Thinking of not using timecode anymore and using Traktor without CD/decks
I’m in the process of selling my 2 CDJs, to fund for a new mixer, so I will be making the switch from using timecode CDs with my CDJs.
Any help/feedback about this, how nicely does Traktor work without timecode, will I need to go and beatgrid my entire music collection in Traktor? Because when I’ve tried syncing before, sometimes it does’t sync properly and it sets to a bar or so too fast/slow, but with my CDJS i can just jog it back into place, if I leave timecode and get rid of my CDJs, I will be un-able to do this… so just worrying a bit.
Can anyone give me some heads up about this? Anyone who has made a switch from timecode to just internal decks, or just someone who uses internal decks for Traktor.
My set up atm is
TSP2 2.6.0
Kontrol X1 (2)
MBP
Maschine
I use 2x Denon SC2000 and an F1. While I do beatgrid my tracks, I can still mix the old fashioned way with the touch sensitive jog wheels and pitch faders. It doesn’t feel much different then when I mixed with CD decks and or vinyl.
it will work fine, but if you don’t want to beat grid you will have to map buttons and knobs to nudge and adjust pitch, which is probably going to feel a bit odd. most people who don’t have jogs or pitch faders all have their tunes gridded properly.
Yeah, you definitely have to get used to nudging the record forward or backward with a button. I made the switch from vinyl and CDJs a few years ago. I always thought I would need platters, but I don’t. I don’t beatgrid or sync. I let traktor tell me the BPMs, match them up manually fire them off and make adjustmets on the fly.
@SirReal - I’m thinking of just completely not using my CD decks with Traktor anymore, I have 4 turntables in my studio lol so I will always have some decks when I feel like having a mix with timecode vinyl etc. But jus giving up the timecode CDJs and using internal Traktors decks.
@squidot - Hm, It will feel odd at the beginning but am sure i’ll get used to it? I just don’t know how well it’d work by just nudging my tracks in with my X1
I have only gridded a handful of my tracks, I don’t feel like going and beat-gridding another thousand tracks.. Hm.. I suppose i could just take my decks out of my set up for a bit and see how I feel with not using them and just using my controller and internal decks.
yeah, i’m sure once you do it for a while you will get used to it. who knows, you may even like it better. i think it would be fine to nudge them with your x1 but i haven’t really done it with buttons in traktor since i grid mostly everything. i believe you can get the encoders down to .001 for bpm adjustments too so it would be really accurate as far a pitch control if you like to ride that.
@keithface - yeah thats what i was thinking, I couldnt imagine not using platters anymore, I wouldnt feel safe not syncing them tho, i have maschine synced up, so its all in sync anyway!
@squidot - Yeah Im going to give it a go before i sell my CDJs, is there already a ‘nudge’ button on the X1? I can’t see it…
i’ve never mapped anything, i’m not very clued up on how to do it tbh… How would i map a button that i dont use a lot, to nudge my beats forward/back.?
Preferences > Controller editor. If you read up on it a bit (for about 5 minutes) and get the general gist then you’ll be fine. It’s using shift functions is when it gets complicated.
Yeah and you don’t have to grid a thousand tracks. Just grid as you play them - it takes 20 seconds tops once you get used to it, for over 95% of your tracks unless you’re playing old funk and doo wop or whatever. Lock each track when you have the grid set and you will always know which one’s gridded and which isn’t.
I wasn’t referring to using timecode, the Denons I use are midi controllers with platters and pitch. You can pretty much DJ with any midi controller as long as you get comfortable with the process. Knowing how to creatively map a controller doesn’t hurt either.
@proben - Okay then, ill start gridding some of my most played tracks, and then do then as I go along. Do you mean like everytime I play a track, quickly grid it before I play it? Would you recommend NOT letting Traktor analyze/auto grid when I import new tracks? Ta.
@SirReal- Ah right okay didn’t realise they was midi controllers! Yeah I’m gonna give it ago sometime after work this week, with having my tracks gridded it’ll help too, would you recommend setting a cud point right at the beginning of my tracks too? Cos a lot of my tracks have a few seconds (if not longer) gap before any beat is present. So I’m sure setting cue points at the first best will help too.
In my opinion, Timecode itself is just a quick+dirty hack designed to give access to SOME of Traktor’s features to people who don’t own MIDI controllers. The best thing you can do is go out and buy a proper MIDI controller. Personally, I’d recommend a Reloop Contour, as it’s a 4-deck capable MIDI controller (with audio interface) that takes up VERY little space in your setup, and gives you full control over pretty much everything Traktor has to offer.
Failing that, you could see if you could hunt down one of these:
Your local Maplin might have some, and last time I checked they were £15 each; will give you very nice control over your basic transport functions, and fulfil the same role in your setup as the CDJs did.
And yes, they LOOK like a joke, but they’re actually fantastic little devices, and far more solid than they look. Platter is all-metal construction, the rest of it’s a sturdy plastic, and the PCB inside has decent quality soldering on it.
[quote=""mdcdesign “”]
in my opinion, timecode itself is just a quick+dirty hack designed to give access to some of traktor’s features to people who don’t own midi controllers.
[/quote]
whut?!?
I read this and checked Maplin right away. No sign of it. So I checked ebay:
I let traktor do it but I just don’t trust it blindly - on most house tracks it’s totally accurate but it stumbles on a lot of other kinds of tracks. I would say grid for a while to get the hang of it before you grid during a live set but once you get the hang of it it’s pretty easy to do it in a few seconds.
@mdcdesign - ah cool, I thought they’d be a few £100 each lol, £15 blimey. Ill have a closer look at then, tbh, I’m probably just gojng to stick with my X1’s atm, might get an F1 in time, but don’t see how I would benefit from it and the remix decks when I have Maschine tho, any way that’s another topic!
@djproben - yeah i have as of latley just let Traktor do it, but the majority of my tracks haven’t been done, so I’m just going to spend some time getting them done, just to feel safe.
@Michielygil - that’s what I’m planning on doing, just going to stick to using my X1’s and find a way to map a rotary function to them, have you just mapped it to 4 of the rotary knobs for each deck? How exactly did you do this? Cheers.
And that’s good to know, I’ve just been using decks for so long now i think if feel like out of touch… With out platter. But it’s a new step, if I had the money then i wouldn’t sell my CDJs and I’d just buy a new mixer, but I’m having to sacrifice my decks to fund for a new mixer lol. Still, I have 4 TTs at home so can always use timecode vinyl form time to time!
Yeah, having some TT’s as backup is a pretty safe form of making this step
I actually had different mappings, and one of them was 2 decks per X1. In the end I like dedicated buttons without any shift combinations, so I had dedicated 1 deck per X1 with only a toggle per deck.
I bought two of them from there when I first started out with MIDI, used them as the main platters in addition to a Hercules RMX, as the RMX didn’t offer touch-sensitive jogs.
