DMC champ DJ Unkut has a mastery of Traktor that lets him perform at the top of his game. You should strive to do the same with your DJ software.
• The author of this article, Alan C, is the founder of TraktorTips.com, an online resource and community for Traktor users. Learn how to DJ with Traktor using our How To Digital DJ Fast online video training.
Just by getting to know the ins and outs of the software you DJ with, you can improve your performances immeasurably. Too many people fail to learn the intricacies of their DJ software, and thus they miss the chance to use it fully and ultimately DJ better. So Traktor users, let’s learn something new…
With Traktor being the complex program that it is, with so many cool features, I found it hard to keep this list down to just ten tips! But I’ve included ten of the really essential functions that I find myself using all the time and that people often for some reason seem to struggle to find, or aren’t sure how to use. Here they are:
10 hidden Traktor gems…
1. Cut the clutter
It’s a small thing, but if you want to save manually putting Traktor into full-screen ‘performance’ mode every time you open the program, this is how.
Switching to full screen is a simple function which is often overlooked, but can be such a pleasure to have set up once you know it’s there. Inside the Global Setting you will find a small check box where you can ask that Traktor always launches into Full Screen Mode. I know, it’s a small thing, but it’s the small things that make all the difference!
2. Prevent yourself stopping the tune that’s playing
Save yourself the embarrassment of accidentally turning the playing tune off with this useful option selection.
Imagine the scenario: You’re in a club, things are going great, the music is pumping and everyone is on the dancefloor. You’ve had a beer or two so you’re nice and loose, enjoying the moment… That beer could be a problem though, because your concentration wanes and you load a track into the wrong deck – yes, the deck that’s playing out! The music suddenly stops and you’ve also lost the track that was playing and it’s impossible to locate it quick enough to get it back on.
You’ve had a beer or two so you’re nice and loose, enjoying the moment…
It’s an easy mistake to make, similar to lifting the needle of the record thats playing instead of the one you just mixed out of. But by using the “Loading only into Stopped Deck function”, it’s possible to avoid this by locking the deck thats playing. In the “Loading” section of the preferences, just make sure you’ve checked the box “Loading only into Stopped deck”. Done! If only turntables had that function back in the day…
3. Show extra information in your library
Adding extra fields according to your needs can revolutionise the way you sort and find your tunes when DJing – check out the options and work out what may work for you.
In the track browser section below the turntables, each column has a header, such as , “Title”, “Artist”, “Genre” etc. If you go ahead and right-click on this title bar, you have the ability to customise this toolbar to display whatever you like from a whole range of options.
For instance, I find displaying “import date” really useful as it helps me organise my tracks by the newest when I am out playing. To sort by a column, left-click the title of the column you wish to sort, clicking again to reverse the order. You are also able to drag and drop the columns into any order you wish.
4. Get your tracks ready to play, fast!
Add cue markers and tick this box, and you’ll know your tunes will always load ready for you to hit ‘play’ at your exact preferred point.
Sometimes when you load up a track into a deck, the playhead is way before the first beat or indeed any sound at all. This forces you to conduct an extra step of jumping forward in the track to find where you want to start playing from, wasting time.
Each time you load a track with a load marker, it will be instantly ready to start from that marker.
There’s a simple way around this: You can simply add a cue point to the first beat (or where you would like the track to load to) and change that cue marker to what’s called a “load marker”.
(You do use cue points as a rule, don’t you? If not you ought to look into it – they’re a great basic tool in Traktor).
The final step is to make sure you have “Initially load to cue marker” checked in the preferences. Then each time you load a track with a load marker, it will be instantly ready to start from that marker.
5. Save yourself ever having to prep the same track twice
That little padlock does more than protect your beatgridding and cue points – it gets your info saved to your file too so you can use it on other Traktor systems.
Beatgrids take the guesswork out of beatmixing, and adding cue points (see tip four) to your tracks is also an essential of “power” DJing. But assuming you have done all this and your tracks are all set up perfectly, one thing people often forget to do is lock those beatgrids in.
Pressing the little Lock Beatgrids padlock button in the grid section of your track decks will not only grey out the “gridding” button area reducing accidental changes, but will also write and save various information tags to the track itself. The reason this is such a great thing to do is down to the fact that should you wish to export your tracks or a playlist to a USB stick or some other storage device, you’ll be able to load them into a completely different system running Traktor with all your cues and grids intact.
It also helps should your system fail and you need to reinstall Traktor. Without having activated the lock, you may experience something known as “lost-stripe”, which can be frustrating to say the least.
6. Give your eyes a break
Zooming in allows you to really fine tune the beatgrid in a way that ‘s just not possible otherwise.
Today’s ever-higher resolution screens look great, but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily any easier to actually see the greater detail they’re showing you. Not only does Traktor’s waveform zoom function ease the pressure for those of us who are visually challenged, it serves as a helpful tool in helping you to lay a more precise beatgrid.
Once you have laid your beatgrid and you feel you have it in the right place in relation to the tick (metronome) you can use zoom to examine a particular gridline to see how well your grid marker lines up with the waveform. Don’t forget to check at various points throughout the track: just because it lines up in one place, doesn’t mean that it will line up in another (three or four should do). I have provided a video tutorial which covers this in a little more detail.
7. Stop yourself accidentally editing tune info
Making sure that this box is unticked will save puzzling accidental tag edits when you’re the heat of a performance.
Traktor makes it easy to edit the fields in your track collection (although you don’t get the option when playing from iTunes playlists, as you do with some other DJ software).
Traktor makes it easy to edit the fields in your track collection…
By simply clicking on the artist or track name, you are able to rename fields nice and quickly on the fly instead of having to right click the track to open the edit window. This is great, however it can sometimes lead to the accidental renaming or changing of something you did not want to change, in the heat of a performance.
For this reason you are able to disable in line editing to remedy this potential issue, and it’s something I choose to do. I recommend you have “editing sessions”, and once completed, make sure in-line editing is switched off so whenever you play out, your system is fine tuned for simply performing. This is one way to do this.
8. Take full control of your output routing
Traktor audio routing possibilities now allow you to route different channels internally to the same output channels in external mixing mode.
With the introduction of Traktor 2.5, Native Instruments made it possible to route more than one audio channel to the same output. For instance, you are now able to send all four decks from Traktor into an audio interface with only two outputs, sending decks A & C to outputs 1/2 and decks B & D to outputs 3/4, or whatever combination you decide. (Normally in internal mixer mode, all channels are routed to one output, the second output being used for headphones cueing.)
This new-found flexibility can prove very helpful if you are either limited on mixer channels or indeed audio card size but still want something more than fully internal routing, but of course certain considerations are needed when doing this in conjunction with an external mixer.
9. Stop struggling with mapping in the preferences window
Click on the image to see just how nice and big Traktor’s preferences window can now (finally!) be…
For those of you who delve around in the controller manager especially spending hours in ther perfecting your own mappings, you’ll no doubt have cursed the fact that it has always been a fixed size. Indeed, there’s even a program – Xtreme Mapping – to give power mappers a more friendly GUI in which to work.
However, just recently Native Instruments finally added the ability to re-size the preferences window. Such a small (and belated) step, but one that has brought a huge collective sigh of relief from the mapping community.
10. Let Traktor give you more tips!
Our ten tips not enough for you? Tick this and let Traktor continue to teach you about its more esoteric functions…
Every beginner to Traktor stares at the screen on the first launching of the program, wondering what the hell everything does! An option if you’re baffled by all the buttons and knobs is to activate “Tooltips”. This is a great feature that causes a small yellow box to pop up containing a description and function of the control your mouse is currently hovering over.
For the best results I would recommend setting up a hotkey for this function so help is literally only a keystroke away when you need it. This is something you can achieve with mappings – see my mapping tutorial for an introduction in this subject.
Finally…
Before computers were this heavily used in DJing, DJs spent time getting to know their turntables, their needles, their mixers… If you know how your tools work, you can get more out of them and ultimately become a better DJ.
Computer software should not detract from developing your ear and skills as a DJ.
Always remember though that computer software should not detract from developing your ear and skills as a DJ.
The computer is a tool you use to become more creative and to expand your abilities to learn new tricks and grow as an artist. It is not there to enable laziness and for you to sit back and let it do all the work. Happy mixing!
Do you have a hidden secret, trick or tip for Traktor you’d like to share with us? Please feel free to contribute in the comments below.
Now go to:
Xtreme Mapping 1.3 Out Now: “Traktor Mapping On Steroids”
How Do I Organise My Music Better in Traktor?
Pioneer & Traktor Go HID In The DJ Booth
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Tags: beginner digital dj tips, traktor tips, traktor tricks
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I find it useful to increase the font size – good for seeing better in low light conditions. Also increase the height of the rows in the browser window so you can see more of the album artwork rather than a thin strip.
Also turn Auto-Gain on to save you having to manually set the levels each time.
Finally, if you don’t use 4 decks or 4 FX units, turn them off so you can free up more screen space for what you do need to see.
[ link ]+1
[ link ]Hm, glad to say, this is nothing new to me. I’m sorry that I can’t add anything from the top of my head right now.
[ link ]Id like to brag that I managed to map Alt+F4 action on Windows!
Phil,
[ link ]Have a desperate query and need help.
Planning to buy a new pc which also want to use for Traktor at home.
Is going to be the Sony Vaio t series but I am between the 13 or 11.6 inches
I have asked around, and both computers wiht i5 can easily run traktor 2.5
Question is:
Am I going to have any problem visualizing Traktor in the 11.6 inches one? I do nod mind if it looks small, just want to make sure nothing is left “out of screen”
Contacted Native Instruments but they support is not up to expectations.
Could you let me know?
Definitely go for 13 inch screen. It will have higher resolution which you need for the busy layout of Traktor.
[ link ]Good tip! I’d say 1280 x 800 isn’t enough; go for something bigger.
[ link ]According to Sony’s website both versions of the T-series have a resolution of 1366 x 768. That’s the same resolution my laptop uses so I have made some screenshots to give you an idea what it looks like.
http://imageshack.us/f/717/traktor7682decks.jpg/
That’s the setup I use and as you can see there’s plenty of room.
http://imageshack.us/f/801/traktor7684decks.jpg/
That’s the most space-hungry setup with 4 extended decks and internal mixing. Note that you lose the global section at the top even though it’s activated, because the decks use up all the screen space.
So, depending on how many decks you want to use you might want to consider getting a laptop that supports bigger resolutions than 1366 x 768.
[ link ]If resolution is the deciding factor. both the vaio t11 and t13 models actually have the same resolution, which is 1366×768 px. That is more than good enough for 2 decks and maybe some extras.
Can’t say much more about the vaios, but I’m DJing in clubs with the same 13 inch macbook for more than three years now, and it’s 1280x800px resolution is enough. For me personally, even the Macbook Air 11 is big enough. All I need on screen is two decks plus playlist and tree view, but that’s personal preference.
Only If you really want to go for a 4 deck setup and want to see a significant part of the browser/playlist window at the same time, you need more resolution, especially on the vertical side. In that case, I wouldn’t recommend any of those models.
[ link ]I knew about all of the tips mentioned in the article except for the fact that when you lock the beat grid, it is stored in the file itself. Where is it stored, in an ID3 tag? If so, in what field?
[ link ]Well Traktor is complex and this tips do help. My tip goes like this:
[ link ]on the browser window my columns are Title, Artist, BPM, Track Key, Time, Genre, Rating with a 16 font and 30 space in between; Why? well aside from title/artist the BPM for mixing next track (too fast/too slow helps to choose) Key for perfect harmonic sound mixing (if desired) time (it is short 3 min/less or long 5 min/more), GENRE (pre-categorized by me or iD3) tells me what I can do with mix style, Rating (5 peak/best, 3,2 warm-up, mid points in party or playlist), I hope you get it. Best tip “Try not to look at screen all the time, rather see crowd of sound through your ears”
Awesome article! I learned a few things from it already. I’m starting the process of learning Traktor more in-depth…and possibly doing a full-on switch to it from itch (a swItch?). This article is informative and I will definitely check out the TraktorTips.com website.
[ link ]Thanks Jam-Master Jake – I am happy you found my article helpful.
[ link ]Hi there.
[ link ]Thanks for those tips. Very interesting.
But please, does anybody knows how can I permanently disable the crossfader in Traktor 2.5.1?
I never use it, and in older versions there was a configuration option, but now I don’t see it.
Thanks!!!!
Yep there are small letters a/c and b/d on either side in tiny squares… just toggle click for on or off.
[ link ]Oh thanks. I’ll try it and I’ll let you know if it works.
[ link ]Only one more question. Do you know if it remains disabled when you run Traktor again?
It worked!!!
[ link ]Thanks!
What do you mean ‘disable’? As is not seeing it on display? Just go to your Mixer Settings in the preference pane, last checkbox is Crossfader.
[ link ]I’d like to make it not usuable when I touch the crossfader. I never use it and last weekend in a gig I touch it by accident and… You can imagine what happened.
[ link ]I tried to find the option you tell me but in 2.5.1 it has dissapeared!
i’m the same, i prefer using volume control instead of cross fader. what i like about serato is you can accidentally move the fader and it wont affect the volume unless it’s all the way left or right.
[ link ]You can change Traktor to Serato settings by going into the mixer settings and changing the crossfader curve from smooth to sharp. That’s my favourite, as it allows me not to stress about touching it when using the channel faders while still allowing me to cut between decks when I want to
[ link ]I didnt know Tip 5 so thats a great one for me. I also find that the * star ratings dont always come across correctly from iTunes. So I select all, right click, Edit and change all the star ratings where needed (usually 4 or 5).
I also hate that when importing songs from iTunes, you cant sort the list by songs that are already imported. I bring new tunes into the Preparation folder to beat grid before adding the songs to the appropriate Playlist folder.
[ link ]Couple of other things:
[ link ]1. Turn wi-fi, bluetooth etc off when playing –
2. Create playlists in iTunes then import to Traktor
3. If using Mixed in Key, downloads the tracks then analyze in MIK then import to iTunes.
This is a great article.
Personally I keep it on full screen to have easy access to effects and the mix recorder (among other things), but did not know you could set it to stay that way. Very useful indeed.
My continuing beef with Traktor is the fact that I cannot leave comments or edit track information/beatgrids in the software. When I do, it overwrites the entire ID3 tag, and I lose all the hard work put into keying them and detecting intensity/BMP, etc. using RE3.
NI confirmied it as an issue, but they never seemed to come up with a solution.
Sort of maddening not to be able to utilize a software package to its full potential, wouldn’t you say?
[ link ]Here’s a small but useful tip:
After creating playlists you can sort them by the columns that you want (ie. BPM, genre, rating), and have Traktor open up with them in that same order. To do this after sorting right-click on the playlist and choose consolidate.
To sort by multiple columns you must work backwards. If you want a sorting of xyz then you must first sort by z then y then x, consolidating after every sort.
[ link ]Brilliant1 Thanks for that DJ Souza.
[ link ]Question…..how or can i turn the KEY on from my S4 or it needs to be done using the mouse???
[ link ]Hi there great article my question is How do you stop traktor updating all files (I have 16000) on startup, it does it every timr on both my Dell 15 and 17 laptops? thanks David ediburgh
[ link ]I am having a slight issue with my playlist .. in my main music floder I can’t see when I last played a song but if I go to the track collection, history or samples i can see it.. so when I play track #1 from my main music folder nothing shows but if I go to the history .. there it is.. any idea to help out please??
[ link ]You have no idea how many times I do number.2….
This was a great help thanks so much!
[ link ]Can i use two different players?
[ link ]I’ve got a CDJ 350 and a CDJ 2000 und i would like to connect them to traktor.
Great article, glad I already knew about the tips but still a good read.
I do have a question though: Does anyone know how to map the
[ link ]“disable jog wheel push” option on a Native Instruments S2? Would be cool if I could use a button to switch it, like the CDJ1000′s Vinyl/CDJ mode button…