Traktor sound quality

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Traktor sound quality

Is Traktor known to color sound in any way?

I’m a traditionalist and have two 1200’s, two CDJ-900’s (usb) and a Xone-92. I record podcasts into my computer and am eyeing either a Scarlett 2i4 or a NI interface for the audio. I feel this is a pretty “purist” way to record.

I’m recently interested in trying out Traktor with HID on my CDJ’s. I’m a little wary of entering the laptop game, adding more devices, etc. That said it’s been pretty fun so far. But my only concern is if there’s any loss of audio quality, or bottlenecks, or anything that might remove the ‘warmth’ that I enjoy out of my current setup, if that makes sense.

Thanks for any guidance for a rookie.

2

Just turn the limiter & keylock off and the sound is only as good as your soundcard provides

3

No… quite the opposite. If you have all the EQs centred, keylock and limiter turned off Traktor is actually ‘bit transparent’ - it is playing the raw file completely unaltered.

Also, a CDJ is a digital format. That “warmth” you think you hear is not specific to a CDJ. The mixer is the key component.

4

Thanks for spelling that out!

And I suppose my last question is if there’s any reason to go with something like an Audio6/Audio8 over something like a Scarlett 2i4? Again, mainly thinking about sound quality here as all I do is record podcasts.

Thanks again.

5

The A4/6/8/10 all have timecode DVS, so you can use your Technics and Traktor vinyl.

6

Good to know.

I haven’t used my 1200’s in a while, and don’t really ever plan on doing time-coded stuff with them.

7

I’ve found the outputs of CDJ 2000’s to be significantly hotter (louder) than my audio 10 sound card I used to use, so you may need to crank the levels a bit. The levels on the direct through on the Audio 10 are allot lower for playing regular vinyl compared to going straight to phono pre-amps as well.

This is only my opinion and others will disagree, but for gigs 2 hours and under where you need to switch DJ’s, I find it easier to use CDJ’s and usb sticks as do traditional two deck mixing. For a set where you are the sole DJ or playing for long time, a laptop and some software with time code on 1200’s or HID on CDJ’s is great, mainly for the infinity better browser screen. Remember with HID on CDJ’s at clubs, they need to have the correct firmware if they are 2000’s. I think the nexus decks might work out of the box? Not to sure though definitely worth looking into, pack 2x USB’s loaded with tracks in case you have problems!

8

We have the opposite problem with our CDJ800’s. Way quieter than the outputs on my Audio 6 (even before when i had the Audio 4)
Thats what gain knobs are for :slight_smile:

9

Thanks LoopCat.

Yeah this is for a stay-at-home bedroom DJ podcast setup.