Learn how to DJ with Traktor: Explore beginner and intermediate courses from Crossfader
How would you describe your teaching style? What makes the Crossfader approach unique or effective?
At Crossfader, we teach DJing like building with Lego – it’s not just about individual bricks (or buttons and features) but about understanding how they interlock to build something complete and dynamic.
We show students how each tool – like beatmatching, loops, effects, and mixing techniques – acts as a building block. These fundamental elements may seem separate at first, but when combined in different ways, they create entirely new possibilities in a DJ set.
Then, we guide them through different combinations, demonstrating how the same foundational techniques can be used in various ways to achieve different creative outcomes. Just like in Lego, where the same set of bricks can be assembled into countless designs, DJing is about using core techniques to craft unique and expressive mixes.
Traktor is a powerful platform, but it can feel complex at first. We simplify it by breaking things down into real-world workflows, helping students connect features in a way that makes sense.
How has your team’s experience as DJs influenced your approach to teaching Traktor?
Our team isn’t just made up of instructors – we’re DJs first. We were real resident DJs, working six nights a week and playing a wide range of genres and styles. This constant adaptation taught us invaluable on-the-job knowledge that we now pass on to our students. We’ve played in clubs, on radio, at festivals, and we’ve experienced the real challenges DJs face. That means we don’t just teach “textbook” techniques – we teach what actually works in live settings.
For Traktor, that’s crucial. It’s one of the most innovative DJ platforms, and knowing how to use its features effectively can unlock incredible creative potential. We’ve been in the DJ industry for over 15 years and have grown alongside the technology. We started DJing before controllers and powerful software features were the norm, honing our skills on traditional setups.
As the industry evolved, we embraced new innovations like HID mode and Traktor’s controllers, integrating them into our live sets throughout the last decade. This hands-on experience allows us to teach students how to blend new tools into their DJ workflow seamlessly.
What advice would you give to aspiring DJs who are just starting out, especially those interested in using Traktor?
- Master the fundamentals before chasing complexity. Traktor has some of the most powerful features in any DJ software, but it’s easy to get lost in them. First, focus on learning beatmatching, phrasing, and track selection. Effects, stem separation, and looping are tools to enhance your mixes, but the foundation is key.
- Listen to music. Focus on understanding what makes up a song – the elements, sounds, sections, and phrases throughout. Notice the changes in energy, the instruments introduced, and how tracks are structured. Developing this deep musical awareness will make it easier to shape your workflow and use Traktor’s features to enhance your mixing rather than overcomplicate it.
- Practice in real-world scenarios. Don’t just mix in isolation. Record your sets, play for friends, and experiment with different genres. The best way to grow as a DJ is to step outside your comfort zone and put yourself in situations where you have to react, adapt, and perform.
- Be aware of what makes Traktor unique. Traktor stands out for its Remix Decks, its deep customizability, and its powerful effects. While it’s important not to focus on these advanced features too early, being aware of their potential will help shape your journey. Understanding how Traktor allows for creative manipulation beyond traditional DJing – whether through live remixing, effect layering, or customized mappings – will give you a strong foundation to grow into its full capabilities over time.
- Finally, enjoy the process. DJing should be fun, expressive, and creative. With Traktor, you’ve got a powerful toolset – so dive in, explore, and make it your own.
Start leveling up your DJ skills
We want to thank the team at Crossfader for sharing how they approach teaching DJing with Traktor and what skills they recommend DJs work on to improve their skills. No matter what your skill level is, there’s no better time to learn something new.
Introducing custom User Chords in Maschine 3
Here are some of the key highlights of the new User Chords that can help you elevate your sound:
Explore unique harmonic structures: Go beyond standard chord voicings and create entirely new and interesting harmonic combinations, unlocking possibilities for more original and distinctive musical ideas.
Tailor your sound to specific genres: Craft sounds that are suited to the nuances and harmonic characteristics of different music genres.
Create personalized chord sets: Build and save your own libraries of favorite or signature chord voicings. These personalized sets can be easily recalled later for use in different projects.
Easy chord creation: The process of creating custom chords is designed to be intuitive. Users can simply select the desired notes on the pads to build their chords. Lit pads visually indicate which notes are included.
Real-time preview and editing: Preview your custom chords as they are being built. Mistakes can be easily corrected by simply selecting a note again to remove it.
Key and octave manipulation: Once a chord is created, you can shift it up and down octaves and even change the root note while maintaining the same chord shape, simplifying the process of experimenting with different keys and harmonic contexts.
Integration with other Maschine features: User chords can be used in conjunction with other Maschine functionalities, such as the arpeggiator, to generate interesting melodic and rhythmic patterns.
Start personalizing your sound
The introduction of User Chords in Maschine 3.1 empowers you to explore unique harmonic territories and personalize your sound in exciting new ways. From crafting genre-specific voicings to generating entirely original harmonic progressions, try it yourself in Maschine!
Achieving analog warmth in the box: Avoure on mastering for millions of streams
What does “analog warmth” mean to you in the context of mastering, and why is it so desirable, yet difficult to achieve, in a digital workflow?
To start, it’s important to understand the core difference between analog and digital sound:
Analog sound is essentially an electrical signal that represents sound waves in their natural, continuous form. This is where the “magic” comes in – analog signals have slight nonlinearities and even a bit of unpredictability, which give the sound warmth, life, and character.
Digital sound, on the other hand, works differently. It converts the signal into a sequence of numbers, making it precise and predictable. Originally, digital was designed as a highly accurate tool, though over time, it evolved to encompass a variety of “flavors” that give it more depth and versatility.
Our brains are naturally wired to respond to “nonlinear sound.” Think about it – the rustling of leaves in the wind, the sound of waves crashing on the shore, or even the echo of birdsong in a forest. These sounds are never the same twice, and this unpredictability makes them feel alive. It’s psychoacoustics at play. While it’s hard to explain exactly why, we instinctively find this kind of sound more engaging and pleasing.
The challenge of recreating analog warmth digitally lies in the complexity of emulating all those little nuances: the behavior of microchips, circuits, filters, and the randomness of electricity itself. Building these algorithms is incredibly demanding, both in terms of development and computing power.
How to use automation in music production
Automation in music is a valuable tool. A modern DAW project might feature dozens (or even hundreds) of parts. There’s no way you can keep on top of them all with a single pair of hands and eyes. By automating parameters, you can add sophisticated details to your projects that will be perfectly reproduced each time you play it back.
The simplest kind of automation is probably a volume fade. By automating the volume of a part in your DAW, you can make a new part emerge from nothing, or create a fade out at the end of a track. But automation in music goes much deeper than this.
Most modern DAWs (such as Logic Pro, Pro Tools, and Ableton Live) let you automate parameters right across a project, from synths and effects to global parameters. You can use automation to create filter sweeps, give complex movement to a synth part, switch on and off effects, or even change the tempo of your song halfway through.
Audio routing: how to use buses, auxes, sends, and returns when producing music
What are the basics of audio routing?
Audio routing refers to the flow of signal in your audio setup, whether it’s a hardware rig or production software like a DAW.
In any musical context, some kind of “signal” (whether that’s sound waves, electrical signal, or digital ones and zeroes) has to travel from one place to another.
When you play electric guitar, the signal begins at the strings of your axe, where it’s captured by the pickups on the guitar’s body. This signal (which is now electrical voltage) might then be routed to effects pedals that alter the signal. It then travels to an amplifier before being pushed into the air.
In electronic music-making setups, signal flow can get more complicated. You might think of the messy patchbays found in a well-equipped studio, or the forest of cables sticking out of a modular synth. But audio routing isn’t only relevant in the hardware realm. It’s just as crucial in software production, where it’s easy to set up smart and complex DAW signal routings.
What is routing in a DAW?
Audio routing in a DAW refers to the path that a signal takes from when it is generated to when you hear it. DAW signal routing typically starts with a sound source such as an audio file or synthesizer. Eventually it reaches the output of your DAW, where it can be sent to your speakers or headphones, or bounced to an audio file for later listening.
A lot of things can happen in between these two points. The signal might be routed through effects that transform it in creative ways. It might be grouped together with other signals, or duplicated and sent down multiple pathways.
Modern DAWs allow for almost limitless audio routing configurations. Indeed, the power to manage complex signal flows is one of the strengths of software production. Learning to master this complexity will broaden the scope of your music.
To better understand audio routing in a DAW, we need to learn some key terms, starting with “bus.”
What is a bus?
A bus, or mix bus, is a channel that takes signal from multiple channels and bundles them together into one signal.
50 song ideas to inspire your next masterpiece
43. Use repetition
Write a catchy chorus using repetition. If you repeat the title of the song in your chorus three or more times, it gets stuck in the listener’s head.
44. Keep the lyrics simple in the chorus
Use the chorus to spotlight the main message or feature of your song, and save the verses for the story building aspects of your song.
45. Use a different tempo
Start song song writing ideas at a different tempo than you usually work at. If most of your songs are written at 70 or 80 bpm, try writing at a faster tempo like 120 or 128 bpm. If you usually write at 128, try 140 or above.
46. Repeat phrases, but change them slightly
Start a song by writing a melody with a short musical phrase, then repeat it, altering the notes or rhythm slightly each time. Try changing one note each time the melody repeats. On the other hand, you could repeat the same melody three times, and in the fourth phrase, change the notes or rhythm.
47. Access more sounds on your favorite controller
Using new sounds can be inspiring, and lead to new ideas. Now you can access a vast range of Native Instruments sounds with the new NKS Hardware Partner program, which means controllers from Akai, Novation, Mektar, Korg and M-Audio are now compatible with Komplete Kontrol desktop software. Use your favourite controller to access over 2,000 NKS-compatible instruments, and you’ll be sure to find a sound that inspires you to write something new.
48. Get inspired by your favourite artists
Listen to your favorite songs, and see if you can identify which parts of their songs that you like about their melodies or productions. Deconstruct their ideas from start to finish. Try to borrow some of their techniques, whether this means borrowing ideas like types of rhythmic patterns, scales, or themes.
49. Learn song structure
If you’re writing songs, you’ll need to have a clear idea of what each part of the song is, and a general idea of how long it should be in the genre you’re writing in. Pop music has a different song structure from electronic music. If you learn how to structure your songs, the entire song writing process will be easier.
50. Keys to success
Whether a song is in a major or minor key can have merit on its success. Choose a key to work in depending on the emotion that you want to express in the song. Major keys tend to produce happier, more upbeat songs, while minor keys add a melancholy feeling to the song.
Start writing songs with these song ideas
We all need a few new song ideas now and then to spark our imaginations and creativity. Keep this list of song writing prompts easily accessible so you can refer to them before a writing session. Choose one idea to use for your song, and get busy crafting your song!!
Be sure to download Komplete Start, a free version of Komplete that’s a great addition to any songwriter’s setup. This toolkit includes Kontakt 8 Player, which gives you access to Tools, including the Chords Tool and Phrases tool that are perfect for aspiring or seasoned writers. Equipped with these tips for starting a song, you’ll always have a fresh flow of ideas to create your music.
Live 12.2 is Coming – with Bounce to New Track, New and Updated Devices, and More
Ableton Live 12.2 is now in public beta. Free for all Live 12 users, the next update speeds up essential creative workflows and brings new and updated devices to all editions of Live 12 – along with a host of new features for Push, and an additional device for Move and Note.
Bounce to New Track
You can now bounce clips or time selections on any MIDI or audio track, including all processing, to a new audio track with just a few clicks – or use Bounce Track in Place to convert the whole track to audio.
Explore new and updated devices
Auto Filter has been a core audio effect since the very first version of Live – but it sounds and looks like new in 12.2. Experiment with creative filter types like Vowel, DJ, and Comb, and shape sounds with greater precision thanks to Auto Filter’s revamped modulation section, new mixing controls, and real-time visualization. Auto Filter also comes to Move and Note for the first time.
Roar, Live 12 Suite’s flexible saturation and modulation machine, adds a new Delay routing mode and Dispersion filter type, plus an external audio and MIDI sidechain – allowing you to play the pitch of the feedback in Note mode.
Meld’s new Chord oscillator lets you play chords from a single MIDI note with four sawtooth waves. Adjust or modulate the chord shape and inversion, and keep everything in key with Meld’s scale awareness. The synth also gets a new Scrambler LFO effect.
Spectral Resonator and Resonators now support Live 12’s scale awareness and tuning systems.
Search, tag and browse more easily
Live’s Browser has been redesigned to help you find and organize your content more efficiently. The new Quick Tags panel lets you view, edit and assign tags directly in the Browser. The Filter View has been simplified, and its hidden features have been made more discoverable.
You can customize the look of any label and user folder in your sidebar with a range of new icons, and the Browser lets you view multiple columns of metadata at once.
For more details, head to the Live 12.2 beta release notes*.
What’s new for Push?
Live 12.2 brings major new creative features to Push. Expressive 16 Pitches lets you make melodies spanning multiple octaves from your drums and one-shot samples, with added fine control from Push’s MPE-enabled pads.
You can now structure songs, perform Sets, and explore flexible ways of sequencing clips and scenes on Push, with Follow Actions.
Fine-tune the timing, feel, and even the tonality of your music, with full access to the Groove Pool and Live 12’s Tuning Systems, plus Bounce to New Track directly from Push.
And in addition to the all-new Expressive Chords and the updates to Auto Filter, Meld, and Roar, Live 12.2 brings the External Audio Effect device to Push – enabling you to use hardware audio effects wherever you like in your Push Set.
For a full list of what’s new for each version of Push, see the release notes for the Live 12 beta on Push*.
If you own a Live 12 license, you can sign up for the Ableton beta program* to try the new features now.
*Note: Release notes and the Ableton beta program are only available in English
Laidback Luke on why FM synthesis keeps shaping dance music
Start using FM8 in your electronic music
Once again, we want to give a special shout-out to Laidback Luke for coming on and talking about the history of FM synthesis and why now is the perfect time to start embracing this method of sound design. It might seem intimidating at first, but it’s nowhere near as complicated as it looks.
FM synthesis is having a huge resurgence, whether it’s the donk-style sounds in techno and house or the iconic Reese bass, which is everywhere from drum and bass to house, tech house, and beyond.
This sound is defining the moment, and there’s no better time to start using tools like FM8 to recreate these tones. Laidback Luke shared a ton of workflow tips, his go-to presets, and the parameters he tweaks most when dialing in sounds.
Check out FM8 below, and once again, a huge thanks to Laidback Luke. Don’t forget to stream his latest track, It Clicked, out now on Dim Mak Records. Add it to your playlist and share it – because this guy is a living legend, and everything he touches in the studio is absolute gold.
Why it works: Dissecting the production moves that brought Keinemusik’s “All I Got” to the top of the charts
1. Subtle textures that keep you hooked
One of the key strengths of “All I Got” is its background movement – textures and subtle details that fill out the sound without overwhelming the mix or distracting from the main elements. A combination of white noise sweeps and percussive sounds, both small and not-so-small, creates a sense of movement just below the surface, evolving subtly as the track progresses.
Keinemusik keeps these background elements subtle, prioritizing the atmosphere they create rather than drawing direct focus. This approach rewards repeat listening – these textures may not be immediately apparent, but they add a tension and depth that makes the track compelling. This adds replay value, as listeners notice something new each time.
Komplete’s Replika XT plugin is excellent for creating similar dynamic background elements. Replika XT emulates analog-style delays and modulation, creating textures that are both rich and natural. The analog characteristics of this delay add a nuanced, driven sound that contributes to the track’s backdrop without overtaking it.
Pro tip: Use the Lo and Hi Cut parameters to control where the delay sits in the mix. Cutting higher frequencies can help blend the delay into the track’s background, especially for detailed elements. Automating these cuts can help the delay weave in and out of focus at key moments.
10 of the weirdest instruments of all time
Some musicians are content working with familiar, time-tested instruments that deliver predictable but reliable results. Others, however, push beyond convention. They seek to make sounds that could never have been heard before. Over time, musicians and instrument makers have experimented with new materials and designs that sometimes lead to groundbreaking inventions, and sometimes make oddities that push the boundaries of what we consider music to be.
These weird instruments challenge our way of thinking about music-making. Some have found their way into mainstream music, but others remain niche curiosities that are waiting to be explored by adventurous composers and music producers.
In this article, we’re diving into ten of the weirdest instruments ever created. Some are steeped in tradition, and others are futuristic experiments. All of them show how far musicians will go in the pursuit of new sounds.
Jump to these sections:
Add some of these sounds in your music using Komplete 15, a music production bundle that has everything you need to make the music that matters to you.
Creating weird instruments: musicians as innovators
The need for new sounds is a constant in music. As genres evolve, we as artists and producers look for fresh ways to capture our artistic visions. Sometimes, we simply want to surprise our audiences. That’s why we can spend hours creating the perfect synth patch, why orchestral composers experiment with extended techniques, and why some experimental musicians build custom instruments from scratch.
Some of the most famous innovations in music history started as strange, niche ideas. The electric guitar, the synthesizer, and the drum machine were once considered radical departures from traditional instruments. Today, they define entire genres.
Let’s take a look at some of the most unique instruments of all time.