I would say the biggest benefit of Rekordbox for Traktor users, is that your library and Cue Points are compatible with the club standard CDJ/XDJ. I would usually just plug in my laptop, and control Traktor through HID mode, but one gig I couldn’t, used a regular USB drive, and could only browse by folder structure and file name. After that, I added Rekordbox to my list of programs, and have been building up my library in that.
I know Rekordbuddy will make it much easier when the new version is released, but currently I’m using iTunes to keep my main playlists synced between Traktor, Serato DJ, Serato Live, Rekordbox, and djay Pro (Different gigs have different equipment needs, and or equipment already there, and I have used all of these professionally). Another benefit of Rekordbox is its compatibility with the new online music service Pulselocker. That allows you play streamed songs, rather than just songs you bought, for a monthly fee.
Streaming, rather than buying, saves you a lot of money for specialty gigs, where you don’t really need to keep the songs you play that night in your library after the gig. Of course it requires Wifi, or a good LTE connection.
Also Stems are a great innovation, it’s just the record labels that haven’t fully signed on to it, so it’s very hard to find a lot of good Stems tracks to play while mixing harmonically.
It’s basically an expanded version of Serato’s sampler with sequencer functionality. It can hold 4 pages of 16 loops/samples each but they aren’t triggered sequentially in columns like Traktor does, you can’t load the equivalent of a remix kit and adjust the sample filter/volume from your device (you can mute samples however. If you are heavily invested in remix decks then you might want to wait till they add link support so you can port that to Ableton.
I don’t see them updating the sampler to something closer to the Remix decks anytime soon since those aren’t honestly that broadly used.
I’ve always thought Rekordbox had a superior library system. It seems like it has evolved enough to overtake Traktor.
I only use Traktor because I have a copy of it, but I would like to try Rekordbox DJ. Just don’t have Rekordbuddy to transfer files back nor do I want to pay for another piece of software.
Traktor setups are just as professional as CDJ ones, plus you can use most CDJs with Traktor too. It basically comes down to wether you want to use them standalone or not rather than having a “professional” setup.
There are freeware apps made by one person that have browsers with smart tags, smart playlists etc.
In traktor if you have the focus in a playlist, and say you want to add a track from another playlist.
You click on a playlist folder it changes the focus to a blank window.
To get back to your current playlist you have to scroll down through the list again or map a hotkey or add a shortcut to the shortcut bar. Then you have to scroll back up so the playlist you want to add to. If you then want to add another track from another playlist thats in a folder you have to go through this dance every freaking time.
And of course you can only have one playlist open.
So then they tell you to use Itunes for smart playlisting. But Traktor on PC doesnt support ALAC, so you literally cant load your lossless itunes files into Traktor and they dont appear in the playlists. If you convert them to FLAC then you cant see them in itunes.
I agree 100%. Exact same reason I left Traktor after being loyal to NI for about 13 years, I couldn’t take the unstableness any longer. I have the DDJ-RX and have never had 1 issue with it in almost a year of using it and rekordbox dj.
