Native Instruments Traktor 3.2 update

Geschreven door Reind Dooyeweerd zondag, 03 december 2006 00:41

Het veel gebruikte programma Traktor van Native Instruments is alweer aan een nieuwe versie toe en dit is tevens ook de laatste versie waarin Stantons Final Scratch in zal worden ondersteund. Versie 3.2 is vooral een beste lijst bugfixes en verder eigenlijk weinig nieuws onder de zon.

Voor de mensen die Traktor gebruiken in combinbatie met Final Scratch ook de laatste mogelijkheid om te upgraden, alle versies die na 31 december 2006 uit komen zullen GEEN ondersteuning meer bieden. Stanton komt echter in Januari 2007 ook met een spectaculaire update.... althans dat zeggen ze zelf ;-)

FINALSCRATCH 2 USERS CAN UPGRADE UNTIL DECEMBER 31st, 2006:
Buy the TRAKTOR 3 Upgrade online before December 31st, 2006 and get your hands on the best TRAKTOR of all time! As announced, the cooperation with Stanton Magnetics will not be continued beyond December 31st, 2006. For legal reasons the TRAKTOR 3 version available from January 1st, 2007, will no longer be compatible with FinalScratch 2.

The final Release Candidate is building as we speak it will undergo final in-house and beta test today. It is expected to be available for download on the NI web site on Thursday November 30.

The plan is to release the Traktor 3.2 update on the NI web site for registered users to download when released. This release will include the Universal Binaries for Mac and the Windows versions of Traktor 3.2. Mactel users wishing to run the new Mac Universal Binaries will need to purchase a new license for Traktor 3.2. The cost for existing registered users to obtain the Universal Binaries version for MacTel use is USD $25.00. PowerPC and Windows users that have Traktor 3 already registered will be able to obtain this version by logging in to the NI Web site and checking the updates page.


Feature Highlights for Traktor 3.2:

• Universal Binaries support for Mac OSX providing native support for both Power PC and MacTel hardware.
• Improved Deck Caching. Now provides user configurable options for users to pre-allocate RAM for Traktor to load tracks directly into memory for improved performance of looping and cueing. The functionality allows tracks to be played nearly immediately while caching continues to load the track into Ram in the background.
• Seamless Loop Moves and BeatJumps over the entire cached area of a Track.
• Drag and Drop duplication of one track to another deck that includes copying of loops cues and important deck state functions. This means you can drag the track playing in one deck to another deck, and have the track immediately play in sync with the first track. 
• When deck caching, drag and drop deck duplication and seamless moves and jumps are combined, it opens up the possibilities of live remixing of tracks.
• Significant improvements and fixes to MIDI Control covering everything from loop size and layout selection to improved support for jog wheels, and browser control.
• Improved hotkey support for many controls 
• Improved beat detection accuracy. More accurate base BPM detection results in better more accurate grids with fewer adjustments required to be perfectly accurate.
• Vastly improved analysis performance on MacOSX. Typically 8 minute long tracks analyze in 8-14 seconds on a Mac Book Pro.
• Improvements to stability and reliability for Native Mix recording.
• The return of the pitch fader. The choice to show the slider or knob is accessible from the context menu along with other GUI elements such Details Panels, Mixer and Decks C&D. Users needing more width for the waveforms can turn off the slider and show the knob instead. 

Important Notes for Traktor 3.2.
Deck Caching: This new feature in Traktor 3.2 provides allows DJ's to remix tracks live in ways not available in previous versions of Traktor. Care should be taken to ensure there is enough physical Ram present in the system when selecting Cache sizes. Allocating too much ram to caching will result in extremely poor performance of the system affecting not just Traktor but also the underlying operating system. System instability can also result and its possible your system could become non-responsive. As a general rule of thumb or best performance in

Traktor you should try to run with a minimum od approximately 40% of Physical RAM free when cache size is set to any value other than 8MB. By default after installation Traktor 3.2 uses on 8MB for all decks and you are feee to set your cache sizes as you see fit. To change cache sizes open Preferences | Deck preferences | Transport. The amount of free Physical Ram is shown below the Cache size buttons. The value shown is the cache size for EACH deck, so choosing 32 MB for Deck A&B will use 64MB total for those decks. Using 256MB for all 4 decks will use a total of 1024MB of RAM just for deck caching, if enough Ram is not available, you risk your system becoming non-responsive. DO NOT factor your pagefile or swapfile size into your calculations for Cache size.

Recommended cache sizes for common physical ram sizes

512MB installed RAM

• 8MB for all decks (recommended)
• 32MB for decks A&B - 8MB for decks C&D (Maximum)
• 32MB or larger for all decks is not recommended due to performance issues
  

1024MB 1.0GB Installed RAM

• 128MB for decks A&B - 32MB for decks C&D (acceptable)
• 128MB for all decks (recommended)
• 256MB for decks A&B - 8MB for decks C&D (maximum)
• 256MB for all decks or 256MB for decks A&B / 128MB is not recommended due to performance issues.
  

1.5GB Installed RAM

• 256MB for decks A&B - 128MB for decks C&D (recommended / maximum)
• 256MB for all decks is not recommended due to performance issues.
  

2.0GB Installed RAM (recommended)

• 256MB for all decks (recommended)

Do not run other large Ram footprint application concurrently with Traktor

While its possible to install more than 2.0GB ram into systems running 32Bit operating systems there is limited value in doing so. Systems with more than 3GB are not supported by windows 32 Bit. Contact Apple or Microsoft before adding more than the recommended maximums.