Traktor Vs Rekordbox DJ. Your Opinion ?
Why would you choose one over the other ?
Both are very similar but I prefer RekordBox. I would choose which ever the hardware I wanted was better supported.
I would choose either of them before Serato.
Longer answer…
I have always been a Traktor user, I’ve went through most of their controllers, the software is generally stable, full of features and is widely used. Then they went all performance mixing and I’m more of a pitch+platter DJ.. I moved over Serato when I purchased the Denon MCX8000.. I couldn’t adjust workflow so went in search of something else… I would usually avoid Pioneer because I find their stuff over priced and lower quality than say Denon… I come across an amazing deal for a DDJ SX2 so I decided to take a chance on it, the hardware is not quite as nice as Denon as expected but had the opportunity to try RekordBox and was blown away. The more I used it the more I fell in love with it.
I don’t think I’ll be going back to Traktor unless they come up with an amazing controller good enough to make me want it over the SX2.
Stems being such a bad let down, i dont get what traktor does that rekordbox can’t do. Infact as per the current updates for rekordbox, it is very much similar, in fact even better compared to traktor.
Definitely, if you have NI gear, you have to go with traktor (without a choice).
What are the FX like on RekordBox? Do they allow for send & return?
They are direct emulations of the FX on their mixers with the new expansion adding RMX based ones. Currently there is no send/return functionality as far as I know of (might vary on the hardware you use) and if you are using external audio sources you only get Sound Color FX should your controller support it.
Padi has already answered the question, just to add.. they have what I guess Traktor would call ‘macro fx’ and they’re beautiful (probably the recent RMX additions) .. The entire FX area just feels nicer than Traktor… In addition to the 3 standard FX RekordBox also has a release FX, pressing the last FX knob on the row gives you a choice of a a spin back, echo break or vinyl break..
I also absolutely love the pads, they are very easy to customise with FX, rolls, etc… I had these pads on my Denon MCX8000 with Serato and they weren’t half as intuitive in my opinion.
Being able to take BeatFX out of the list is something I really look forward too. Which is particulartly nerve wrecking when you can only browse from the controller one way. Sure, you can use your mouse but it’s not really the point
So Pioneer finally has decent effects?
Can it match the Traktor Delay T3 now?
Yeah they are quite decent and they have a nice variety of them as well. All effects can be either quantised or have the rate set in ms like the freeform mode of T3. You also get a Dub Echo color effect that does pretty much that as well. If you will be buying something for Rekordbox I do recommend getting the dedicated controllers tho since one big advantage of the RX over the SX2 for example is that you can have 4 different ColorFX and customize them to your liking so you aren’t really stuck with the Noise/Crush/Pitch/Filter combo.
One big limitation I think which is a bit of the price you have to pay to get the sampler as the 5th deck is that there is no easy way to assign it to a BeatFX unit, apply ColorFX or EQ to it. The first two can be bypassed by mapping those controls to a secondary device tho.
You can find all Rekorbdox’s effects explained over here, including audio examples of the RMX expansion.
Can you switch out the effects on the RX permanently, or does it need to be done “live” by running it into a laptop running Rekordbox?
Noise/Crush/Pitch/Filter in the Color FX section work in standalone mode too along with the full mixer section of course. Everything else is software based.
Cheers padi.
The benefit of Traktor seems to be the send/return for use with Xone 92. Can’t say I’d consider switching without.
But does the delay freeze and echo forever?
Or is it the usual 1983 sounding delay that just keeps grabbing the bits over and over?
Looking at your screenshot it seems like their echo might be like the Traktor delay. I see the feedback knob in that section.
Forgot to add, effects are Post Fader. The regular Delay is as well but since it only repeats the audio once there’s no real use for post fader fx with it. Echo is the equivalent of Traktor’s T3 and while the pitch doesn’t change like Traktor’s when playing with real small intervals you can reverse the audio signal. Pair that with a dub echo as a color FX and you got yourself a really neat combo.
@loverocket. The freeze on Echo and Pitch Echo is held until you unfreeze it or turn the FX off, no matter where the feedback knob was set at. Once it’s off the feedback knob determines how long the fade out tail will be.
Been using Traktor for ten years, working on switching to Rekordbox DJ now, both for thumbdrives on CDJs, and for sets with a laptop.
For me, what decided it was Rekordbox DJ’s vastly superior library/browser system. The “My Tag” system bcombined with the filterign system and smart playlists are the most innovative feature for aiding in choosing tracks that I’ve ever seen come out in a DJ platform. You create your own tags to describe track attributes. I do stuff like “opener” “+vocal” “-vocal” “deep” “house” “drum n bass” “dark” “closer” etc. You process a track by toggling on whichever of your filters fits it, and then you just have smart playlists set up to automatically grab every track with certain combinations of tags. So I always have a playlist of every “deep vocal liquid drum n bass” track I have, and then I can sort it by intensity, key, etc. and all of it works both in software and thumb drives.
Absolute gamechanger.
I didn’t want to bring my controller/laptop always everywhere, that has Pioneer standard equipment and wanted to just go with USB in one hand and phones in the other hand.
So I literally made a one-day-decision (been on Traktor for 11+years now, so quite a decision), bought myself a Pioneer DDJ-RB, installed Rekordbox, imported my songs and have never looked back..
Sure, I’m missing my hotcues and play count etc, but Traktor was too unstable and couldn’t fix their bugs in YEARS.
Super happy with Rekordbox so far, preparation is awesome and performing is awesome as well.
It does have some con’s, ie not being able to map mic controls to something + have to turn off crossfader manually every startup, but I know that Pioneer will improve on these problems, seeing how fast updates are rolling out (for now) 
Rekordbuddy might come in handy for you if you really want to transfer your Traktor hotcues.
Does it have the equivalent of Remix decks, because that is another big plus for me…
Even though I use them sparingly.
Yeah, I know. But first of all, I’m on PC and don’t want to do this Virtual Machine crap and second of all, it’s a great oppurtunity to clear my collection of songs I don’t need and structure everything better 
Thanks for the tip tho 