Tutorial: Using Traktor + Ableton to Beat Grid Disco, Live Drums (Unquantized Tracks)

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As a Traktor specialist, one of the most popular questions I've been getting lately is "How can I beatgrid tracks that are recorded with a live drummer?" and "How can I beatgrid my classic disco records or vinyl rips in Traktor?" Unfortunately the answer is as of now, it's very difficult and almost impossible to beatgrid these tracks only using Traktor. However, while doing a Traktor training with David Morales, I found a way to get these tracks perfectly quantized to a click track using Ableton Live 8's warping engine, so you can bring the tracks back into Traktor and beatgrid them perfectly. Here is a step by step method on how to do it.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• traktor scratch pro 2
• ableton live 8
• native instruments
• ni
• ableton
• video tutorial
• dj tips and tricks
• beatgridding
• warping
• beatmatching
• beat gridding
• disco tracks
• david morales
• prince
• controversy
• beatgridding vinyl rips
• dj controllers
• mixing methods
• dj endo
• electronic music production
• quantizing audio
• setting warp markers
• felix da housecat
• dvs
• digital vinyl systems
• mixed in key
• sync
• time-stretching
• controllerism

[ceeeluvv]

thanks a million times for this!

[colinmcsorley]

Traktor beatgrids are awful, ableton is so much better, quicker and accurate, the grid in traktor floats about way too much, unlike ableton when you set your markers it's perfect, if traktor could just fix this problem I would definitely change to them over ableton

[DeeJayEndo]

@JohnnyParkification yes, it works the same in Traktor but better since iTunes is intigrated and you can use itunes smart playlists inside of Traktor (without having to use an external program like itunes for your browsing). Renaming your files with mixed in key can be a total disaster because you will have missing files in your audio programs. Lets face it, Ableton is geared for producers, not DJs. - Endo

[DeeJayEndo]

@JohnnyParkification I'm sorry but the sound quality of Ableton Live is not good, using warping or not using warping. I hear a "film" over the sound. People fight me on that all the time but I know what I hear. I love Ableton but they need to do something about the sound quality. However, I use a program called Platinum Notes to help out with this after bouncing out of Ableton. Works like a charm.

[DeeJayEndo]

@Guakamolitz Maceo Plex - Vibe Your Love with Prince - Controversy - Endo

[Guakamolitz]

track name pls ;)

[wwsshockwave]

tnx

[JohnnyParkification]

@DeeJayEndo Looping is not as fun as in traktor but if you have the idea you can do it even better.

Sound quality isnt as good ? WTF ? where did you get it, never been a huge fan of scratching too

[JohnnyParkification]

@DeeJayEndo

You have to warp song only once, no beatmatching, everything is to the beat. Always.

You can use itunes or foobar to have playlist but I dont really see a point browser is enough for me especially that I prepare my live acts and mixs very carefully, it takes some time but then they are next level. If you use mixed in key you can change to file name to Key - Song name so I can just search 8A and have all the tracks that are in this key.

[DeeJayEndo]

@DerrickMayFan Usually Ableton 8 will get your tracks warped correctly if you follow the steps above. If you know the BPM of the track (roughly) you can type this into the session before dragging your song into Ableton and it will warp it more accurately. Check out our other warping tutorials on the dubspot youtube for a more in depth tutorial on warping. This is more to show a trick on how to get your tracks on a grid using ableton and how to bring them into Traktor and re-beatgrid them.