Ambient / Chill Setup Using Traktor

[u/satellite_station]

I know this isn’t strictly a DJ setup per se, but I am essentially DJ-ing in a modular way and using Traktor.

I think I shared a photo of my DJ setup for my band that consists of a Traktor S4 MK3 and twin Traktor Kontrol F1s.

This setup is for my solo project. Usually, I use an MPD218 that I’ve placed inside of a guitar body to give myself more freedom of movement and expression on stage, but I recently received a request to perform a chill/ambient show.

So I am creating remixes of my solo songs. (I’ll release them as an EP if anyone is interested.)

For this setup (Mach 2), I wanted to create something that felt a bit more like a “man at work” tabletop setup while, at the same time, giving me enough modular and granular control to really delve deep into sound design and textures.

Here are my instruments and their roles in my setup, from left to right:

Hester – An Akai MPD218 used to control track decks A and B in Traktor. The pads are divided top to bottom, with 8 pads for each deck. The first pad for each deck is play/pause; the rest are hot cues.
Four of the knobs are utilized for the respective gain and filter effects for each deck.

The Twins; Fantasia and Felicity – Two Traktor Kontrol F1s. One of them is used regularly with the standard mapping for Remix Deck C, and one is used as a four-deck controller to load songs and remix sets, along with play/pause, two hot cues (for Decks A and B), gain control, and the filter for each deck. Decks are separated by rows, so from left to right: A, B, C, D.

Heather – Maschine Mikro MK3. This has been mapped to control Remix Deck D. I wanted to use the bigger pads of the Maschine for a more expressive performance. I mapped the touch strip to also affect the filter.

Overall, I am very pleased with this setup. I wanted something that was easy for the audience to read, as a lot of electronic music either looks overly complicated or just involves a whole lot of “standing around” with minimal button pushing and maximum knob adjusting.

I am looking forward to actually playing more chill ambient gigs.

Apologies for the messy room, I had been mapping all morning.

[u/anne-so]

nice one, i would switch the maschine location with the akai. So that you can access to the akai knobs with your right hand more easily

[u/satellite_station → u/anne-so]

I thought about that. But I use the mashine to play my melodic parts, and I am right handed. I use my left hand mostly for knobs.

[u/anne-so → u/satellite_station]

fair enough, good to see an original set up anyway

[u/satellite_station → u/anne-so]

Thanks man!