Traktor 4.1 - Unusual Issues: Songs Slowing Down and Distorting

NooZ

Hi everyone,

Last night, during a long DJ set for a birthday party, I ran into an issue that left me concerned. I’m using an S4 MK3 and the latest version of Traktor (4.1). Up until now, I’ve never had any problems with Traktor, but this latest update has me worried.

I’m running it on a powerful MSI Creator Z17 A12UHT-061IT laptop with the following specs: Intel i9-12900H, Nvidia RTX 3080 8GB GDDR6, 2TB SSD M.2 PCIe 4, and 32GB DDR5 RAM (4.8GHz). My system is fully updated and doesn’t have any pirated software installed, so I doubt the issue is related to a bottleneck on my computer.

While playing, I started to notice something was strange. I use a lot of effects and perform some pretty dynamic transitions, but I was hearing strange distortions. I use the ASIO driver and usually record my sets for my archive. Suddenly, the songs started mysteriously slowing down and distorting. At first, it seemed as if I had activated a stretch effect, but obviously, I wasn’t using it. With the crowd dancing and the pressure mounting, I panicked and had to reboot Traktor to continue.

I wondered if the issue might be related to the S4 MK3 being exposed to cold temperatures, but it had already been running smoothly for about 2 hours and 40 minutes before the interruption (this is also the point where the recording stopped).

I’m not sure what caused this or how to fix it, but I’d like to avoid it happening again in future sets. Does Traktor log these kinds of events somewhere? Or does Windows? Have any of you experienced something similar? If so, what was causing the problem?

Thanks in advance for any insights!

DJ-Andre

I have seen this behaviour when CPU trottling was enabled in the power plan. Make sure you have selected the high performance plan and change the plan so that the minimum and maximum CPU speed is 100%.

See the picture below for reference (Sorry, it's a Dutch Windows version).

This is a company-owned laptop and not the laptop i use for gigs. On this laptop it is only possible to set the balanced power plan. It is however possible to change the advanced values.

zephry

What driver are you using for the S4MK3? I am guessing that some PCs do better with the Asio driver and some do better with the Wasapi driver.

With my Asus Rog laptop (live setup). The Wasapi driver is erratic and does what you describe. I have also heard that slow down and digital garble when switching between bitrates. I use the Asio driver.

https://support.native-instruments.com/hc/en-us/articles/360000520317-I-Cannot-Find-the-ASIO-Driver-for-My-TRAKTOR-KONTROL-S2-MK3-S4-MK3-S3-Windows

I am used to this problem my preparation and mapping (low-cost) Yoga laptop (which is never used live). Sometimes the bitrate at startup is at max and sounds horrible. I switch it to 48k (same as the windows soundcard bitrate and it works) but it is still unstable and sometimes needs reset during use when the sound starts slowing again. Or even stops. I only use this laptop for listening and prep work.

StrictlyHighVibe

Have similar Problems that came with TP4. But I also changed to a powerfull Notebook so I´m not sure, if the Hardware has some bad influences.
It got better when I switched to 100% Power. It also helps to kill the Omen Optimizer Hub. But still the are hickups and crackles especially when Hedphone Volume and Sound close to the red limiter. For me only Asio works, Wasapi seems to have a problem with prelistening.

The Recordings are fine and I want to mention, that Ozone Maximizer is the absolut Killer Feature that makes Traktor also very special at the moment. I like to pump up 80s and 90s Sound and the Quality you get out by gearing some meters is amazing. Greetings to the Dev Community.

NooZ

Dear friends, first of all, thank you for your responses. I have set up Traktor as Dj Andre kindly showed (don’t worry about the language, even though I am Italian, it’s perfectly understandable, thank you).
Last night, I was preparing some tracks for the weekend and I noticed that Traktor was freezing, but I was using the Realtek sound card in shared mode, so it’s likely that was the issue. Today, as soon as I reopened Traktor, it didn’t even manage to start, and this surprised and worried me, especially because I have two events: one is three hours today and one is about seven hours tomorrow. While I’m taking moments to write to you, using it as a form of relaxing meditation, I’m updating Traktor to version 4.1.1 via Native Access, hoping everything goes well.

Terb

What I have found to get the sound back from a slowdown or glitch loop is to select a different audio option under settings/audio setup/sample rate rather than restart, if using asio drivers. You can also change back to the original rate after changing it once to another setting. It also helps to match it to the sample rate of your laptop's audio sound card too. Try making the buffer larger and as DJ-Andre said change your power plan, some laptops only let you use a balanced plan (all other options greyed out) and you will need to find the instructions online to enable the other plans. Also turn off any Anti-virus software as this causes spikes that don't show on TP4's CPU meter. Also if you don't need WiFi while you are DJing turn that off too. You can use latencyMon app to detect spikes and find the programs causing them.

djuttam

Same issue i also faced it. when problem starts i just swap the same rate like 44100Hz to 48000hz or revers it. problem solves for temporary. but again it starts i some time. do same thing just swap the or change the sample rate. this not the solution. we looking solution for permanent. even i had dell g15 i7 processor , 16gb ram etc