For Traktor lovers, this will come as very exciting news. It’s confirmed that new hardware and software are set to release later this year. However, the types of hardware and software that will be released remains in question, so we’ll just have to sit back and wait patiently for this to unfold.

We also know that a brand new Traktor rebuilt from “the ground up” is coming in the next several years. Originally reported by DJ Tech Tools, Native Instruments recently brought on new Director of Products, Pedram Faghfouri. He shared the following update about the state of Traktor in 2018:

“In 2018, with over 500,000 users and some of the world’s best DJs behind Traktor, we are in a unique position to integrate feedback from artists and our community.

The digital DJ market is fast moving and increasingly cluttered with competition. At Native we are passionate about leading genuine change and taking our time to ensure we blend quality, innovation and user functionality.

 In 2018 we will unveil new Traktor hardware and software that we believe achieves this goal, and further empowers our global community of professionals and hobbyists. We have prioritized user feedback and collaboration for product development. The discontinuation of the Traktor D2 and S5 reflect these shifts and enables us to focus on launching new Traktor products into market later this year.

We have engaged in rewriting Traktor from ground-up, even though this takes significant time and resource investment. We will maintain and improve Traktor Pro for several more years until the new Traktor is mature enough, also for our Pro users. There are more updates to Traktor Pro planned in the coming months.

To ensure focus to both development streams, we also doubled the size of our Traktor teams. We will be shedding more light on these exciting new Traktor projects over the next few months. 

We continue to work with the world’s best artists to learn from and inspire new ideas in the Traktor ecosystem. More insight on how today’s leading artists are using Traktor can be seen in our new Signatures series campaign.”

It seems that significant changes are coming and they will take time to complete. There are also planned updates coming soon for Traktor Pro, but eventually it looks like Traktor Pro will become extinct once the new Traktor is “mature enough.”

While this update is hopeful and optimistic, it’s also vague. And we’re still left with a bunch of questions. 

What we can say is that the decision by Native Instruments to reimagine their offerings “from the ground up” reminds us of the history of Serato DJ, which has also had a long, industrious, and ever-evolving journey.

It’s not ancient history, but it was quite a while ago (2012) when Serato Scratch Live and Serato ITCH (along with Serato DJ Intro) all meshed into Serato DJ with the goal of consolidating their software platform and essentially rebuilding from the ground up. So maybe sometimes in order to reach your goals you have to take two steps forward and three steps back.

While there are no precise answers for what’s in store, Native Instruments is making a brave move that will ultimately support Traktor users in the long run and help the company thrive.

This also makes the announcement of the Traktor PRO 2 public beta even more interesting. It seems to be an opportune time to contribute feedback since the company is looking to reimagine and improve the product overall. 

What do you think about these big changes coming to Traktor? Leave us a comment below. We want to hear from you!

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