Best Of

I liked this Q and A more then the others we had on the forum. It was refreshing to see his live reaction and not just some generic text. Thumbs up from me.

My rough notes:

Notes from Native Discord Q and A with the dude who designed Traktor mx2 and mx4
Lots of stuff where he said "We want that" but please guys don't hype yourself up! It's always happens with ya' lot. Want one dude in NI wants does not mean they have the ressources to do all of it.

• Why USB C now when you hated the idea on the x1 / z1? B cuz you move the x1 often around when setting, mx2 is more stationary.
• Batch stems: Nah, map the keyboard.
• Realtime stems: Looking into it, but they are still waiting for better audio from iZotope
• color cues: We sometimes have hackatons and would be cool
• More streaming integration: they are working on it
• Retina: they are refactoring the legacy code
• Better library management: will be the focus for the next years.
• Motorized jogs: Expensive (Both hardware and software)
• D2 mk2: Did not sell that well, but highly liked by a few people. Just like z2. They are refreshing the most sold items.
• Algoriddim Djay will probably add mx2 support.
• Traktor Play is the same codebase, only the serial key is what features will be locked / unlocked.
• OneLibrary: "Hot topic, I'm very happy to see this is finally happening" - "final stages of beta setting. I can't give an exact timeframe"
• Screens on mx4? "Maybe yes"
• Mobile version of traktor like Traktor DJ 2: Duck no, brother.
• HID integration: working on CDJ 3000x. We want more hardware to be plug 'n play.
• Browser improvement might lead to 3rd party stem integration.
• Favorite drink: Negroni
• Highlight of ADE: Interviewing Richie Hawtin

Just leaving this here, as a reminder, to how awesome traktor team once was.

If this is of interest to anyone:

Synchronizing different libraries is now FREE in the basic version of Lexicon! You no longer need a €9 subscription!
Only those who want to edit their own libraries in Lexicon need a subscription.
I use it myself with all DJ programs, and it works almost perfectly now.

Here are my questions about the new MX2:

• Will there be more hardware besides the already announced MX4?
• Why doesn't it have motorized jog wheels anymore? It seems as if they'll be missing from the MX4 as well.
• Did you abandon the latest technology for your jog wheels because you hoped it would make the controller easier to use for other DJ applications, e.g., Serato, djay Pro, or even Rekordbox? Virtual DJ seems to be a surefire success anyway.
• Why are you suddenly cutting back so much on the labels for the controls if you don't have mini OLED screens, or why are you now abandoning the screen approach, like with the X1 MK3? The visibility of the controls in dark environments doesn't seem to have improved.
• Why are you now opting for USB-C, when with the X1 and Z1 you defended the USB-B approach, or rather argued for it when asked?
• The FX controls for the individual stems don't seem to be integrated into the pad mode, or am I mistaken?
• Is the form factor the same as the X1 and Z1 in depth, because in terms of height, they seem to be on different levels. This is difficult to understand. Why don't they pay attention to such things?
• Is the MX2 usable as a 4-channel mixer in conjunction with the Z1?
• Why does it have a power cable, and why doesn't it have a USB hub?
• Why did they break the release cycle and not release an F1 MKII, which was actually due?
• Is the crossfader just as bad as the one on the Z1 MK2? And when the line faders are closed, do they still go into the queue if you put your hand on the closed side of the crossfader?

Questions about Traktor are irrelevant for me at the moment, as it's obvious that a lot of time has been invested in Traktor Play and refactoring the old code base of TP. It would be desirable to see bug fixes released more regularly in the future, and secondarily, improvements and new features.

Firstly, I'm interested to know how or if you're going to unify basic pad modes/controller interaction

because a lot of interested new user’s would view these quick-media performant DJs with punchy transitions and thus will be expected to use the labelled pad modes/certain user inputs on said 3rd party controller but could be road blocked by the lack of/ or different workflow. Examples include a basic sampler, ¾ loop, using jog wheel to interact with loop size/cue placement.

Secondly, what are your plans to keep users who want to upgrade to intermediate hardware?

With in the Traktor’s ecosystem there’s not much expansion outside of Traktor’s own hardware (excluding the MX4)

For example Serato has access to many 3rd party hardware vendors of varying skill levels, pioalphathetaneer has an internal catalogue of beginner all the way to pro level hardware.

Virtual DJ and Djay, whilst not having official support, has advance mapping capabilities to mix and match most of what the industry has to offer with near to no compromises with intended manufacturer’s use with said hardware.

Even though decade old hardware like D2, S5, S8 & Z2 is still supported, I can’t imagine that that would go on for a sizeable amount of time.

Thirdly, for the future, how are going to continue to evolve and more importantly allow easier accessibility to the powerful performant side of Traktor with remix deck, stem deck, maschine and the mapping system’s direct control of nearly every parameter.

These features set Traktor apart from the competition but are equally tedious to set up.

For example remix decks and populating cells, stems not having batch conversion and mapping GUI & options being very limited for the amount of complexity needed to fully map a controller in this day and age.

Lastly, Specific to the MX2 and maybe MX4, with the flux loop pad mode when I mapped fluxloop as pads I found that when holding down multiple pads and letting go of one completely disengaged flux loop entirely. This from aperformant side, I find counter-intuitive due to easily turning off flux loop. So with the new controllers having flux loop as a mode,has this been remedied?