Interaktiv Tap — a multi-touch instrument that plays Traktor on Mac or Windows (USB MIDI, free)

interaktiv_akoppela

Update, September 2026 — 1.3 is out: Interaktiv Tap now plays Traktor on Windows too. Over the same USB cable, with our free Interaktiv Bridge — and Traktor Pro 3 as well as 4. Still free to download, and if you bought it while it was paid, everything stays unlocked, forever. Every release is at the bottom of this post.

Following up on my intro — here's what we've been building.

Interaktiv Tap is an iPad app: a multi-touch surface you play a whole set on, driving Traktor Pro 3 or 4 on a Mac or a Windows PC. Under the hood it's USB MIDI into Traktor — but it's built as an instrument you play with your hands, not a grid of faders mirroring the desktop. The whole idea was to get past standard controllerism and turn Traktor's deepest tools into something you shape by hand.

Where it comes from: it was imagined by my co-founder Pierantonio (a DJ since 1990, performing as Iltoro, on Traktor since the early versions) and engineered by me. He had the decades-long itch; I had the software side.

The parts this crowd might find interesting:

• FX on XYZ pads. Each FX unit is a pad you work with two fingers across three axes — X, Y, and the distance between the fingers as the third. Touch the pad and the effect switches on; lift and it's off. Four units, sends from any deck.
• Record a gesture, it loops in time. Touch, move, lift — the loop snaps to the beat and plays back in sync. Two slots per unit, layerable, halve/double on the fly.
• A full mixer by hand. Track / Stem / Remix / Live Input decks, four-band EQ with kills, filters, loops and loop rolls, hot cues, key fader.
• Built for the stage. Freeze snapshots the whole app — take any parameter anywhere, then restore in one tap. App Lock kills touch so you can wipe the glass mid-set without setting anything off. Magnetic center faders you can slam.
• It explains itself. The whole manual is inside the app — type a question, it jumps to the exact step. On device, offline, no account.

On the engineering side, since people here care: it's demand-driven, so when nothing is moving it costs almost nothing, and memory stays flat across a long set. It ships its own generated Traktor .tsi mapping, so setup is an import rather than an afternoon in Controller Manager.

Honest constraints: Traktor Pro 3 or 4 on a Mac or a Windows PC (Windows goes through our free Interaktiv Bridge app), and USB/wired only — we had wireless working but the latency and drop-outs weren't good enough to trust on stage, so we cut it. Free to download, one-time unlock if you keep it, no subscription. Once it's unlocked the entitlement lives on the device and is never re-checked mid-set, so nothing gets between you and the next track.

See it in motion: full sets on YouTube (@interaktivaudio) and interaktivaudio.com.

Happy to send a few promo codes to anyone here who wants to put it through its paces — reply or DM. I'm genuinely after feedback, especially the critical kind. Ask me anything.

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Release history

1.3 — September 2026
- Traktor on Windows — the free Interaktiv Bridge from the Microsoft Store carries the MIDI over the same USB cable, to Traktor Pro 3 or 4 on a Windows 11 PC.
- Traktor Pro 3 — works like Pro 4: all four deck types, the full effect list, the same setup.
- Effects you play by touch — touch the pad and the effect switches on; lift and it's off. HOLD keeps it on hands-free.
- Loop rolls — hold LOOP on a playing deck and the hot cues become eight loop rolls, 1/32 to 4 beats; lift and the track is where it would have been.
- Every iPad on iPadOS 18 or later plays the full surface, iPad mini included.
- Traktor holds the state — a button lights when Traktor confirms it, so the iPad always shows what Traktor is doing.

Everything in 1.3: interaktivaudio.com/news/tap-1-3-bridge

1.2 — July 2026
- Free to download — full-featured 15-minute sessions, a 7-day trial, or a one-time unlock. No subscription, Family Sharing included. Anyone who bought it while it was paid keeps everything unlocked, forever.
- Effects by name — browse and choose Traktor's effects on the instrument itself, on a pad that adapts to each one. Keep your own shortlist per FX unit.
- Guided setup that merges, never replaces — your own devices and layouts stay exactly as they are, and a tuned four-deck layout with FX panels is added alongside them.
- No more file juggling — the app shows a web address; open it on your Mac, drop your Traktor settings on the page, and the merged copy downloads straight back.
- It knows your Traktor — recognises its own mapping, pulls Traktor's full state the moment you launch, keeps the beat clock in step, and tells you when an update needs a quick re-merge.
- Stereo level meters — pre-fader deck levels, live on the surface.

1.1 — June 2026
- Runs on more iPads — iPadOS 17 and later.
- The manual moved inside the app — browse it, or type a question and land on the exact section. On device, offline, no account.
- Clearer feedback on the surface — an FX quadrant shows which decks (A–D) feed it and glows green while its recorded gesture is still looping; a collapsed deck shows the headphone-cue mark on its volume fader.
- Adjustable text size, and Show touch points to glow each fingertip so gestures read in screen recordings.

1.0 — June 2026
- First release.