I've been using Traktor since about 2002. Much of my DJing has been long bar sets or parties where preparing a setlist is not an option and you have to go with the flow.
What I really want is a quick and easy way to save and recall great combinations of tracks when I stumble across them during a mix.
SO:
- Let's say I've got tracks loaded on decks A,B & C
- It hit a FAVOURITE LOADED TRACKS button - this will save the combination of A,B & C
- The next time I load any of those tracks onto a deck, the others will appear in a 'recommended tracks' panel in the browser
So it's still discoveries that you've made yourself, but you have the advantage of those recommendations just coming up in context - and it also gives you a super simple way of saving those great matches on the fly - just hit one button!
This is a great way of recalling those serendipitous magical mixes of tracks that sound great together - especially if they're in disparate genres, or don't match in obvious ways (like key or bpm).
And remember! I'm only bringing up the 'recommended tracks' view in the browser if I specifically do that. So if you're playing from a playlist, or don't want any suggestions, you just don't show recommended tracks in your browser. And it'll only ever show track combinations that you've found yourself!
It's a super quick and easy way to build little chunks of playlists on the fly!
It's basically a smart/dynamic way of creating playlists - that can branch in all sorts of interesting ways. As opposed to a rigid playlist - personally I'm never really interested in playing the exact same sequence of tracks more than once, it's too restrictive.
>Note - I'm aware that the iPad app seems to do some sort of smart track matching to offer suggestions. That sounds somewhat interesting to me too - but my suggestion is something that you have complete authorship over.
