By Nisus
One of the greatest things about digital DJing is the opportunity to incorporate a multitude of performance tools into your sets. Not being limited to the turntables as an interface has opened the door to a wonderful world of controllers full of knobs and faders. While controllers have given us the power to mangle and mix sound, they have also put us back in touch with the instrumentality of live music performance.
DJing is a musical gateway drug. It makes sense that once you get used to using a controller as an instrument, you might want to start using the plethora of sound-producing instruments in a similar way. In this article, I look at integrating actual hardware synths into Traktor. Watch out though; before you know it, you’ll be wanting to play Phrygian dominant scales in your sets like Moldover.
DECKS, EFX AND A 909
Using Trakor in a four-deck layout is a perfect complement to many four-channel club mixers such as the Pioneer DJM-800 or the Allen & Heath Xone:92. Traktor has the ability to run audio through any of its decks and also send MIDI. Right below the big deck letter is a little drop-down triangle that you can click and select “Audio Through”. In my sets I do this on Deck D. Running audio through a deck gives you access to Traktor’s awesome internal effects, which you’ve hopefully mapped to your controller. Once you have audio through, you need to go into preferences and click on “Input Routing” Input Channel D and select your inputs. In my case I’m using the Audio 8 interface, so I selected Input 7 and 8 for Input Channel D. While you are in preferences, click on “MIDI Clock” and check the box “Send MIDI Clock”. There’s a MIDI Clock Sending Offset field below that, which we’ll go back to in a minute.
Back in your main layout in the top left corner where your effects section is, there’s a little metronome icon. Clicking on that will show you the Master Clock settings. You will see four buttons: Man, Auto, Int and Ext. Click “Int” and set your tempo. Click the big “Play Pause” button under the MIDI Clock “Sync” button. It should glow a glorious blue. If you haven’t yet, now is the time to plug in your MIDI cable from the MIDI Out on your Audio 8 (or other audio/MIDI interface) into the MIDI In on your piece of hardware. I am also connecting the audio out from my synth to the audio inputs 7 and 8 on my Audio 8 interface, which are assigned to Channel D in Traktor. Somewhere in your hardware synth will be a MIDI Clock setting that allows you to send and receive MIDI Clock data. Find that and set it to external or slave mode.
If you are using a Mac, you need to go Applications>Utilities>Audio MIDI Setup. Drag that app to your dock, because it’s nice to have quick access to it. Open the app and click Rescan MIDI. Your device should light up.
On with the fun! Load a track, start it playing and click the MIDI “Sync” button. Your hardware should jump into action and be sending sound through Deck D. Wonderful, right? Your hardware audio input could be a drum machine, a synth or anything with a MIDI port and audio outputs. There are some really great mod kits to add MIDI to your circuit-bent toys, so don’t sleep on the many possible devices you can sync to Traktor.
Now back to the MIDI Clock Sending Offset in the MIDI Clock preferences. Here’s what you do: Click the “Tick” button in the MIDI master clock window. It sends out through channels 7 and 8 by default, so those need to be plugged in or set to your headphones. Open preferences and click “MIDI Clock.” Now comes the part that relies on your O.G. beat-matching DJ skills. You need to align the tick with your synth or drum sounds. I recommend you pick a quick, mid-range sound on your hardware. Slide the MIDI Clock Sending Offset bar until you hear the two tones align in time. Press the Sync button and move the slider; repeat until correct. The end.
This should help you get on your way to incorporating instruments within your DJ sets. You can play along live or you can sequence patterns within your hardware. And this is only the beginning. – Nisus
thanks a ton for the guide! i have a question though. would this still work if instead of the audio 8 sound card i used a USB to MIDI cable with a hardware synth and something like the VCI controller to control traktor?
Great post. I got this piano http://www.pawnmart.com/?itemid=21474886097, and want to know how can I setup it to use it at the same time of traktor, to improvise or create riffs over the actual song in real time, using the loop recorder. Also I will need to get through ableton first or other program that can give me more sounds, because the ones i got are awfull, wich program can do this?, I dont want all the functions or ableton, just the midi instruments. I was thinking Reaktor ??
Im running a korg zero 4 for my traktor audio card and when i line my mpc into the phono channel 6/7 it creates lots of feedbackl. Does anyone know another way or input to rout an mpc through on a korg zero 4 to accomplish what is talked about in this article?
Thanks any advice will help.
cool post.
Me and my friend do b2b sets and I use cdjs and a DJM800 and we hook it up to his audio 8 via MIDI cable so he can pick up my bpm.
he uses traktor 4 decks and apc 40 and it works without a problem.
One thing which is not totally fixed is the problem when traktor picks up the sync (external sync) form my mixer it always starts off beat when hitting cue play, but my friend syncs it and then he switches to internal sync in traktor and he also mapped out nudge buttons on his apc so he can fine tune it 😀
Of course i use classical beat matching to mix on to his tracks and plus i use a roland SP 404sx external effect unit to add certain samples pads or effects to our mix 😀
Youtube link? That sounds really cool, I would love to see more of the tag team mixing, especially when using 2 drastically different setups.
@Nisus I would like to use 2 channels on my mixer to control my 2 CDJ 1000’s and the other 2 channels maybe to add internal effects or other things… would that work? and what kind of cable would i need can you send me a link thanks
@Santos You would need 4 RCAs and a midi cable. I thought about setting up midi to Traktor from the the DJM 800 but after really looking into it I decided the DJM 800 is just not the best way to control Traktor because you would not be benefiting from using it as an external mixer if it was controlling the internal mixer. Sorta like time travel. You could try it though and let me know how it works. -Nisus
what cables do you need to connect my djm 800 to audio 8 (midi wise)
and if i were to literally to control 4 decks i would need 4 milticore cables and 4 timecoded cd’s right?? or could i use standard RCA’s for the other 2 decks?
help would be greatly appreciated =]
Thanks for article, but im still not getting summat right.
Im trying to sync my Korg EM 1 to traktor.
1/ midi is set to ext on drum machine
2/ int. in traktor
3/ i even set tempo the same on my drum machine
4/ there s audio coming thru to deck D
But even with adjusting the offset i cannot for the life of get em sync’d. Its as if i cannot sync both software and hardware even though they are connected.
Can anyone please help? This is driving me nuts
Cheers.
So… im starting with this.
I have a electribe sx1 and a lap with traktor pro controled by Hercules RMX.
To fix the electribe as a slave I need an interfase that accepts audio and midi data, true?
Can you recomend me an affordable interfase to do it?
n/m i figured it out!
thanks
n/m i figured it out!
for the life of me i can’t figure out how to use my KORG padKontrol with Traktor Pro 3.0 Anyone else use it? It works beautifully with Ableton Live. Greatly appreciate the sharing of knowledge.
Hi guys,
Nice article… but could you be more specific about the connections between the different machines… should you prefer midi or usb? How to select which hardware is going to send the MIDI clock?
I have a A&H Xone 2D which has a midi in/out but which has to be connected to the computer via USB for the MIDI control and the soundcard… never got it to work… what would the ideal setup?
Any help is welcome,
Minuteman
somebody i want to know i have pioneer fxe-500 and audio 8 i can us fxe-500 can play effect on traktor pro or no help me plase thank you everyone
NICE POST!
n1ce one, although i knre of this featrure before, i´m now kinda hot to try out mixing on 8 decks … brings back the idea of my conceptual 100 records in an hour mix …
Neat ideas, next tutorial idea: “SYNC your VJ to your sets”
@AO cheers for the idea, I’ll be hunting down those options on my midi hardware. Plus Traktor Pro has always been able to receive as well as send midi clock signal, Simply set the clock master to external which allow Traktor to receive midi clock and then press sync, the tempo display should now be heading in the direction of the same bpm as what ever device or software you have set up as the master clock. If your doing this with to copys of Traktor, on the Traktor you want to be the master, set the clock to internal and I find setting the midi sending offset to around 29 will put it in time with Traktor you want slaved, but you may need to play around with the offset to get it perfect, but once it’s spot on it’ll stay locked for as long as you want!
+++
Remember any one Trying this with dvs, syncing will not act the same, as a tuntable can not be sync locked. But pressing sync on a deck recieving external midi clock from another copy of traktor will adjust the bpm to the same as other copy of traktor which can be handy as an mixing aid or messing around with fx.
My head is spinning….
Is there a tutorial video in the works?
” i have tried to sync my Roland SP555 to TR-Pro. I have a NI audiokontrol 1 with midi in/out and a VCI 100 SE DJTT. I have the problem that not only the Midi clock is received but also Midi control signals from the PAD’s from the SP555 control the TR Pro functions in a bad way. Like double midi data from VCI and 555.. I went back to manual Input without Midi clock. So i adapt the BPM to the SP555, but beat drift is happening always on the long run. But i would like to see this work auto…….
Any suggestions…..”
R3
[quote comment=”24392″][quote comment=”24385″]so i have seen other dj’s use multiple software applications such as ableton and traktor together on seperate computers for example hawtins setup… is this the same way you stay in time? im still confused as to how you would stay in time… r traktor and abelton compatible do u route into channel D like you posted about same way? a good tutorial would be awesome… sorry im such a newb…
thanks,
yan[/quote]
Yes, I’d like to know more about how Traktor and Ableton can sync together – Or have I missed a post on this subject already?
Thanks mates.[/quote]
Yes. This is how you would sync Traktor with say Ableton or any other MIDI enabled software or hardware.
[quote comment=”24405″]Don’t you think that nearly everything this article deals with is absolutely obvious? [/quote]
Kinda a redundant statement. Of course something is obvious to the person that already knows about that something… but to the people that don’t know, this article may enlighten them to the possibility of doing more than just DJing with Traktor and opens to the door to adding live elements to a show. I mean Native Instruments doesn’t really advertise Traktor as anything more than a digital DJ solution, but the fact you can record and route sound through the decks is pretty rad and it’s something a lot of other digital DJ solutions don’t offer.
Don’t you think that nearly everything this article deals with is absolutely obvious? I mean if you own a drum machine or a sequencer you propably know how to midi-sync them…
One thing I could add is that you have to be careful when using a xone:4D, as it has its own built-in midi-clock. So when you use the midi-send function in traktor and the 4d’s internal clock together the signals might clash and confuse your sequencer.
well I do also not completely get what this is all about… wait… where is my cross-fader? 😉
I love it ! +1up
@Leefy — yeah, I’d love to have midi in on Traktor. For the Traktor Pro users, is this a feature yet? I have yet to upgrade . . .
Wow, I knew Traktor had midi out, but I didn’t know about the audio in, thanks for this!
@DoubleDutchDj, do you mean ignoring midi start/stop commands on your external gear? You can usually change this on the gear itself to only accept clock, but not transport controls. Just a guess as I have yet to play w/ Traktor’s midi functions like this.
Will we every be able to accept a midi clock in signal.
That way we would be very easy to able to set up two traktor’s (one being the master).
search for bentosan on the forums, he has a link to his walktrough to run traktor + ableton together…
Nice post! Me and my two dj buddy’s hook up two copy’s of traktor, NI macheane and virtually midi link reason for its synths, we’ve wasted hours having fun and making noise but does any one know how to keep the midi clock working without it activating the other device’s that the midi clocks are being sent too?
[quote comment=”24385″]so i have seen other dj’s use multiple software applications such as ableton and traktor together on seperate computers for example hawtins setup… is this the same way you stay in time? im still confused as to how you would stay in time… r traktor and abelton compatible do u route into channel D like you posted about same way? a good tutorial would be awesome… sorry im such a newb…
thanks,
yan[/quote]
Yes, I’d like to know more about how Traktor and Ableton can sync together – Or have I missed a post on this subject already?
Thanks mates.
sweet this is exactly how I run my electribe through.
Hey – you’re bascially taking an external instrument, like a drum machine and using MIDI to keep it in time with Traktor.
Instead of the Audio out of the drum machine going through a desk, it’s going through traktor so you can use the internal effects.
As you change the tempo in Traktor, the drum machine will also change as it’s following the MIDI signal from Traktor.
Steve
wow wWWAAAAYYyy!! over my head. i dont get whats going on here… am i playing some instrment on whatever dack i choose(D) and applying effects onto it?
me neither!
Hy sorry , but i Cant See the Images of the traktor Hardware!thanks!
so i have seen other dj’s use multiple software applications such as ableton and traktor together on seperate computers for example hawtins setup… is this the same way you stay in time? im still confused as to how you would stay in time… r traktor and abelton compatible do u route into channel D like you posted about same way? a good tutorial would be awesome… sorry im such a newb…
thanks,
yan