DJ

Just like Naor says, you hit trouble because you were set to external recording. External recording is for when you’re using some kind of external recording device, like a old fashioned dictophone basically. Internal recording sets the master output to route through Traktor’s own (“internal”) recorder, which is what you want.

I feel you man, dnb never seems to autogrid exactly right. Try clicking “tempo sync” in the midi options. Now when you press sync, only the tempo, and not the beat markers, will sync to the master. You can then adjust the phase to whatever you’d like. Here’s a good article too: http://www.djtechtools.com/2011/10/23/looking-into-sync-power-functions-in-traktor-2/

I disagree with D-Jam. Although I don’t have any personal experience with this, I know if I were in that circumstance I would be more concerned with exposure and what I could put on a resume than with making money. I would shop around for a label. Once one bites, not only would you have them advertising for you as well, but you are now “signed” and finally have something to put in parenthesis after your own name and your release’s title (i.e. Mike Check — Checking Levels EP [Bring the Noise Records]) which, to me, is completely worth the extra time it takes to get a proper release. Also, assuming you’re looking for gigs, it is much better to say “my EP was just released by Bring the Noise Records” rather than “I just released my first EP,” as you hand the promoter your sharpie-covered CD-R.

A proper release also gives you a reason for increased levels of shameless self-promotion (i.e. “Hey guys, make sure you look out for my new EP being released on Bring the Noise Records one week from today! Here’s a little sample…”) other than the usual (at least it’s usual for me) “Hey guys, here’s a new mix/track I made! I know this is the third time I’ve posted about it this morning but if you just listen once you may be surprised and see I do have a little bit of talent and if you could tell all your friends about it too that would be great and…”

There are hundreds of labels out there. Nearly every day I see one that I’ve never heard of. Not to say you should aim for some small, possibly struggling, no-name, but just that the opportunity is certainly there provided your production is release worthy. Again, I may be way off being as I have never experienced this myself, but I would go about contacting some independent labels with music similar to yours as soon as possible and look around for a month or two before considering releasing it myself.

Really the only time I use filters is during mixing and the Ladder’s volume increase when you start cutting annoyed the hell out of me so I’ve been using Xone since then.

This sounds perfect for you! There’s no reason but your own head messing with you that you can’t blow this out of the water. You’ve had this gig at the club for months, so you’re comfortable being up there in front of people, the club owner is confident in you, and you’re in front of your home crowd. This sounds like a win-win situation for you. The crew you’re up against have more experience and a bigger following so everyone is expecting a good show from them and most likely to be “better” than you. If your nerves get the best of you in the end and you blow it, no one will be upset because the crew will probably put on a good show and the crowd knows they are more experienced. However, and I imagine this is what’s more likely to happen, you use the next month to practice up and get a killer set list down, you’ll give them a run for their money and surprise a lot of people. Everyone always roots for the underdog!

You said it yourself, “I’m not sure I do [have confidence in your ability],” which is completely unfounded and nothing more but your head screwing around with you. There’s no reason that you can’t only put on a great performance but also win this thing and show the crew, the owner, and the crowd that you’ve got what it takes. This seems to me like a no-lose situation. Especially since you’ve got more than a month to prepare! Find out what kind of battle it is (b2b, 3 tracks-3 tracks, etc.) and start collecting some good, heavy (I’m assuming you’re wanting the heavy drop dubstep opposed to the deeper dub music), and UNKNOWN tracks. I’ve been loving Culprate lately, for instance. He makes great heavy, atmospheric tracks that are very innovative. The crowd is most likely going to determine the outcome of this battle so your programming is going to be MUCH more important than your mixing (although trainwrecks still aren’t going to fly :)). If you do want to throw in more popular tracks, make sure they are remixes that change the originals drastically to keep things interesting and the crowd on their toes (think Kill the Noise’s or the Upbeat’s remixes of Noisia’s “Diplococus” and how much they differ from the original while still letting the listener realize what the original track is).

As far as mixing goes, I would practice my tempo changes. You mentioned the crew is dubstep and dnb, so practice switching between the two (or find some good transition tracks. Christina Perri–Jar of Hearts [Nefeera’s F**k VIP] is a great example in my opinion). Again, this is a great way to keep the crowd on their toes and make your set memorable.

Finally, be dancing and moving around the ENTIRE time, preferably with a goofy grin on your face :). The more you seem to be enjoying yourself (even if you have to fake it at the start because your whole body’s shaking and you’re nerves have got you screaming on the inside), the more the crowd will enjoy it as well. If you use this month to build your confidence and set list you’ll realize what an incredible opportunity you have here and that it doesn’t matter how much experience or equipment these other guys have. You’ll play a killer set, and win not only some new fans, but also the night’s battle!

That’s interesting mapping though. I guess you would just map the “0” state of Traktor’s filter to the “0” state of the high pass. Or if you’re interested in the low pass, you could map the “100” state of Traktor’s filter to the “100” state of the low pass. I’m not sure if those are the right mapping terms but the principle should be correct.