Traktor vs VirtualDJ

[rdale]

I used a plethora of applications to see what I liked. I settled on traktor over vdj, vdj didn't really fit the bill with direction I was going, although it will mix two tracks together. I use an older version and haven't upgraded to 2.5, but it plays three decks, cue point juggles and hits the effects with my meager set up just fine.

Mixx was in the list, algorhythms, vdj and traktor all got a go and traktor is what I like. It is kind of the best balance I found between traditional two turn tables and a mixer and the advantage of digital. I'm sure VDJ might blow me away if I wanted to put in the time, but really I don't need VST to mix two tracks, I need two tracks to mix and a third to do something else with when I want, and the most I ever need is for my pleasure to do something silly with four tracks and move out of my normal set up.

For your question... Traktor fails a lot on auto-grid of complex breakbeats. This stuff should be will under control and isn't, I don't know if VDJ is better because I didn't like my experience with it enough to see. I hear plenty bitching about future upgrades that I've avoided, I'm holding out until I hear the water is warm as where I'm am at. VDJ annoyed me to use it just by the layout that is STANDARD, there may be better ways, but traktor really kills it out of the box, and colored waveforms that my friends have are hot. As a side note Mixx never worked as expected out of the install. I would really have liked to put more effort into it, but don't know if I can live with out echo freeze mapped to a button.

[synthet1c]

beatgrids hardly work with current bass music because the frequencies are tuned for gridding house, techno and trance... These styles of music have a louder and lower kick so the algorithm detects the loudest and lowest noise and picks the down beat.

Bass music including breaks, dubstep, dnb, moombah etc... generally has a quieter and higher frequency kick to make room for the bass synth, and to compensate and fill out the sound has a louder and lower snare/clap, that is why most of the time the grid is off because the algorithm confuses the snare/clap for the kick, it doesn't matter what program you use, if you are going to sync you have to make sure your grids are correct or be prepared to manually adjust the position.

VDJ7 will mix 4 decks happily, you can sync, match the bpm's or beatlock and easily choose your masterdeck that all syncing matches to. If you like cue point juggling you have 99 cues you can use in VDJ7 not just 8, that means you could set your normal cue's at the different sections of your track "I always set 5" then separate to that you could set your juggle cues. You could even map your hot cue buttons under a shift to change between the normal cues and your juggle cues.

shift button
toggle 'cue_swap'

hot cue button 1
var 'cue_swap' ? hot_cue 11 ? on & hot_cue 11 : off & set_cue 11 & cue_name 11 "juggle 1" : hot_cue 1

hot cue button 2
var 'cue_swap' ? hot_cue 12 ? on & hot_cue 12 : off & set_cue 12 & cue_name 12 "juggle 2" : hot_cue 2

hot cue button 3
var 'cue_swap' ? hot_cue 13 ? on & hot_cue 13 : off & set_cue 13 & cue_name 13 "juggle 3" : hot_cue 3

etc...

what it will do in english is:
if the "cue_swap" shift is active and the button is pressed, check to see if the juggle cue already exists, if it does exist then go to and play from the cue point, however if the cue doesn't exist set the cue point at the current position and rename the cuepoint "juggle #". If the "cue_swap" shift is not enabled then hot cue as normal. (If the leds have been properly defined they will work as you would expect with it responding to whether the juggle cue exists when shifted, or if the normal cue exists if unshifted).

That's pretty basic and not possible in traktor, there is many other things you could do to it also like add a shift to delete the cues..

hot cue button 1
var 'cue_swap' ? var 'shift' ? delete_cue 11 : hot_cue 11 ? on & hot_cue 11 : off & set_cue 11 & cue_name 11 "juggle 1" : var 'shift' ? delete_cue 1 : hot_cue 1

maybe activate an effect when you press the button down

hot cue button 1
var 'cue_swap' ? var 'shift' ? delete_cue 11 : hot_cue 11 ? on & hot_cue 11 & effect 1 active while_pressed : off & set_cue 11 & cue_name 11 "juggle 1" : var 'shift' ? delete_cue 1 : hot_cue 1

you could always replace "effect 1 active while_pressed" with a specific effect "effect "looproll" active while_pressed"

you could change the condition that it does all that stuff only if the deck is playing

hot cue button 1
play ? var 'cue_swap' ? var 'shift' ? delete_cue 11 : hot_cue 11 ? on & hot_cue 11 & effect 1 active while_pressed : off & set_cue 11 & cue_name 11 "juggle 1" : var 'shift' ? delete_cue 1 : hot_cue 1 : do something else

you could even make the button do something if the song is in the first half or not

songpos_remain 50% ? var 'cue_swap' ? var 'shift' ? delete_cue 11 : hot_cue 11 ? on & hot_cue 11 & effect 1 active while_pressed : off & set_cue 11 & cue_name 11 "juggle 1" : var 'shift' ? delete_cue 1 : hot_cue 1 : do something else

I'm just pulling random stuff out of the air now... but the point is you are not limited to a set amount of modifiers, you can create a variable "modifier" based on anything that can be queried as a boolean answer "true/false" which is everything! If you are an effect whore you are not limited to seeing the effect on screen, or having the cue point visible, or even having the deck on screen... it all happens in the background... TBH the only limitation in VDJ is what you think it can't do.

[rotebass]

[synthet1c]

GREAT POST CHAMP!!!

[likeberty]

TBH the only limitation in VDJ is what you think it can't do.

That's the point.

[dripstep]

synthet1c knows what hes talking about. VDJ has some VERY serious mapping capabilities. when it comes to VDJ or traktor, I like traktor, and synthet1c likes VDJ. its not about what software is better, its about trying them all out, and picking the one you like the most. Ive used serato, and VDJ MIXXX and torq, and Traktor is my favorite.

Try hem both out and figure out the answer for yourself. Dont have us tell you what to use, or whats best.

[dj matt blaze]

When I first made the move into digital DJing in 2009, I bought a Numark Omni controller that came with Traktor LE that I immediately upgraded to Traktor Pro so Traktor was the first software I used. I do have both VDJ and Itch but Traktor is the 1 that suits me the best. Itch came with my Xone DX, I have tried it and tried to like it, its just chaotic to me. Found implementing effects and samples to be difficult. I have heard that when you start on Traktor and try to move to Itch or vice versa that most people find it hard to do and stick with what they originally started with. VDJ has a ton of great features and really does have more capabilities than Traktor but I really don't like the workflow. HAHA, just kidding...I mean I really don't like the GUI. I really like the big giant scrolling colored waveforms as opposed to the scrolling red and blue stick figures of VDJ. I have always found it amusing that the same people that like to boast about not hitting sync, turning off the BPM display and manually beatmatching are the same people that cry for overlapping waveforms. If hitting sync is a crime, then overlapping waveforms is a crime worthy of the death penalty. (for the record, sync or overlapping waveforms is not a crime IMO) Also when engaging a loop, its hard to see on the waveform in VDJ as compared to bright florescent green of Traktor. I also found the track display /info in VDJ is hard to read as compared to the customizable track display of Traktor. I do wish Traktor had video capability and 99 hot cues (are you listening NI?) VST plugins would also be nice to have to be able to switch things up and create something unique but not a total necessity. If VDJ changed the GUI I would give it a shot but as it stands Traktor has my heart.

[ToOntown]

synthet1c, you definitely know your shit when it comes to VDJ...but have you used Traktor as extensively to give it fair comparison? I have 3-4 years under my belt with both and I'm only now considering going back to VDJ, mostly because of you and the buzz surrounding VDJ8. But from 2008 to now I hadn't thought twice of making the switch back. VDJ took a back seat for me and it's fair to say that I wasn't alone.

People don't value the VDJ platform quite the same way that you do. You're a self-proclaimed Fanboy for christ's sake! You're so impartial! That's ok, but customization and flexibility are not ok for beginners. New DJs want effects, but they don't want to go digging for custom effects let alone BUY them after they've just bought the software. Traktor comes with a better variety of effects and in my opinion, they chain much more easily than in VDJ.

For any new user that doesn't want to use DVS, I tell them to get an S2 with Traktor Pro. And in every case where people have told me that they started out with a Mixtrack Pro and VDJ, they thank me for telling them to check out Traktor.

Maybe things look a little different on the Atomix forums, but I've never met anybody who started out with VDJ, switched to Traktor, then went back to VDJ.

[rotebass]

People don't value the VDJ platform quite the same way that you do. You're a self-proclaimed Fanboy for christ's sake! You're so impartial!

This was kind of the point of my "cool story bro" post. Paragraph after paragraph of him trying to convince others, or perhaps himself, that VDJ is teh best! and Traktor is for those that don't know better. Even worse, when others give very valid reasons why they prefer Traktor, they are called a noob. When his justification for calling others a noob is unsubstantiated, he admits ignorance and then continues to refer to these people as noobs.

Not exactly what I would call constructive conversation...

[jakeintox]

I'm glad someone here sticks up for VDJ! My first controller (a Numark Total Control) came with LEs for both programs. I ran them side by side for quite a while, but ended up going with VDJ.

This is a Traktor-biased forum, so I gotta speak up on behalf of VDJ and say that it is definitely not just beginner software, is easily as powerful as Traktor (if not more so), and the biggest problem with it is the stupid name and the stigma brought on by shitty DJs with cracked versions.

Both programs work just fine, It's all about what fits your style and which one you'd rather stare at for hours on end.