The Lowdown
The Traktor Z1 Mk2 is an updated replacement for the original Z1 software mixer, designed to offer mixer features to Traktor software users. By adding screens, underside status LEDs, stems control and other features that work better with the latest version of Traktor, it’s a meaningful upgrade and sits nicely next to the X1 Mk3, which it’s designed to work with. Recommended.
Don’t have our latest DJ gear guide? Click here to grab your free copy
Video Review
First Impressions / Setting up
The Traktor Z1 Mk2 is a modular controller, tall and thin, a little bit bigger than the model it replaces, and in the same styling and build quality as the Traktor X1 Mk3, which was released a while before it. They’re designed to work together, and they look good next to each other. The X1 Mk3 can act as a USB hub and provide power to a set-up for up to 3 extra units, although this unit alone needs no external power, as it can take power through the USB-B socket from the computer.
The new model’s a bit larger than the older model, and has a set of OLED screens across the top, plus a few extra buttons. But basically it’s the same concept: A software mixer designed to control the mixer section of Traktor software, but with a built-in audio interface as well, a headphone socket on the front, and RCA outputs on the back. New for this edition, there is also an eighth-inch minijack output on the back, but this is the same audio as is present on the RCAs, it’s just two ways of accessing it.
On the top of the unit, a slightly more spacious layout than before offers crossfader, two upfaders, an effects knob for each channel with an effects selector plus selectors for filter and four mixer effects, three band EQ, gain, main output, headphones controls with volume and master/cue, and new buttons to select between stems and EQ control, plus decks A/B and C/D (because the one mixer can mix four decks).
Setting up is a case of installing the provided Traktor Pro 4 software, which is a bit clunky, but I got it to work in the end, and updating the firmware on the unit (in my case); this was pretty straightforward. Upon plugging in, Traktor will take you through a setup wizard in order to configure the unit, and then you’re good to go.
In Use
Apart from the obvious functions of a crossfader, two upfaders, three-band EQ and gain, the unit has a few new features that mean it can do a little more than the model it replaces.
Firstly, it has quite a cool effects section. Native Instruments calls these mixer effects, and while the main one is a filter (which has its own dedicated larger button), above the filter button are four buttons for others that you can dial in across both channels, on a layer or individually. You can choose more than four mixer effects in the software, assigning the four you want to the buttons. This kind of implementation is better than in most software.
Tapping the little stems button at the top switches the EQs and gain control to control four stems for stems-analysed tracks, namely drums, bass, music, and vocals, which are controlled by the low, mid, high, and gain controls. The little OLED readouts at the top show you where the stems are currently set, and this is important because the whole system uses soft takeover, where you have to move a control back to where it would have been, had you not moved it in another mode since it was originally set.
Alongside the screens, this is easy to work with, and the outcome is that you can mix full EQ and stem control across four decks using the same set of knobs.
Meanwhile, the middle OLED screen has got cool little animations for each of the mixer effects, a tiny but useful master meter to show that you’re not clipping, and the letters A/B and C/D, depending upon what layer you’re controlling. It’s all pretty intuitive.
And that’s about it! I can report that the sound quality’s great, the headphones output is loud enough even though it’s only taking power from USB, and not forgetting the LEDs underneath – which change according to whether they’re showing you that you’re looping, reaching the end of a track, or whether sync is slipping out.
Conclusion
There are many users of Traktor software in particular, who have no need for jogwheels, and who like small, portable modular hardware set-ups. It’s no surprise, then, that the original set of modular controllers, the X1, Z1, and F1, did well, or that in this new renaissance of the Traktor brand, first base has been to update the modular controllers.
Get our course: Traktor Made Easy
The X1 Mk3 was a great upgrade, and now the Z1 Mk2 follows in its footsteps. The build quality’s great, the new controls are meaningful, the screens are useful, and basically, it does what it’s meant to do, and it does it well.
You already know if you want one, and if you do, there’s nothing here to make you think again. Recommended.
