Reply to I'm looking for a straightforward, logical, firmware edition

Hi Ean, and all you others.

First I want to thank djranking s.com for tons of inspiration, you are probably my main inspiration for going Traktor PRO + VCI-100.

I've followed your site and the progress with the VCI-100 SE (I own a regular version however) and it has spawned a lot of ideas of my own.

After a lot of believeing and tons of reading and testing I've made up my mind as to how I want my VCI-100 to interact with traktor. However the current configuration of the VCI-100 isn't really letting me do that.
Since you have done some updates on your VCI-100's firmware I thought that maybe you could help me preform some on my own (no offense to the VCI-100 SE, tons of cool stuff, just not exactly how I want it) - or perhaps give me a few pointers in the right direction - even if that means that I'll have to learn some obscure programming-language to get it to work.


What I'm looking for is basically a logical VCI-100 firmware, and by that I mean that all buttons act the way you believe they will when you look at it.
I've tried talking to Vestax directly but they're not so keen on helping me, it seems, even though I stated that I'm fully aware of the warranty-void issues regarding firmware modifications. Anyhow, my main issues are the following:
(It's a pretty long text, but that is just to avoid misinterpretations)

First of all, the "Effect Section" is midi-note evening mare in my opinion.
Why do two of the three modes on the select buttons send out MIDI-notes, but not the thrid? When in middle position (Master) and pressing the button gives you a B7-note... the next time you press the SELECT button it broadcasts a C8... and the third time...nothing! Not even a repetition of C8, it just moves the little diod to the right of the button so it alignes in (master) position again. I want three different notes here, one per click.
The we have the four buttons/knobs in the effect-area of the VCI
...why the heck do two of the "select-modes" (that i bashed two lines above) activate the same MIDI-note for the equalizer effect buttons as the button to the far right? This I also want to be a separate note.
Next part to bash is the "effect" button above the four knobs/buttons.
Why can't it be a standalone button with a constant midi-note (or perhaps three different midi-notes set by the "select"-button, instead of the inane configuration right now where it always sends the same midi-note as one of the four buttons (depending on which mode you're in).
After that we have the small "effect select" buttons.
They're working as they should MIDI-note wise... however, it is impossible to get them to stay lit with traktor and I'm assuming that it's the VCI-firmware preventing this since they obviously flash when pressed. (I want to be able to create a toggeling where they can stay lit)

The next part is the "sync" and "cue" buttons.
They are OK, midi-note-wise... but that annoying, constant-on, yellow light is killing me - I just want it turned off so they act like the other buttons when pressed (green light).

..continuing with the four buttons under each jog-wheel
MIDI-note-wise they are correct.... BUT... button number two and number four on each side can't stay lit when pressed and is also a bitch to just get to emitt a green light during the time they are being pressed (can't actually recreate it right now, but I remembered that I managed to get them to show a green light during keypress some time ago - with some pretty whacky settings in traktor).

Finally there is the star-shaped browser controls.
MIDI-note-wise they are ok, but I really would like to be able to make that green light stay lit (they light up while pressed down, but it's impossible to get them to stay lit like a caps-lock-function).





Yeah, well... that became longer than I imagined in my mind.
Anyhow, these are my ideas/suggestions/naggers. Could you Ean, some other moderator, or just any helpful soul help med out/build my firmware or just point me in the right direction?
(Like I said, If I have to learn a new programming language to get this the way I want it, that's what I'll have to do - and of course I'll post all of my results here for anyone to use)

Oh that's right, getting me started here will also sell you another firmware-flasher Ean