Traktor Pro is the successor to Traktor 3, and users of this version will be met with a brand new GUI on their first boot of this new software. The first thing you notice is that the waveform display has changed from a red-on-yellow overkill to a sleek light-yellow-on-lead-grey eye-pleaser.
Next big difference, and probably the biggest change in terms of functionality, is that everything associated with a deck is located around it. The Traktor 3 mentality of every aspect of each deck, apart from the most basic controls, being displayed on the top panel is no more.
Thank God for that too – the last thing you want from DJ software is confusion, and anyone who’s used Traktor in the past will know that the Page layout was far from ideal in a live situation.
Now, your loops (which we’ll talk more about later), BPM grids and cue lists (which have become much more advanced) are all controlled from the layout surrounding the waveform.
Moving to the mixer and, before you even read a single word, the size difference is immense. In fact, everything in Traktor Pro’s new GUI is bigger. Again, it’s not rocket science that you need to be able to clearly see everything that’s going on in a dark club at 3am after many drinks
In creating this new mixer, it feels and looks like NI took all of the user-feedback as well as their own technical knowledge and combined the two very successfully. In a space previously occupied by the EQ and Master effects parameters now lies a 3-band EQ, a Key knob for transposing and a very convenient one-knob filter – a blessing when limited knobs are available on your chosen hardware controller.
