Traktor 3 and Pro - are Beatgrids/Cue points compatible?
Does information stored in file tags (BPM, Stripe, Cue points, Beatgrid) remain useable in Traktor 3 after an import to Traktor Pro?
I’ve been using Traktor 3.4 for quite a while - but for better use of the VCI-100 SE I want to switch over to Pro. Unfortunately, I have experienced the beatgridding workflow with Pro is a real pain compared to Traktor 3. That’s why I want to use Traktor 3 for beatgridding and Pro to make music with. I still want to be able to use the files in Traktor 3 AFTER importing them in Pro.
In my experience, if you clear your collection in Traktor 3 once and try to import a Pro tagged file, no stripe, BPM, cue points or beatgrid show up.
What’s the best way to keep the two collections up to date and the files working in both versions?
You write the file to stripe, and import the collection into Traktor Pro. Make sure that Write Tags after Analyze is off, and analyze the collection. The BPM might not hold for all of them (but most of it should), but your cue points and grid markers should. And then just load them, tweak the EQ, lock the BPM and you should be good.
As long as you make sure to write everything to the tags it should carry through version to version.
@DvlsAdvct: Thanks! That’s actually what I’ve tried and what works best to import all your previous beatgrids etc. from Traktor 3 into Traktor Pro. I read at NI that you must have Traktor 3.4 in order for this to work.
But even when I didn’t let Pro analyze the files, the previous beatgrids, bpm and cues became unusable in Traktor 3 after import (everything was fine in Pro). Did I miss anything?
Also, I just found out that analyzing the bpm works much better in Pro… same for you? Really weird! I was very upset, because the Tap tempo button ceased to work in Pro. I have to guess what tempo a track is in, since one can only tap four times until Pro locks the tapped bpm. It seems to be a highly discussed bug at NI and here’s hoping they’ll fix it in Pro 1.2.
After tapping I set my first beatmarker on a snare and align the beatgrid along the master tick. Works pretty well. Any other ideas on setting beatgrids? I’m playing mostly Drum and Bass, so Autogrids won’t work. I don’t really believe they work on any genre
I can’t remember if my cues work back to T3.4 off the top of my head, but I’ll check. I think the main issue is that TPro offers 8 cues whereas t3 only 6. Let me give it a check tonight.
Also, in regards to the tap tempo section, I just use the Internal clock and tap it out there. It doesn’t move the grid, but at least it gives me an idea of where to go with it. The tap tempo not working pisses me off something fierce, though.
The analyze works a lot better for me in TPro, I just need to make sure my range is set right. Right now I get a LOT of tempo’s at 1/2 time, and I set my collection by BPM so it really throws me off.
@DvlsAdvct: Thanks, that would be much appreciated.
The internal clock.. yeah, that’s what I meant by master tick. Tick away! Just wanted to see if anyone else has good ideas on how to do this. I’m not really looking forward to beatgridding my collection, but mixing gridded tracks lets you do so many other things while they stay synced. It’s a completely different way of mixing.
It has been such a struggle to grid my tracks. I can do it quick, but after I’ve done 50 of them I just can’t look at my computer anymore. And I have almost 16000 songs, and maybe 10000 of them as spin-able.
I mainly spin industrial, trance, psytrance, hardstyle with spatterings of goth, 80’s and rock. My heart is in the industrial scene, and I’m starting to fall for psytrance too
I’m more into Breakbeat stuff. I like the early Drum and Bass and Jungle styles, both dark and ambient. At some point I quit buying records, because everything only got louder and heavier. Only recently did I get back to it, luckily I found out there are some really nice producers today making music with intelligent beats that aren’t blasting your head off. In that respect I think Dubstep is a really interesting genre, too, but it’s hard to play at parties in combination with Drum and Bass.
Yeah, I can relate. Drum and Bass is nice for the dancefloor (and even there too fast for most ppl), but it’s near impossible to enjoy at home. At least the stuff that’s coming out today. You should try something like Logical Progression Vol.1 and 2, Timeless by Goldie, Platinum Breakz by Metalheadz - everything that’s termed “oldskool” today, although it was a “newskool” back then compared to Jungle and Rave. That really got me into it. It’s a whole 20 bpms slower than what’s coming out today.
Alright, this is what I got. It works one way. T3.4 will not read TPro tags. But, as long as you Write To Tag in T3.4 then TPro will read the cue points.
Thanks a lot DvlsAdvct. Seems to me like you’ve gotta make a choice between either two then. I guess I’ll have to go with Pro then, since I don’t think that Freeze Faders and Deck C/D mode work with the Traktor 3 Midi Mapping.
and on the DnB topic, i found out that PRO analyses tracks much better. In 95% cases it analyses it halfspeed (thats why x2 /2 buttons are meant for) and then it is just needed to align the grid to the left or right - the overal tempo is finely accurate. (in T3.4 it often was way off and finely hitting the right tempo got bit tricky). And finaly Tick for the tightness, although i mix mostly with DVS engaged so i don’t mind If they are not 100% tigh. The only con is that Tap button not bringing any significant results, so that remaining 5% has to be done manualy (actualy hard guessing the bpm was the way to go for me… or you can do it in T3.4 and merge)
Yeah, you could always beatgrid everything in 3.4 since for once the Tap still works and also, in the control panel you don’t have to always switch between the cue points and bpm panel.
I can finally dump 3.4 in favor of Pro. I’m just waiting for Ean to write up a Mapping for 1.2, but I’m very confident he’s already in the middle of it.
Just to round up the discussion for anyone else who’s interested in this problem:
You CAN import your beatgrid, cue points, bpm and stripe from Traktor 3 into Pro. All you have to do is write the information to the file’s tag (using “Write File Tags (Async)” in the browser). Then you can either simply copy the files to where your Pro collection is or have Pro import your folder. You have to use Traktor 3.4 to write to the file’s tags, it will not work with older versions.
If you want to be using your files both in Traktor 3 and Pro, you’re out of luck. Once you let Traktor Pro write to the tags of the files, everything will be gone in Traktor 3: beatgrid, cue points and stripe. Even if you turn off the “Analyze new tracks on collection load/import” setting, Traktor Pro will write to the file tag every time you play the file (playcount is stored in the tag, this will be fixed in Pro 1.2).
The only way to use files both in Traktor 3 and Pro is to manually set them read-only. That’s basically saying you do not allow Traktor to write to the tags and have both versions store their information in their respective collection.
I assume there will be no need to keep a Traktor 3 installation around once Pro 1.2 has been released and the major bugs have been fixed (that is better beatgridding functionality).
