Introduction

Instant Mixer is a Traktor mapping that quickly fades in the next song of your playlist while bringing energy in with one of its eight different build-up effects. All you need to operate this mapping is one finger. That's right, all happens with the press and release of a single button. Check out the video demo.

Description

Once you press the Instant Mixer button, the deck that is stopped starts playing from hotcue 1. Meanwhile, one of the effects brings energy into the new track. The Low EQ of the new track is turned down to avoid low frequencies clashing while the Low EQ of the old track slowly fades-out to maximize the impact of the incoming track once it kicks-in. The volume of the outgoing track is slightly decreased to bring the attention to the new track.

When you feel it's time for the new track to kick-in, just release the button. The new track will play from its hotcue 2 at full volume and its Low EQ will be restored. The old track will completely go silent and the effects tail will slowly fade away. Also, the next track of your playlist will be loaded to the now stopped deck, so you can literally mix a whole set with just one button.

Importing the mapping (IMPORTANT!)

Care must be taken to correctly import the mapping. If you don't read this section carefully you could lose the mappings you already have.

• 1) In Traktor preferences, click the "Import" button on the bottom of the dialog. Navigate to the Instant Mixer .tsi file you've just downloaded and open it. Import just the "Effects settings": Unselect the "Keyboard mappings" and "Controller mappings" options. This is the critical part, if you don't unselect this two options here, Traktor will replace your current mappings rather than add the new ones to those you already have.

• 2) Go to "Controller manager" section. Click "Add" -> "Import TSI" -> "Import Other..." and select the Instant Mixer .tsi again. Now you should have the mapping added to your existing ones and the required effects settings also imported.

This should keep your mappings safe, but it is always better to export a backup of your settings before importing anything to Traktor just in case.

Configuration

Instant Mixer comes with two preset mappings: one to use with your computer keyboard that is mapped to “v” key by default, and one to use with a MIDI controller. All you have to do to remap both of them is to simply change all the key or MIDI bindings to the one that fits your setup. Make sure you also import effects settings because they are important.

Details

Traktor is an incredible tool to create crazy mappings, but it still has its limitations. That’s why some attention must be put on the correct use of this mapping, since it cannot behave as expected in every situation. However, if you follow the rules below, it is guaranteed to work like a charm.

• Don't press the Instant Mixer button with both decks A and B playing at the same time. This will “confuse” the mapping and it won't work as expected.

• Make sure you have both hotcue 1 and 2 set to good intro and release points in all the tracks in your playlist. There's no problem in using loop hotcues. However, if any of the first two hotcues is not present, the track may jump to the beginning, or not jump at all and set a new hotcue.

• The video was recorded with a preliminary version of the mapping. The version used for the video automatically synceds the tempo and phase of the new track when the button was pressed. This presented issues when sync was active so this feature is removed on the current version. It is better to keep sync on on both decks.
  

• In order for the mapping to choose the correct effects, make sure you've got all the effects on the pre-selected effects lists and that they follow this specific order:
  Flanger, Flanger Pulse, Flanger Flux, Phaser, Phaser Pulse, Phaser Flux, Filter LFO, Filter Pulse, Filter, Filter:92 LFO, Filter:92 Pulse, Filter:92, Delay, Beatmasher 2, Reverse Grain, Turntable FX, Gater, Iceverb, Reverb, Digital LoFi, Ringmodulator, Mulholland Drive, Transpose Stretch, Reverb T3, Delay T3, BeatSlicer, Formant Filter, Peak Filter, Tape Delay, Ramp Delay, Auto Bouncer, Bouncer, WormHole, Zzzurp, LaserSlicer, GranuPhase, Strrretch (Fast), Bass-o-Matic, PolarWind, Strrretch (Slow), DarkMatter, EventHorizon, FlightTest.
  
  This needs to be done because Traktor stores which effect to load by a mapping by order rather than by name. If you followed the "Importing the mapping" instructions you should be fine.
  

• Due to a workaround that I had to use, any preset you have saved for your effects will be overwritten. For more information see: http://www.native-instruments.com/forum/threads/change-effect-selection-and-turn-it-on-with-a-button.170088/

• Sometimes when I start Traktor I see that my mappings are corrupted for some reason. If that happens to you, deleting the mapping and re-importing it again should fix the problem.

Other things to consider:

• The Fx unit 1 is the only one used by this mapping so you are free to get crazy with the others.

• This mapping can be used both with pre-fader and post-fader effects.

• Some of the effects loop the incoming track.

• There are 8 different transition effects. Since Traktor does not provide a way to select one randomly, the mapping switches between them sequentially each time the button is pressed. You could easily extend the mapping to let you choose a specific effect by mapping extra keys or controller buttons to change the modifier 2, which is the effect selector. Make sure you only change modifier 2 when modifier 1 is 0. This way you ensure that the effects are not changed in the middle of a transition.

• The mixer's filter is not used, feel free to play with it!

• There's no problem in doing cue point juggling with both the incoming and outgoing tracks while the Instant Mixer button is pressed and the effects are going on.

• Consider complementing Instant Mixer with drum fills and/or Remix Decks on decks C and D. Why don't you try playing a drum fill increasing its intensity in deck C while the transition effects are rocking on decks A and B? Remember that you are free to use Fx units 2, 3 and 4 since Instant Mixer doesn't use them.

  
  

Conclusion

I hope you like this mapping I made. Please feel free to modify it to suit your specific needs, work-flow and style. If you make a cool derived mapping of it, please refer to it so people interested can know about it.

Also, leave a comment here if you encounter some problem or detect a bug.