Two programs are leading the computer’s charge into the DJ booth. Ableton Live is the non-traditional approach, embraced by electronic musicians and DJs wanting the power to tinker with their beats as they go. Native Instruments’ Traktor DJ remains the choice of traditionalists. Yesterday, Traktor got a major update — it’s all-about beat-synced effects, hardware emulation, and four decks:
Four Decks, Four Channels: You’ve now got four mixable sources, complete with Traktor’s usual view/loop/cue editing; use the extra two to add additional loops, beats, samples, whatever.
Hardware emulation: Analog modeling reproduces the crossfader, mixer, EQ, and filter of the Allen & Heath Xone:92. The gang at the ultra-pro DJ gear maker even collaborated. There’s also swichable support for the Ecler Nuo4 and Pioneer DJM-600. In other words: your computer can be pretend to be pricey hardware.
Beat-synced effects: Filter,
beat masher, flanger, delay and reverb can all be synced.
Performance controls: Here’s one I didn’t expect: you can now “pre-dial” knob and fader changes with the mouse, then activate them. There’s also “snap-to-beat” mode for cueing, which has a suspicious similarity to the clip settings in Ableton Live. (But also 5 on-the-fly settings for sensitivity — most definitely not in Ableton.)
Beatport music store integration: For some truly braindead reason, the folks at Apple and Microsoft (and presumably the major music labels) don’t license your online store purchase for DJing in Traktor, but the superb Beatport has stepped up to the plate. You’ll be able to buy directly from their store inside Traktor — though it doesn’t quite have the same feel as ruffling through stacks of vinyl, does it?
There are extensive interface and library improvements, too. Now, the vitals:
Availability: November
Pricing: US$279 list; $99 upgrade
Compatibility: Mac/Windows
Overall, an amazing bargain, and a huge upgrade. Now the major music labels need to get their act together and start selling to digital DJs.
Tired: Using iTunes on your home stereo at your next dinner party. Wired: Using Traktor DJ on your home stereo at your next dinner party.
Ultra-pro. Now there's a word to definitely stay clear of. 🙂
Awesome update, but I wonder if FS will support 4 decks in the future as well.
Arghahhahh!
(I give up, I'm going to buy djDecks instead)
It may not look as impressive, but even this low-cost product has (basic) VST support.
How fucking hard is it? Many innovative DJs want an open standard (VST), NOT crappy "DJ" effects or other useless junk added on.
Somebody please give me decent DJ software that either:
1. Hosts VST effects well (djDecks has yet to fill the bill there)
2. Acts as a Rewire client (not that hard, and yet nobody has yet to do this)
or…
3. Acts as a VST instrument (harder to do, but still possible. The closest match, Xtal is useless if you're trying to mix in any professional capacity)
Really, this burns me up because no matter how many dj effects you add to a product, no amount would be enough even to scratch the surface of an open standard like VST (or DX or AU for that matter). Plug-ins sound better, are more flexible, and have a wider range than on-board effects. Trust me, there’s nothing like throwing down a buffer override stutter in a middle of a breaks track to get the crowd’s attention. Add to that other unique effects like Prosoniq’s Morph plugin, and there is really no limit to the DJ tools possible with VST effects. I simply refuse to settle for less.
Sorry NI, you don't get my money this time.
ATA
"Now the major music labels need to get their act together and start selling to digital DJs."
Why?
I mean, it's not like they release anything worth a shit on the dancefloor.
This is your software! 🙂 ..has of course VST-support 😛 go to http://www.ableton.com 😉
yeah if i was you, i would go for ableton, its by far the best out there. the timestretching, and vst availability is amazing. i use it for my live sets, and have never had a problem with it 😉