DJ Kevin E - House & Trance mix DJ » Blogs

New DJ Setup – Traktor Kontrol S4

djkevine — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 19:00:30 +0000

This week I purchased the Traktor Kontrol S4 – a usb controller perfectly designed for the Traktor Pro software, and after using it briefly this week, I’m very much impressed with it.

Before I was using Denon DNS1200 cd players to control the software via MIDI, which worked very well but after the the announcement of Traktor Pro 2, there were some things that just weren’t possible to do or far more difficult to do – mainly the sample decks and using 4 decks to make far more interesting and dynamic mixes.

The Kontrol S4 now combines all the controls needed for the Pro software, not to mention the use of the internal mixer and ability to record mixes in the software itself – without the need of additional sound card or cables and software.

My DNS-1200 CD players, which have been great ever since I first bought them, will now be sold on ebay, so if you’re interested in buying them off me, let me know! They’ll soon be posted on here once I post them on ebay.

Traktor Pro 2 – New DJ Software

djkevine — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 21:39:29 +0000

Native Instruments have recently announced the new Traktor Pro/Scratch Pro 2 Software to follow the previous big update, to be released on April 1st.

Big changes in the update include:

Coloured Waveforms
Loop Recorder
Sample decks
2 New effects
Other smaller features and settings

The update looks superb but I do wonder how it’ll be possible to control Effects, hot cues and the sample decks with one Kontrol X1, hopefully there’ll be a workaround, I imagine it’s using the Shift key to alternate between effects and sample decks. Check out the video below:

The Phantom’s Revenge – B*stard Can Do Twin Town (Edit)

djkevine — Sun, 16 Jan 2011 23:34:36 +0000

An edit of The Phantom’s Revenge “B*stard Can Do 90″, replacing the samples with samples from the film “Twin Town” – a 1997 film based in my hometown Swansea – a film very well known down here!

More edits coming soon, including This Is Miami (Sander Kleinenberg) “This is Swansea” version.

I’m now on SoundCloud, check out my profile here

The Phantom’s Revenge – Bastard Can Do Twin Town (Edit) by djkevine

Red Hot Chili Peppers vs Benny Benassi – My Otherside (DJ Kevin-E’s Bootleg Full Edit)

djkevine — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 18:15:38 +0000

I’ve been looking for the full version of Benny Benassi’s remix of Red Hot Chili Peppers – Otherside everywhere but I can’t find it, so here’s my own DJ friendly full length edit as I think it would go down great on the dancefloor. (See Download link below for full 320kbps mp3)

I assume it’s never been released, so this is a bootleg (I don’t want to break copyright law!)

Download link: 4shared

Traktor Pro Distortion? – A Possible Solution

djkevine — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 13:52:25 +0000

I’ve finally found a way to solve the distortion and stuttering playback in Traktor Pro when connecting it to my MIDI CD decks.

I searched for days on Google about possible ways to solve the problem, such as re-installing drivers, disabling wireless etc but none of them worked until I came across this…

The issue was with the MIDI mapping settings, and here’s the process I have to do each time I load Traktor Pro to get good sound quality.

At the start you can just about hear the stuttered playback, and then I make the settings changes I need to make every time I load the software to get good sound quality.

Behringer DDM4000 Mixer

djkevine — Fri, 31 Dec 2010 01:09:32 +0000

I’ve been looking lately at buying some new DJing gear, something I can link up to Traktor Pro and use as a mixer, and I came across the Behringer DDM4000 Mixer.

Usually I wouldn’t look twice at Behringer as they’re not famous for high-quality gear but I’ve read some great reviews about the 4-channel mixer that’s packed with loads of features (2 effects processors, sampler, eq kill buttons, MIDI, optical faders).

My current mixer, the Pioneer DJM400 cost £100 more at £350 and it doesn’t have nowhere near as many features, only 2 channels – not 4, no MIDI, fewer effects, and no cue mix for headphones. The price really is unbelievable at £250.

I can’t wait to get it and replace my Pioneer mixer that has broken master outputs (only the left output works)

Traktor Pro & Windows 7 – Not So Bad Now

djkevine — Thu, 30 Dec 2010 02:43:30 +0000

I previously reported about terrible distortion and clipping of sound with Traktor Pro but I seem to have sorted out the problem somewhat by changing the mapping for my Denon DNS1200 cd players.

Before, all the midi mappings for the decks were assigned by one setting in traktor, but after separating the mappings to each individual deck it seems like I have better quality and have no terrible distortion at 15ms.

So for anyone with similar distortion issues with Traktor, try adjusting your mappings and changing them so you have 2, each for your different deck (duplicate each and assign them to each cd deck!)

Traktor Pro & Windows = Frustration

djkevine — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:25:22 +0000

Having changed my setup to Traktor Pro with MIDI Denon cd players using my iMac, I then decided to buy a laptop to use with future gigs, as an iMac is far from easy to transport to and from gigs.

Traktor Pro worked like a dream on the Mac, shame I can’t say the same for Windows 7 though – stuttered playback (tracks keep on stop/starting) and distortion. It’s not as if the laptop is bad spec either, it’s an Intel i5 processor with 4GB RAM, more than enough to run Traktor Pro.

I’ve tried everything I’ve read on forums, changing the power plan, upgrading drivers, disabling others, anti-virus, wireless etc but I can’t get better than 20ms latency – which is far from good! Looks like for now I’ll have to live with bad latency.

Still no mixes since August so I really to get some done in the New Year!!!

Scratch effect on Traktor Pro

djkevine — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 18:57:31 +0000

During a session of trying out the effects on Traktor Pro and which of them go well together, here’s a cool feature I came across this week. Using the gater and Peak filter effect together, create a ‘scratch’ effect which you can manipulate using the two effects simultaneously. I recorded this using a mouse with a computer so I was unable to demonstrate using both effects at the same time.

You can use this with any track, just create a Chained effect with Peak filter and Gater, turn Effect to full and have some fun!

Traktor Pro – Effects using a 4-beat loop

djkevine — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 02:36:32 +0000

Here’s a quick messaround with effects in Traktor Pro using the Kontrol X1 usb controller. Beat Slicer is turned on the entire time which uses a 4-beat loop, other effects used were delay, filter and flanger. I’m still learning and getting used to the effects etc, but it’s amazing how many different sounds and effects you can create using just a 4-beat loop. I know the sounds aren’t great times and it can sound a bit off in places, but it’s all about getting to know the effects and how you can do your edits and remixes live as well as your own Break-downs, build-ups etc.