So recently, and by recently i mean last fall, Native Instruments released its "professional version" of traktor- which to me sounded a little ridiculous as traktor was designed to be used in a professional setting or like any piece of DJ software, by enthusiasts. But they did and after a look at Traktor pro, it does have some strong points which make it a valuable piece of software- Albeit it should have just been released as a new "version" of traktor rather than glitz it up and market it as "professional software"- common native instruments, if i have even heard of your company that means im pretty serious about music production and DJing.
Anyways to the review::
After opening it up i was confronted with a brand new interface, sleek, stylish, streamlined, basically made me want to tinker and play around with the new buttons and new effects modules. The fact that this new version of traktor is more streamlined made me quite happy- as many of you know traktor 3.3 was not the most attractive and could at times be complicated when each deck has its own effects etc. Now we are confronted with the standard 2 decks, each with an individual EQ (as it should) along with the other gubbins which a dj will need (cue etc.). Obviously the arrangement is different, from the top bar which used to display cue markers etc. now it only consists of a master volume/mix and the new effects modules. This is where it gets very interesting.
Instead of the few effects which Traktor 3.3 had for each deck, there is only 2 effects modules now- each can be assigned to any of the decks or all of the decks. And each comes with a wide variety of effects to be applied to your tracks- i wont get into the effects, just experiment and try them out, some, i have to admit, are pretty cool (such as the new gate filter).
The other new aspect of the effects module is the ability to chain effects, the maximum is 3 different effects- the downside to this approach is that you get less flexibility in the definition of the effect, it is limited to 3 variables to define the effect- which is why im sticking with the standard single effect.
Now when i meant streamlined, i actually meant that. Above is the arrangement around, in this case, deck B. Everything is located right there that would allow you to even beat-grid and properly loop on the fly. instead of having to select your loop length and then turning it on, its as easy a selecting your length and it turns on. Also to note is one little tricky button i didn't know about and its in the master, its the snap button- no more having to go into the top bar and finding the quantization menu to make sure each deck is snapping to either the cues or the beat-grid.
Above is the new beatgrid panel which is in every deck. This i was very surprised about, something i didnt expect. It makes the whole process of properly defining your grids so simple that it allows the dj to worry about what they really care about, the mixing and builds.
All in all Traktor Pro was a pleasant surprise from Native Instruments. Not only did they produce a piece of software which works, it looks good too. Now with everything there are cons, which i hope will be solved. One thing that really annoyed me was that there auto beat detection was off, more off than before. And even when i go to define my own beat-grids, i find that it takes longer to get the track close to perfect.
Cheers and happy mixing
DJ Azzo
Traktor Pro
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