I’ve been running Traktor Pro 3 for years on Windows and macOS laptops. I even built a mapping for my APC40 mk2 to control stems on four decks. With improved stem support and a few months in, I thought I may upgrade. Turns out that was a bad idea.
First test drive, listening to some new tracks and organizing them produced a surprising amount of Traktor Pro 4 crashes. That was quite frustrating, but I thought it may be the fast editing of metadata, so I shrugged it off as not performance relevant. This evening I played a set with my Kontrol S3 and after a while, Traktor Pro 4 crashed again. Is it the upgrade installer? The Apple M1 Processor? I don’t know, I don’t care. I’m not getting paid for software beta testing, I paid to receive a well tested software.
I did quick online search: even months after the release, Traktor Pro 4 is riddled with problems. You can’t even say it’s bad start, it’s just bad. Traktor Pro 4 crashes are documented in the following situations (in order of typical DJ workflow):
- opening Traktor Pro 4
https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/34396/traktor-pro-4-boot-crash - importing music from hard drive
https://www.reddit.com/r/traktorpro/comments/1ec5aca/tp_4_pro_crashes/ - importing from iTunes / Music
https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/176601#Comment_176601 - analyzing tracks
https://www.reddit.com/r/traktorpro/comments/1e7of38/comment/lhb81nh/ - creating stem tracks
https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/34440/traktor-pro-4-stem-e-crash-pc - browsing the library
https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/36160/traktor-pro-4-crashes-when-browsing-with-traktor-s8-kontroller - loading stem tracks
- https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/34673/instant-crashing-using-stems-with-traktor-4-kontrol-s5-controller-anyone-else
- https://www.reddit.com/r/traktorpro/comments/1e7of38/comment/lejfaaq/
- https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/170294#Comment_170294
- https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/35899/why-does-traktor-pro-4-crash-when-i-load-a-stems-file-i-generated
- loading tracks
https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/34484/huge-issue-with-traktor-4-crashing-when-loading-tracks-with-disabled-bpm-0-00-bpm - loading tracks from beatsource
https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/34104/traktor-pro-4-crashed-twice - setting a flexible beatgrid
https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/33801/traktor-4-crashing-while-setting-up-flexible-grids - adjusting the beatgrid
https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/33308/welcome-traktor-4-1st-crash-during-the-first-50-minutes-of-use - DJing
While it has been a long-standing issue, that software – most notably video game – releases are rushed, this is a professional live performance software. There is no excuse for a full stop crash. It’s beyond my understanding how such a buggy, seemingly untested steaming pile of shit could EVER see the light and be advertised as “Professional 4-deck DJ software”, when in any use case issues arise.
This general trend of degrading software quality is bad enough, but unlike video game devs, Native Instruments is not acknowledging these problems publicly. There es no “we are sorry and working on it”. It’s infuriating to not know if there will be a fix at all.
Bottom line
If you are like me and rely on Traktor Pro in live situations: don’t upgrade. If you are clever and looking for issues before you upgrade, I hope this post helps you decide! If you upgraded and are wondering “why is Traktor Pro 4 crashing”, you may look up how to downgrade to Traktor Pro 3 instead.