NI/Traktor need to change their approach to the latency/ "crackling" issues

AudiFreq

There is a not a single traktor user out there who has not experienced at least once their mix come to either a halt of obnoxious "grinding" sounds or a series of pops and crackles like you are listening to a badly ripped Napster MP3. It's the most common help request on this page and it has been for over a decade.

But it's not a bug in Traktor, or Traktor doing anything wrong, it's not even unique to traktor over other audio software.
I want to preface this with a little background. I'm a A+ certified computer tech for 20 years, used to be a competitive overclocker (some relevance here) and I have DJ'ed well over 200 club gigs using traktor.

I have a list of things I do every time I get a new laptop or re-install windows to make sure this issue doesn't happen, it's a long list of bios settings, power settings, disabling integrated devices, assigning priorities and processor allocations all in the hopes of preventing these issue on stage. And I have shared those tips in 50+ different threads on this page over the last 10+ years.

The average user is not going to or going to know how to do all that. And they shouldn't be expected to know that either, other than maybe making sure their system is in a high performance mode, asking more than that is unreasonable of the average user.

The main factors are things out of their control, most often hardware and software interrupts from background tasks like power management (dynamic tuning) or network adapters going to sleep and waking themselves up.
This is why someone who buys a basic system, may rarely or never encounter this, but someone who bought a 32 core gaming machine just for Traktor might experience this every time, too many variables to manage. And there is no way for NI to tackle the drivers of every network card out there or work with microsoft to give their software a higher UAC level by default, will never happen.


td;dr
So what can be done? Sorry for this long winded post that offers no real answers, but will hopefully strike a discussion. I have 3 things I would like to see though.


1. Detection, this is already somewhat built into traktor, you can see processor/program latency (calling it "cpu" is misleading), but that little bar doesn't convey any real info to the user until it's too late. Programs like latencymon will tell you what is causing the splikes. A flag needs to go off in traktor when spikes pass a threshold, unless it's possible to detect when audio is piping, but that would add a lot of latency and processing as well.

2. Better support for mitigating these issues aimed at the average user built into Traktor, a simple tool tip popup that layout what settings need to change to prevent this from happening again after it's detected.

3. A soft/hard audio system reset button, It's the only way to get things back on track, even if it causes a momentary gap in the music.

AudiFreq

Bumping this thread as the other day I was at Ladytron Concert and the opening act was a DJ duo using Traktor when this issue started up for them, the continued to play for 20 mins as the audience shuttered from that nasty grinding off tempo sounds. I spoke with them after and let them know in the future just pull the usb and put it back in, but they didn't know the cause and there needs to be better user education for this.

Catarino

Any way you could share these steps you do to help others? I myself have a rigged up gaming laptop that i use to dj with and i always get pops and stutters

Miks_Max

Can you provide a link to the full list of steps to mitigate the above problem?

AudiFreq

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/206077#Comment_206077

There are 100+ threads on resolutions that worked for people, as I said in my post the big issue with telling people they need to do A or B to fix the issue is there is no one fix that will work for everyone all the time, you can't even pay your way with the fastest processor (unless you buy a mac which seems to prioritize audio latency)

I will say that the things that work for most users are:
1. Make sure your laptop is both plugged in and in high performance mode (check the power plan and slider)
2. Disable wifi/BT drivers in device manager.
3. increase your buffer to 256ms (I see people saying upping it past 512 helps, of course it helps but you can't really perform live with that much latency and it's 2025, not being able to maintain at least 128ms at 48000hz on any modern dac/sound card/interface is embarrassing)

Sûlherokhh

Windows-Tuning-Tips-for-Audio-Processing

Mac-Tuning-Tips-for-Audio-Processing

You can also search the Knowledge Base of Native Instruments, which is where i found those two links:

Knowledge Base Search: Audio Processing

zephry

You suggested a reset button? The middle refresh button I highlighted in the Routing area can quickly fix audio issues sometimes.

But I only do this on my editing laptop. I never use it live, it's a low spec Yoga. Only for Playlist previews and mapping. It will suddenly slow down and sound like the bitrate has been changed or even freeze. I simply hit that refresh and all is well for a while again.

The last few years seem to be better though. Way less audio issues than before 2020. And less expensive laptops ($800usd and above) doing just fine.

Most issues I have encountered are after updates (any updates to drivers or even other software). And not restarting the system.

Also always restart Traktor after any playlist editing or mapping changes. I have had crashes during long edits of mappings. And also deleting and editing playlists alot. Many hours and sometimes even leaving Traktor running when I get interrupted for hours between.

I also set aside a few days a month just for computer maintenance and updates. I do this for 3 computers including my son's that is used for gaming and Ableton.

I don't really update or care about the Lenovo Yoga though. Lol that one just gets whatever Windows does to it.

innerdrum

Yes i always play a song first to test and if i get those sound glitches/artifacts just restarting traktor solves it. It happens from time to time, not always.

So, unpluggin and repluggin the controller also solves it? (s2mk3)

BJQ1972

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/206282#Comment_206282

The units of buffer size isn't ms, is it? The screen shot above shows that a buffer size of 256 gives a latency of ~10ms which is perfectly fine. Increasing the buffer size to 512 in that example would probably increase latency to no more than 20ms which would still be good, and would likely eliminate any pops and clicks.

lord-carlos

For me Traktor sometimes has pops and clicks unrelated to buffer size. Always had. Could do 1028 with tripple USB buffer and still get it .. sometimes. Never on Rekordbox.

AudiFreq

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/207423#Comment_207423

Yes, though @zephry 's solution is actually better than mine

zephry

Most Dpc Latency is always a problem with something running. It can take months to actually find it. If it's something you wouldn't expect.

My previous computer 2017ish Dell G7 turned out to be the Dell Support application constantly checking the entire system for updates and various background processes. This was not Traktor specific. The same latency issues came up in Ableton.

As I said above. This has gotten better after 2020 and computers (Windows) seem to address audio specific problems better now. At a lower cost.

Anyone with issues. I invite to direct message me for detailed and troubleshooting advice. I am typically active about once a week.

But I am Windows only. My knowledge of Mac Is is very limited.

Stevan

I've been using windows since Traktor DJ Studio days and the best advice I can give to someone is to buy a mac. They are not flawless either but at least drivers are well optimized.

Yes, windows optimization can help but that's just wasting your time.

zephry

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/207695#Comment_207695

Both OS have become very similar. In the past Mac was easier and a bit more reliable.

In the last 4 years or so. My opinion from what I have read and even observed in this forum. Is that both platforms have close to equal positives or negatives.

And in general both platforms have way less issues than they did in the past.

Windows can still have issues with Dpc Latency, but way less than before. And Mac seems to have a bit more issues with updates compatibility than it did in the past.

I also see more people buying PC to use for more than just DJing. gaming and general use. Because really most people DJing only do it as a hobby. Most are not Club or festival DJs.

Your advice is not wrong though. I would also recommend Mac Os as the more reliable choice.

For me. I have been PC since 1997. And Traktor since 2011. Maudio Torq dj software and hardware 2009. All PC. So I am kind of used to it.