TRAKTOR PRO Ideas breakdown 2023

OK, so now let's expand it to the decks. the good news is: with the Clarett+ 4 you should have plenty of channels. the bad news is: in this configuration you're not using them, because you're mixing internally. for the same reason, there is no option to assign individual channels, and therefore no send.

(though funnily enough, you can still set the fx units to expect an external send while mixing in internal mode, which... basically takes them out of the signal chain. that almost seems like an obvious mutex thing that should've been caught by QA like 10 years ago, but maybe I missed something)

in external mixing mode, you could assign channels on the interface to be your send/return, and do all kinds of wild sh1t with that. but I don't think you'd be willing to redesign that scary amazing velvet coffin to accommodate a mixer, or spend more money. so let's put our thinking hats on for a bit.

now I'm gonna throw some dumb ideas your way. bear with me, because I don't have that interface and can only go by the specs I looked up in 3 seconds.

first of all, the EQ, filter etc. can all work in external mixing mode, so technically you don't NEED a mixer for that. you will, however, need a way to control deck volume. we'll look at that later.

open input and output routing pages, set mixing to external and assign the individual decks and send/return to dedicated channels, like so:

the FX return is where your delay/reverb tails come back from. it's the only type of effect that really makes sense on a send (at least when DJing). all other effects should remain inserts.

you don't need any deck inputs because you don't use timecode or external sources, far as I can tell from your picture. so stick to the send input.

go to your delay unit and set it to "send". you will see the corresponding deck assign button grey out. since this is going to be a send effect, go for 100% wet as you only want the tail to come back from the return.

now, your Clarett has its own internal mixer / routing matrix. using that, you can probably easily route 5 channels (4 decks + fx return) to one physical output on the interface. click on things, see what happens, when in doubt RTFM (personally I prefer just clicking on things). should be easy to figure out:

if it can't do that, it's garbage and you should get an interface that doesn't suck (RME comes to mind). but let's be optimistic and assume that it can, and you have done that.

this gives you what? 4+1 individual software output channels playing through one physical output. wow, it's almost like we've put in a lot of unnecessary effort to externalize internal mixing 🤣 we still don't have a way to control send/return or volume though.

now, here is where you need to get creative. some interfaces (RME comes to mind, again) come with an internal mixing console that can in fact be controlled via MIDI and even OSC. this seriously extends the capabilities of your DJ software or DAW. I'm gonna assume the Clarett can do that too, it's a ~600 EUR audio interface after all.

...if it can't do that, it's garbage and you should get an interface that doesn't suck (RME!). but let's be optimistic... 😁😁😁

basically, you would start by setting up volume and PFL controls. then assign each of the 4 deck outputs to a send that loops back into your fx send input channel - the one you assigned as send input in Traktor. maybe you can even do pre/post fader stuff, or make the delay feed back into itself from the return, whatever. sky's the limit. then then just assign a few faders and knobs on your controllers to talk to all that, and Bob's yer uncle - congrats, you've built yourself a mixer.

becase you're on macOS, you won't even have to worry about setting up a virtual MIDI routing to duplicate ports so that your K2s can talk to both Traktor and the Focusrite tool at the same time. sometimes being on mac saves a lot of headaches.

does that seem like a lot of effort? yeah. probably a little more than it took me to type this out. but it's still gonna happen faster than it would take for traktor to get deck sends in internal mixing mode 😁 and it's cheaper than a proper mixer with sends for sure. I mean it's literally free, if your Clarett can do that.

a further bonus is that once you actually have a hardware send/return, you can intercept that in a DAW like Bitwig or Ableton (or really any other DAW that knows Ableton Link, even Maschine, though it's not really a DAW no matter how much NI wants you to believe it). and that opens up... well, the world.

because if you thought one delay was awesome, think what else you can do with that signal once you get it into a DAW. all your VSTs... distortion, FSU, giant convolution reverbs, cascading multi-tap delays. at that point you can do anything your CPU can handle. capture a theoretically infinite number of loops of any length from any deck or decks, plural. send them back to another channel of the interface. feed that right back into your newfound god-tier FX chain... not to mention all the outboard potential, but this is all what you can do right now with the setup you have, assuming the Clarett is capable enough in terms of its own internal mixing.

however, should you want to get a great mixer for these types of shenanigans, I highly recommend the A&H Xone:96.