Rekordbox beat grid sucks compared to Traktor Pro!

I agree completely! I now use traktor to do all my beatgridding and I use rekord buddy to transfer the grids into rekordbox. It works extremely well but it would be great to get an improvement within rekordbox as not everyone is on a mac and has traktor.

I don't think rekordbox is any worse than a lot of the software out there at analysis, I think it's just that traktor is so much better...

Hey Phil, what is "rekord buddy", and how does it work? If it will help my Rekordbox gridding, I want to try it.

it's an app in the mac app store to convert your Traktor info into RB info

As brichi says, just search the Mac App Store ( not the iOS one). It's made by next audio labs and costs around $5.

It allows you to do all your analysis in traktor and you can then simply transfer all the data in rekordbox, including grids, cues, hot cues etc. one of the guys on here created it, it's very simple to use once you get your head around it. Best $5 I think I've ever spent.

Wow, I'm very anxious to try it!

Rekord Buddy rules. I actually prep all my music with Mixed In Key, then edit beat grids, cue points (and labels), loops, comments, etc in Serato, then use N.I> SSL database converter software which transfers ALL info (including cue points, loops, etc) to Traktor, then use Rekord Buddy to do the same for Rekordbox. This basically makes it possible for me to have a 100% synced collection between Serato, Traktor, & Rekordbox with no duplicate files as each file is ready for any of the three. The tools Rekord Buddy & SSL Importer are PRICELESS to me!!!

If you own Traktor, then Rekord Buddy is the best money you can spend.

Now I just grid all my tracks and set my queue points in Traktor and then use Rekord Buddy to export everything in to Rekord Box - saves me hours and hours and means I can keep everything in synch.

I'm running 2.1.1 (and this is true for every version I've tried) and noticed the default analysis beat grid usually does not pick up the first beat.  Instead, if the grid is on, it doesn't make that the Inizio  If the grid is off, it usually starts a half note off, with the Inizio being some random beat.

So, 2.1.1 has supposedly fixed the bug in XML import where you can import the beat grid info.  Well, sorta...  If you set up an xml where you import a track that sets the Inizio, the track comes in with a single red beat marker and the rest of the grid is missing.  This is particularly amusing if you've corrected the beat grid and set the Inizio points and exported the library with the setting Bridge->Rekordbox XML->Export Grid Information->BPM Change Points.  What happens?  You guessed it:  you recover your library and your grid is gone!  Hey, no big deal, just re-analyze your tracks...well, now you're back to the messed up grid.

Two things here:  

1) Fix the analysis algorithm to scrub the track looking for the first cue and set that point as the Inizio.  This will cover 95% of tracks produced.

2) Fix the bridge XML import function to use the Inizio attribute in the imported XML to guide beat grid analysis rather than kill it.

Oh, forgot the moral of the story:  we should probably be setting rekordbox XML to export All Beats

Here's another weird thing with 2.1.1:  (will try these issues with 2.2.0 later today)

Let's say you externally edit a playlist XML, If you import and the tracks are already in the library, you are prompted if you want to use overwrite the library tags with the ones in the playlist tracks.  Normally I do this, because my goal is to import new cues and hotcue points specific for this playlist.  The XML I'm importing does not have tags present, so when the import is complete, the playlist tracks have no tags, leading me to issue 3:

3) Rekordbox should not erase library tags if they are already present and there is no replacement in the XML.

And the next observation:  With tag overwrite set, XML cues, loop points, and hotcues  are overwritten in the library as expected, the beatgrid of the existing library remains unchanged.  BRAVO!!!  This is exactly the way it should work!  

However, for some unexplained reason, the BPM tags in the library are all wiped to zero, even though the beatgrid still knows the track BPM.  Even a tag reload does not reset the tag's BPM.  It seems only analysis will fix that, and then the beatgrid is screwed up by the shoddy analysis.  Leading to issue 4:

4)  if an existing track's BPM tag gets clobbered during XML bridge import, you either have to set it manually, or re-analyze the track (thus messing up the set beatgrid)

Still on 2.1.1, and just imported 26 tracks, all in the range of 85-105bpm.  Most tracks are *way* off, very few are dead nuts on, some 8ms off.  I'd be interested if others have this similar experience with it being this bad:  These numbers are relative to the actual track cue point in ms, - means the first beat is ahead of the cue, + means it is after the cue.  

1: -130ms,  2: +330ms, 3: 0ms, 4: -8ms, 5: +14ms, 6: -300ms, 7: -4ms, 8: 0ms. 9:+4ms, 10: +290ms, 11: -14ms, 12: -300ms, 13: -586ms, 14: -289ms, 15: +21ms, 16: -8ms, 17: -8ms, 18: -14ms, 19: +291ms. 20: -8ms, 21: -313ms, 22: +306ms, 23: +8ms, 24: -563ms, 25: -46ms, 26: +850ms

Rekordbox appears to guess the BPM pretty close, most tracks are on, but when it's off, it is usually by +/- .01 to .05bpm.  It guessed one glitch-hop track to be 140bpm, when it is in fact 100bpm.

Do I dare try this with 2.2.0? (I'd rather not unless there were specific modifications to the gridding algorithm)

No feedback fom Pioneer on these issues?

I'll try this with 2,2.0 and see what I find.....

I agree, beatgridding with rb is very poor compared with traktor, so I was thinking to do all my beatgridding in Traktor and move it to rb with rekordbuddy, but yesterday I discovered this article that shows that rekordbox is quite good at key detection and traktor is the worst at key detection: http://blog.dubspot.com/endo-harmonic-mixing-key-detection-analysis/

I don't want to defend rekordbox, it's the worst piece of software installed on my computer LOL but I just want to inject some optimism here :)

One question: how do you find out how many milliseconds the grids are off? I don't see those details, and when I'm beatgridding I just run the metronome and correct if I can hear a mismatch between metronome and beats of the track. In my experience I'd say that roughly 60% of the times the grids are okay, 30% of the times they need minor adjustments and 10% of the times are completely off (I play deep and tech house and techno, so it's all modern computer generated music with a steady bpm).

To determine the offset, I zoom in and drop the cue point and make that the first cue memory.  Next I open up the gridding tools, then scrub to the nearest red beat marker that the analysis made.  The difference in current time relative to the cue memory is the offset.

Other than this set being a collection of break-y stuff (mid-tempo breaks, D&B, some juke, some swing, some glitch-hop...) the results do not appear to correlate to any identifiable characteristic in the music.  When it does get it wrong, it will get it wrong the same way every time.

Still no word on this?

How is it now on RB 4? I'm at the point where to start all the heavy work of cues/ loop points, im on traktor, but found the import from itunes way better flow wise in RB than traktor. but the first analyzing of bpm/beat grid and key is quite important too!

thanks

It's a massive improvement now.

just as good as traktor's beat grid analysis in my opinion. 

i'd still recommend mixedinkey over rekordbox's own harmonic detection though...

The Beat Grid in RB is still very poor in my opinion. I've upgraded from a Native Instruments Kontrol S2 to a Pioneer XDJ-RX and I wish I hadn't. This was to bridge the gap between Bedroom and a Club setup, but it's just ended up being a ball ache.

Yes I can use the XDJ-RX with Traktor in MIDI Mode, but I then have no indication of the effects parameters on the XDJ. The same goes for MIDI Mode in RekordboxDJ too.

Also when I export to USB for in a Club I have the same poor Beat Grid on Pioneer Hardware with the tracks drifting all the time. This is no improvement over just using CDs

I haven't tried Rekord Buddy 2 yet. As all my music on my PC... this has become a very long process including Mixed In Key too. :(