When it comes to professional digital DJ software Traktor by Native Instruments is one of the industry standards. This complex application lets the DJ play up to four decks at once, use a variety of loops, FX and cue points and other complicated tasks to create fluid, original and rocking dancefloor mixes. But all Traktor DJs need to start somewhere. In this article DJ Master Course will run you through the very basics when learning to DJ with Traktor.
Step 1 – Loading your Tracks
Open up Traktor, and click and drag some songs to mix with from your music collection.
Select the song you want to load into a deck and click “Load into Deck A”. Then select your next track and repeat the action, except this time click “Load into Deck B”.
Step 2 – Preparing Your Tracks (BPM and cue points, beat grids)
Before you get mixing make sure your tracks are fully prepared. You need to analyse them to find out what their BPM (beats per minute) is to make sure they will mix well together (Traktor does this automatically when a track is loaded into a deck, or you can do it yourself manually in Traktor's library). As a rule of thumb your mixed tracks shouldn't be more than 3-5 BPM apart, to ensure that the pitch of the song isn't altered when they are synced (we will cover syncing next).
You can also do things like set cue points, which is where the track will start from when you press play. We do this by selecting a point on the beat-grid (the lines on the display) and pressing the “CUE” button. Eventually your whole library should be set up for ease of mixing with multiple cue points and loop points but for now one will do.
Step 3 – Sync!
The sync button is a handy tool that eliminates the need for beat-matching by ear. This is definitely a good skill to have though, and DJ Master Course recommends learning about it here . For now though, once you have a track playing and another one “cued” and ready to go, press the Sync button on both decks. They will now be synced so when they play together they are mixed! From this point you can crossfade between the two songs, or tweak the EQ levels. Mess around and have some fun, and remember all professional club DJs started with the basics – where you are right now!
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