We'll give NI a pass on that one: reverbs can be CPU-challenging, and the iPad only has so much juice to go around. We found most of the effects to be the same high quality as their Traktor Pro counterparts, but the reverb fell short in listening tests. As soon as you start to control one effect, any active effects for that deck are disabled. Unlike Traktor Pro, however, only one slot can be active at once. Each deck has three effects slots, and you can select from an array familiar to Traktor Pro users: delay, reverb, low- and high-pass filters, flanger, Gater, Beatmasher 2 and Digital Lo-Fi are all on board. The EQ also contains a filter tab for controlling the same powerful filter from Traktor Pro (and the Traktor Kontrol Z2) via an XY pad. The EQ panel has the typical three-band delay and volume fader, controlled by multi-touch sliders that allow you to hold a value with one finger and jump to other values with a second. Their controls pop up and overlay the track waveform. The two decks have individual EQ and effects panels, accessed by buttons on the right side of the screen. You perform tasks like setting loops and cue points, scrubbing through tracks and even triggering slices of a loop simply with different gestures.

Two of the same waveform display found in Traktor Pro are stretched to fill nearly the whole screen, and you can interact with tracks in a variety of intuitive and futuristic-feeling ways just by manipulating them with your fingers. Rather than the typical spinning-vinyl UI, they've embraced the touchscreen paradigm. Once you've loaded up with tracks and opened Traktor DJ, what awaits you? We were pleased to find that NI's strong design acumen is immediately evident, as nary a pixel of screen space is wasted. This method results in a mono mix output, but most club sound systems aren't wired for stereo anyway. If you just want to use the iPad's headphone output, Traktor DJ provides the option to split the left and right signals so that you can cue tracks by way of a splitter cable. Traktor DJ does support Core Audio, which means you can use compatible audio interfaces like the NI Audio 6 or Audio 10 (with a Camera Connection Kit). All tracks must be loaded in through iTunes, so you might be strapped for space if you're running a 16 GB iPad with a bunch of apps already installed. Like many current apps, Traktor DJ requires an iPad 2 or better running iOS 6. Let's get the technical details out of the way.

Could this be the first iPad app to have a central place in professional DJ booths? NI have previously released only one iOS app to date despite their ubiquity in almost any electronic musician's studio. They revealed last week what Hawtin had in hand: Traktor DJ, a version of NI's Traktor Pro DJ software tailored for iPad. This year it was simply Richie Hawtin holding an iPad. Last year it was the multi-colored hint at what would eventually become the Traktor Kontrol F1, their grid-based controller. Rather than setting up a booth amid the sea of noise in Anaheim, they've released product teasers strategically timed with the conference. If you've followed our coverage of the NAMM Show these past couple of years, you may have noticed the absence of Native Instruments, one of the more notable names in the business.

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