out if the issue has been addressed with the available updates (I’ve asked in their forum, but to no response).
Anyone have any ideas?
Thanks
this is without a doubt one of my biggest gripes about traktor pro.
the slave button is such a beutiful thing about traktor 3.. the sync button in Pro does not function the way the slave does in Traktor3, in fact quite often when I hit the sync button in pro it will bring the track back to the last beat mark which will make a mix trainwreck.
the native instruments forums are filled with fanboys who are blinded by NI hype and go out of their way to defend a lackluster product despite it’s many errors. I don’t know how such a reputable company gets away with releasing a product full of inexcusable bugs like the wack keylock, unresponsive bpm tap, glitchy fx etc. etc.
IMHO - I think it’s the beta mentality of many companies these days. Let the consumers beta test, and then the company shores up the product with updates just to appease stock holders. I read an article on Gizmodo about this. Everything from Windows Vista to the iPhone (to name a few) have had tremendous flaws in their first iterations for the purpose to almost rush it to market to start turning a profit, and make adjustments later…
This is a trend I did not know NI would subscribe to, but now it seems as such unfortunately. 
I am just testing it now because you guys are complaining about it but i am not having any problems.
2 beatgridded tracks, one set to master the other set to slave - no jumping to the cue or anything like that.
I sync to the master clock personally so this hasnt had alot of testing but i cant confirm it does work all the time solidly - if you guys are having problems with it not working at all then you are doing something wrong. If it works sometimes but not others then its probably a bug.
See, it doesn’t do that to me either. I never sync to the master clock and I have switched master and sync tracks through mixes and not had a problem.
Duerr, are you sure you don’t have some sort of double map going on, where the button for sync is the same as “Jump to Active Cue” or something?
mine was syncing to the metronome (“master”?) for a while but it pissed me off so i changed it. its in the options menu somewhere
If you set the clock to Auto then it just reads out whatever the master deck is
I think the problem is that I’m oldschool and prefer to mix without beatgrids. My technique in traktor is to just ride the tempo and use the pitchbends to keep things flush, much the same how one would do with turntables/cd decks. This is very easy to achieve in Traktor3, but not so easy in TraktorPro
Although I can see the benefits of beatgridding tracks pre-performance, If I wanted a software that required painstaking programing before performance I would use Ableton to DJ.
Damn it! I knew it! ARGH!!!
Yeah, I’m finding that Traktor is primarily a way to blueprint a track, but leaves little room for spontaneity. If I had known this, I think I would have gone with another software like Serato or Ableton… Buyer’s remorse increasing exponentially now…
Traktor3 is superior to Pro in my opinion because it gives users the freedom to choose which technique suits them best.
The option is there to beatgrid tracks for a more automatic live mixing, but more preperation beforehand (similar to that of ableton).
The option is also there to mix right off the bat the same way one would DJ with turntables or cd decks, by manual beatmatching (riding the tempo + using pitch bend).
It leaves lots and lots of room for being spontanious, that why i use Traktor in the first place - Ableton does not offer the same sort of on the fly track manipulation as Traktor does no matter how much preperation is done before hand in Ableton.
@Duerr - So you want to use the slave function, but you dont want to have to beatgrid your tracks and your wondering why you cant slave the deck if you dont have a beatgrid? Its pretty simple… it needs that data to slave - you cant expect it to work without a beatgrid.
As for being able to use traktor pro to beatmatch manually or beatmatch with grids - both are possible.
I think the issue is you guys are having is how you are trying to achieve the desired result, you must be going around it wrong way because the functionality is there to do exactly what the both of you are trying to do.
i understand this bento, but in traktor 3 it is possible to use the slave function succesfully without beatgridding the tracks.
In traktor 3 it was the same - slave needed a beatgrid to be able to function properly. If you dont have a beatgrid it tries to match up to the transients in the track which is usually incorect unless your playing some super simplistic music that traktor can detect the BPM of.
It doesnt matter if your using Traktor 3 or Traktor Pro - for slaving to work properly it needs beatgrids. Think about it, without the bpm and grid data its impossible for traktor to know where it has to line up to be able to slave in the first place.
aaaah ok i see what you mean, we just have a miscommunication.
i don’t use the slave feature in Traktor3 to keep my tracks beatmatched which I understand is possible by using beatgrids.
i only use the slave button when I want to match the slave track’s bpm to the master track’s bpm + visa versa. So say when I adjust the master track’s bpm, the slave track’s bpm stays matched with the master track’s bpm. This is helpful when I’m using two songs of a different bpm and want to smoothly change the master track to it’s original bpm whilest mixing/blending both tracks.
I should’ve mentioned that in the first place, my bad! It’s really difficult explaining my workflow with words, I’m so used to just doing it rather than talking about it haha
Going back to the preparation point - I got no idea what music you are mixing (i play 4/4 electro/tech house), but i quite happily beatgrid a new track on the fly… takes 30 sec tops. You get the odd tricky track that takes a lil longer, but easily doable.
I’m sure warping in ableton gets a lot quicker after more practice than i’ve had, but beatgrids are far, far simpler and quicker IMO
Yeah, Sc1C, I am in the same boat. I can load a new track in, grid it (especially since TPro has a much getter bpm analyzer), lock it, cue it and play in in around 20 to 30 seconds.
It’s an extra step but it takes a huge load off of our shoulders to focus on other things.
beatgridding is no problem for dance tunes no doubt, but not the case for musical genres outside of the confines of edm.
beatgridding on the fly is also not a great option for DJs who do not play from playlists and have extensive collections of music with unsteady tempo.
beatgridding is a great option for pure dance music djs to have, but I think it’s just as important to have the option to manually beatmatch with ease for the occasions i listed above.
but unsteady tempos have nothing to do with beatgridding. You can’t grid unstead tempos in Traktor 3 either. I really don’t see how you don’t have the same ease for manually beatmatching. Just turn off auto grid and beatmatch away to your heart’s content.
I really don’t understand what changed that makes TPro suck so much more than T3. I spin songs that have rock beats, performed by real drummers and there’s lag on the beats sometimes. I can still do it by manually beatmatching.