Reply to Complete Newbie Instructions for Setting Up MidiFighter Classic + Instant Grat tsi

Took me quite a while to piece together how to setup my midifighter classic and map instant gratification tsi into my Traktor Scratch Pro setup. But once I did, the thing is AWESOME and tons of fun..

Anyways, I thought it might be helpful to a newbie (like myself) to have one set of clear instructions on what to do. The only part where it got really weird for me was towards the end steps. Note, this worked for me and hopefully it does for you but I'm no expert on the matter by any means.

I was frustrated that I couldnt find a set of very clear, precise instructions so I wrote this. If I missed the instructions on this website, feel free to delete this thread. But I searched and found a ton of spread-out info in various threads that helped me in various ways.
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Pre-Requisites (this was my setup):
- Traktor Pro (any version - mine was Traktor Scratch Pro 2)
- Traktor Kontrol S4 (I dont see this as being relevant in these steps but this is my main controller fyi)
- Windows 7 64-bit (any recent version of Windows should be roughly same steps)
- MidiFighter Classic (purchased + received June 2011)
- Instant Gratification v1.03 tsi
- Backup of my pre-MidiFighter tsi (Make a backup before you start and make subsequent backups as you complete each major step.)
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Goal:
- Add the MidiFighter + instant gratification tsi to Traktor Scratch Pro 2 without disrupting any other settings EXCEPT for adding the MidiFighter controller + overwriting the effects with the Instant Gratification effects.
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Steps:
0. Make a full backup of all of your Traktor Pro 2 settings by going to preferences in Traktor Pro 2 and clicking the Export button at bottom of pref window. Save ALL of your settings to a .tsi file and keep in a safe place JUST IN CASE something goes wrong.

1. Update the flash on the MidiFighter

Moderator Note: This is not necessary for new midifighters

a) Download the MidiFighter Updater .msi file from below link and run it to install MidiFighter Updater (for PC). But DO NOT run it yet.
http://www.djranking s.com/software/pc/MFUpdate.msi
b) Put the MidiFighter into bootload mode (hold the 4 corner buttons and plug USB into device). You'll see the lights go a little haywire and then a bunch of random lights will stay lit.
c) Go to Windows Device Manager and look for an unknown USB device (its got some weird name that I didnt write down - MPC#####s or something like that). Once located, right click to update driver manually and point Windows to the MidiFighter folder that was created during step 1A above. So basically, point to something like: C:\ProgramFiles\DJTechTools\MidiFighter Updater\
a) Be sure to tell windows to 'include subfolders' when looking for the drivers.
b) Windows should successfully install the drivers and recognize your MidiFighter as an installed device. But your device is STILL IN BOOTLOAD MODE! It is not useable yet.
d) Now, open up the MidiFighter Updater application and click Update Firmware button. This will give you very, very clear steps on how to complete the firmware upgrade.
e) You are done with the firmware update but your device is still not workable in Traktor Pro 2 yet.
*** Note, step C may vary a bit depending on your system. I know some users may get a popup that prompts them to install the device. I did not so I did it thru Device Manager manually.

2. Enable 4 banks INTERNAL mode on the MidiFighter unit via the MidiFighter config mode. There is a very clear thread on the community on how to do this but here's the summary:
a) Unplug your MidiFighter pro USB from back of MidiFighter.
b) While holding down the top left button of the MidiFighter, plug the USB back in. Keep holding until you see the lights go to a permanent state (you'll see a bunch of LEDs lit solid and one flashing LED)
c) Hit button 5 (second row from top, 1st button on left of that row) to enter bank config mode. This will cause the LED arrangement to change to something like this:
. . . .
# . . . <- Flashing exit key
* * * * <- Selection bar graph (three states)
o . . o <- increment/decrement
d) use the increment/decrement buttons to toggle the bank states on the 3rd row. You want the one where the 2 right LEDS of 3rd row light up (this is internal 4 bank mode). Once you have it like that, hit the flashing exit button.
e) You are now back in the main config mode screen and should see another flashing exit button. Hit this and you are out of config mode.
f) Your device now is in 4 bank internal mode and you can proceed with the Traktor Pro setup! Don't worry, your getting closer to lots of fun!!

3. With the MidiFighter plugged in, open up Traktor Pro 2 and we will add the controller by doing the following:
a) Go to Preferences > Controller Manager
b) Click the little ADD button towards the top and choose "Import". I DID NOT USE THE MAIN IMPORT BUTTON ON THE BOTTOM!
c) Browse to the Instant Gratification.tsi file. This should cause 4 controllers to be added to the Device dropdown of the controller manager in your prefs (One for each of the 4 banks - MF_FX Bank A, B, C + D)
d) Using that device dropdown, go to MF_FX Bank A and change the In-Port + the Out-Port to "MidiFighter".
e) Repeat step D for MF_FX Bank B, C + D (i.e. make all the in-port + out-ports for the MF_FX banks "MidiFighter"). NOTE: sometimes when I switched in/out ports, it caused my preferences window to close. This is fine - just go back into preferences>Controller Mgr and pickup where you left off.
f) Traktor Pro 2 now has the MidiFighter device itself recognized and the mappings for the buttons should technically work.
g) Make another .tsi backup at this point and save it to a different location than my main backup from step 0 (i was too lazy to renumber everything in case your wondering why I used the # 0. I did this backup as a safety measure but found later that I needed it to fix a problem in step 4 below.
h) But your not quite done yet..

4. Now, you need to import the Effects Settings from the Instant Gratification.tsi.
WARNING: This will OVERWRITE any effects settings that you have currently setup. For me, this wasnt a problem because I didnt have any custom effects/chains set up.
NOTE: This is the step I had the most trouble with. I really don't know what order caused Traktor Pro to finally work right but it just did eventually. I imagine this has to do with the fact that Traktor applies tsi settings in a particular trumping order and that the Instant Gratification mapping doesnt necessarily account for that order.
a) Open up Traktor Pro 2 preferences again. Now, use that BOTTOM IMPORT button (next to the setup wizard button).
b) Select the Instant Gratification tsi file. v1.03 is found here:
http://www.djranking s.com/community /showthread.php?t=29351
c) Traktor Pro 2 will show you a screen with checkboxes asking you which settings from that tsi file you want to import. UNCHECK EVERYTHING EXCEPT FOR THE "Effects Settings". So you should only have 1 box selected here. Click OK.
d) Then repeat step C again.
e) Then repeat step C again.
f) Then go to the tsi that you created in step 3H and import EVERYTHING except for the effects settings.
g) Test it by referring to the button map (the jpg image) that can be found in the thread below. It should trigger the effects exactly as the buttons show here. I found a good test to be using the beatmasher buttons (those were the most problematic for me).
http://www.djranking s.com/community /showthread.php?t=29351


5. NOW, IT SHOULD WORK AS EXPECTED! - TEST IT THOUGH BY USING THE BEATMASHER BUTTONS. IF YOU FIND THAT YOUR BEATMASHER BUTTONS SEEMS TO CAUSE THE DELAY EFFECT, YOU CAN DO THESE FEW THINGS IN A SEEMINGLY RANDOM ORDER UNTIL YOU GET IT WORKING THE WAY YOU EXPECT IT TO.
a) repeat step 4C and 4F
b) I found also that by going to the Effects screen in preferences and manually removing all available effects and then doing step 4C + 4F, that seemed to be the winning move for me!!
** The whole effects setting thing was just plain bizarre. I struggled for over an hour with my beatmasher buttons changing the effects to either EMPTY or more commonly to DELAY which indicated something was wrong obviously. Don't get discouraged. Just keep playing with importing your effect settings / tsi's and/or manually removing available effects and doing the tsi import steps again. I wish I could tell you that the exact order I went in will work for you but I'm quite franctly not sure exactly what I did. Some people say that if you import the effects tsi twice, it simply works. But it did not for me.

6. Once working, enjoy this awesome effects trigger box!! It really is cool and worth the trouble of the above steps.

Feel free to ask any questions. Again, Im no expert but I'll try to help you if your situation seems similar to mine. The only thing in the above steps that is variable is step 5. Again, my buttons on MidiFighter just seemed to toggle the wrong effects (mainly the beatmasher would be changed to delay)

Hopefully this helps somebody.

DJTechTools, I'd strongly suggest printing up a simple document and including it with the MidiFighter shipments. I'd rather have received a simple instructions document as opposed to a polaroid of the unit (though the cert. of authenticity is cool). But other than that, I am VERY happy with the thing once I finally got it setup. Very cool work!!

-Kev