Create Instant Drum Fills in Traktor

Written by Ean Golden on August 13th, 2009 29 Comments


The drummers fill is the key to creating energy and movement in a rhythm. That change up in the beat marks new passages, creates tension and spices up any song with a little dramatic build-up.  As a dj you cant replay the drums live, but you can create your own fills out of nothing with the right combination of effects. Watch the video above where I demonstrate how 3 simple effects can combine to create a very expressive fill. This technique was designed for and is contained in the new  VCI-100SE midi mapping.

THE TRICK

traktor FX

Setting up the 3 effects above in this specific order will create the effect shown in the video. The beat-masher in the first position will start the drum roll, a delay in the 2nd will create variations on that roll and the reverse grain will cap it off with a nice twist. On the VCI-100 SE mapping we have a single button which will load all of these effects in one click and route the desired deck to the FX unit. With a 2nd click the parameters are setup to snap to the best sounding positions.

You can connect each of the 3 effects to various controllers but the most interesting results come from combining them. We have the jog wheel set to D/w and touching the wheel sets the beat masher ON. The pitch fader changes the beatmasher length and the channel fader is connected to the remaining 2 effects. Turning the channel fader down turns on the delay, and changes the delay character as you move it down. Finally, the very bottom of the fader engages the reverse effect. That last feature is only possible if you have a VCI-100 SE or the 1.3 firmware, as the regular VCI-100′s dont have a note-on at the bottom of each fader.

Filed under: Advanced Digital DJ Tips, Controllerism, How-To Video Tutorials, VCI-100 SE / Arcade, Video Posts, and tagged , , .

  • jimmymac

    Video is set to private so can’t watch :(

  • http://www.eangolden.com Ean Golden

    [quote comment=""]Video is set to private so can’t watch :([/quote]
    sorry- you tube randomly makes the videos private. Its fixed now.

  • Scott

    Looks awesome Ean! Quick practical question, how do you turn the effect off?

  • Ruud

    Nice!
    Thanks Ean :)

  • MainFrame

    Thanx Ean! Thats amazing…..

    How can I map this to my Reloop Dgital Jockey?!?

    greetz ManiFrame

  • Dennis

    Wow, sounds really nice! Ean, do you mind posting the settings of the parameter so I can set this up with my VCM-600? Thanks…

  • janzak

    Fantastique! Gonna play with this all night :)

  • jthompsn

    Been messing around with this for an hour now. Sounds GREAT!!!!!

  • LINGDUM

    awesome! Can’t wait to do this when I got my plate back from the cutting store!

  • http://myspace.com127bpmofficial gregory127bpm

    [quote comment=""] Hope we get mapping for the novation remote sl 25. I love the tech tools mapping the best.

  • marcus

    [quote comment=""][quote comment=""] Hope we get mapping for the novation remote sl 25. I love the tech tools mapping the best.[/quote]
    can you do that to the regular vci 100?

  • MrM

    lovin this mapping, however I manually beatmatch and the masher on the pitch fader dooms me if I want to touch it at all with other channels playing, the second I come out of fader fx it wrecks with a huge pitch change. any suggestions?

  • http://www.eangolden.com Ean Golden

    [quote comment="20703"]Wow, sounds really nice! Ean, do you mind posting the settings of the parameter so I can set this up with my VCM-600? Thanks…[/quote]

    I updated the post with more info for other controllers.

    [quote comment="20697"]Looks awesome Ean! Quick practical question, how do you turn the effect off?[/quote]
    You just let go of the jog wheel or turn it back to turn the wet dry down.

    [quote comment="20713"]
    can you do that to the regular vci 100?[/quote]

    you need to have 1.3 firmware in order to for the echo and reverse to work.

    [quote comment="20715"]lovin this mapping, however I manually beatmatch and the masher on the pitch fader dooms me if I want to touch it at all with other channels playing, the second I come out of fader fx it wrecks with a huge pitch change. any suggestions?[/quote]

    the pitch fader is set to relative mode, so it should not matter the actual position of the fader when you move it only how much you make the move. the only problem with this is if the fader is all the way down, you switch back to pitch and need to move the fader down. otherwise, you can switch back and forth without any problems.

  • The Vly

    Oh man I this is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Works wonderfully!

  • nudearchitect

    This was exactly the new video I was hoping for. Really Great Stuff. My only question is a seemingly simple one. If the VCI-100se is in fader fx mode is it possible to adjust the volume of the transitioned-to track or can one only transition with straight effects at that point?

  • DvlsAdvct

    Why don’t you just set the Select button that chooses all the effects to set the values directly to the “optimum” values? It doesn’t seem like much change is needed beyond that. And it’s one less button to press. :)

  • Sjaak

    With which effect do you create a standard drumroll effect which regular club dj’s use on a cdj?

  • Sarasin

    FFS!

    I ran home at lunch time to check this out…..only to get there all ready when i realised…..i am on FM 1.2.

    Upgrade kit should have been here already…..Our postal system sux.

    BAH!

    :)

  • http://twoday.weltraumpapst.net weltraumpapst

    [quote comment=""]FFS!

    With which effect do you create a standard drumroll effect which regular club dj’s use on a cdj?[/quote]

    should be analog to the drumroll in traktor, just a loop gettin’ shortened..

    heres the DJTT vid on that topic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xuu0IKP-yE

    —
    i have to get another serial cable to finally upgrade my vci.. cant wait to gettin started with that!

  • duerr

    woah, sick! god damn i want a vci-100 :0

  • Anonymous

    thats awesome stuff. Bigups Ean. Inspiring me to have a 2nd Traktor based setup.

  • http://www.johnpuzzle.com/?p=757 How to Create Dynamic Buildups In Traktor Pro | John Puzzle

    [...] more information can be found here: http://www.djtechtools.com/2009/08/13… [...]

  • deco

    anyone else having a problem reading the newest post? how to set up tpro

  • Rick L

    What’s the track?

  • http://www.musictechtutorials.com/traktor-pro-how-to-create-dynamic-buildups/ Traktor Pro | How to Create Dynamic Buildups | Music Tech Tutorials

    [...] This is a technique we have used in our VCI-100SE mappings that combine 3 effects to make dynamic buildups on the fly. more information can be found here: http://www.djtechtools.com/2009/08/13/how-to-create-exciting-build-ups-in-traktor/ [...]

  • http://www.GamerScoreWhore.com Richard

    Hi. Just discovered your site, thanks, some great tutorials.

    What would you recommend for normalizing mp3 collection?
    On the NI forums someone’s recommended MP3 Gain.

  • David

    hey,

    my rate button says SPR and doesn’t do the pitch raising effect. i tried to “make a photo” but it didn’t work. im using the latest vci-1oo mapping. does anybody know how to make this work?

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dj-deejay-Barcelona/100002674081088 Dj-deejay Barcelona

    Thank you for all this cool tutorials and ideas.

    Best from barcelona

    www,dj-barcelona.com

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Dj-deejay-Barcelona/100002674081088 Dj-deejay Barcelona

    Thank you for all this cool tutorials and ideas.

    Best from barcelona

    www,dj-barcelona.com

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