Thanks for the answers above. I actually took Hee Won Jung’s advice and spent some time learning traktor, got hooked, and bought the pro version a few weeks ago. I made the switch because I like the sample decks and the ability to save loops.
The quantize and snap features work well in traktor once i have a correct beatgrid in place.
I was able to set proper loops in VDJ; the approach I would use on an outro was to first set the loop size, usually 16 or 32 beats, then trigger a cue point which would move the whole loop of the set size to start at the cue point. I could them synch the next track and ramp over to it.
Traktor doesn’t work that way; if you set a loop size, then trigger a cue point, the loop is deactivated when you jump to the cue point. However since you can save loops as well as cue points in traktor, i work around this by saving pretty much everything as a loop of 32 beats, then i deactivate the loop if i wanted a cue to that point instead.
One gripe with traktor however – when the beatgrid is correct, bpm constant through the track, things are great. When the beatgrid drifts throughout the track, beatmatching by ear requires switching off snap and quantize and setting synch to bpm only not phase. I’d like to create a function to do all that in one shot. Virtual DJ seems to work better for me when the beatgrid isn’t perfect. This may be because i’m new to traktor and haven’t figured out a better way to deal with this yet.
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