what do i need to play samples over my mixes?
What do i need to do in order to play samples over my mixes. im using the VCI-100 but what do i need to do or what do i need to play samples while i mix. for instance if im mixing and i want to play different sounds such as a clap, bass drum , gun shot or whatever over the music. what would i need in order to do that during mixing? i hope what im saying is semi clear. i hear radio dj’s doing it all the time.
I think a collated sample file .. many samples edited into single file .. with cue points set at the appropriate places would work nicely. Just like a sampler really. Like.. if you had 9 samples per file you could map 9 cue jump + play actions to the number pad as hotkeys. Walla .. sampler. then you could also set loops through out the file as well.
and i can do all of this through traktor with my vci-100? or do i need a pad of some sort? im still new to this
just load the file in a deck that’s not being used. to juggle cue points it depends on the mapping you have. if you’re using the buttons below the jog wheel on the vci like they are originally intended (play, pause, etc), then no. if you have the special mapping that allows those buttons to work as cue points, then yes. if no, a korg nanopad will do you just fine for that.
if you are willing to buy bome’s, you might want to look at the modification i did on Ean’s TSI (the one from May, though I could apply the change to the current TSI as well):
http://ifnotwhynot.me/of-downs-and-ups
This makes it possible to get access to 8 cue points on a deck of your choice without any loss of functionality.
i do it like this:
-bought a korg nanopad for 50€
-running a standalone sampler software in the background of traktor/itch(i use NI battery, but theres plenty free ones around)
-routing the sampler output to the notebooks internal line out, connect that to a free channel on the external dj mixer
to me that seemed to be the most flexible & powerful solution, you get like 4 banks of 12 pads/samples each. plus you dont have to route it to one of your 2 deck channels, thereby beeing independent of crossfader, deck EQs etc…
also, you dont have to smash your notebook keys for triggering samples.
and its still cheap.
there is also the soundboard app if you are on the mac. its a dedicated sampler app. no support for midi clock sync though 
At its simplest, you need nothing extra to play samples. They are audio files just like regular music tracks. Just load em up onto a deck and play them out.
But this is only the start of your journey my young apprentice! The rest I leave to you to discover!
i used to use the preview player a lot to play samples over tracks. my favourite was the part in the movie “lost highway” where fred mets the mystery man. it goes on for about 3 mins or so and sounds awesome when layered over a nice proggy track. just kill the lows and chuck some echo on yer samples and you are set. Peace
Preview player right.. the intelligent deck! if you have a hot key or midi set up to load and play the preview player then you can just step through any playlist of samples in whatever order you have it set up. I aggregated the soundcards so I can use the output of the mac for the preview player as a fifth output stream. Then I can open other player programs like Rapid Evolution, VCI for pesky .wmv’s, Cog, Itunes, firefox for movies, mac system sounds, yahoo messenger for phone calls or ie:audio streams!!!, etc. and run them in native mode and they just play from the ‘sampler port’/mixer channel. Very handy. You can also then loop back through the input port of the mac from an auxillary bus on the mixer and use the external function of any deck in trakor to add effects or record the sound. You can also do this with Jack to avoid the external loop.