Dubspot Instructor and DJ product specialist for Native Instruments Mike Henderson (aka DJ Endo) has provided some incredible tutorial videos for DJs learning (or current users) of Traktor Scratch Pro and Traktor Pro over the last couple of months. Endo has given Traktor lessons and tips to a wide array of DJs working different genres of music (from hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash to influential techno producer Richie Hawtin) to improve efficiency and help expand production and performance opportunities.
In the first video, Endo breaks down how to use Traktor Scratch Pro with the Maschine hardware – click here to download DJ Endo’s settings for Maschine controller – or any MIDI keyboard or including your laptop. Endo also offers tips on creating your own MIDI settings, scrolling and previewing tracks, loading tracks, and also briefly touched on quantizing, synchronizing, key-point drumming, pitch-bending, and mixing.
In Traktor with Maschine Part 2, DJ Endo goes through the second and third row of pads: looping and triggering hot-cues; how to select loops, creating “maschine-gun” and other effects, setting markers and navigating through them (turning on/off quantize-mode for the “perfect beat”) Endo also touched on his “beat-jump” feature, skipping forward and backward, etc.
In Part 3, Endo touched on some of the coolest features in Traktor Pro and Traktor Scratch Pro (25 built in effects) and offers tips assigning and combining effects, manipulating and controlling them, tweaking the filter frequency, mangling beats and controlling gating, and switching “modes.”
The next two videos are about beat gridding in Traktor Pro, and DJ Endo covers everything from setting your references for beat gridding to matching BPMs, creating grid markers, and using the Traktor’s synch button.