Reply to Bread's Novation Twitch Performance Mapping [Traktor]

Hello everyone,

I've been working on mapping the Novation Twitch to our beloved Traktor. After purchasing the unit and being completely underwhelmed with the amount of control that the stock mapping provided, I set to work. I've been trying to implement as many features that I like into this thing while still keeping my own level of comfort and stability, and I'm pretty much all the way there. Just need to do some beta testing for a little bit and then I'll be able to release it. I'm trying to film a quick video demo, but my voice is completely shot today so I'll drink some tea and see what happens.

Here's a quick list of some of my changes so far.

***The Good***
Pad Banks
-Hot Cues bank left alone. They did this part right.
-FX bank revamped to give control over momentary effects, meant to be used in conjunction with the effects knobs at the top of the unit.
-Loop bank is now "Grat" bank. You know what this means.
-Grid bank is now "Slicer." Does not work the way the Serato mapping does Slicer. This is more of the midi fighter slicer variety. Awwww yeah.

FX Section
-FX Section now controls FX1 and FX2 in Group mode for Deck A and Deck B respectively.
-One knob for ALL dry/wet now.
-A single knob for each effect parameter.
-Toggle switches allow for 2 racks of 3 effects on each deck. 6 effects total on 3 buttons, bro.
-Echo Freezes. One short and one long for each deck. Like the midi fighter, but two!

Mixer/Decks
-FaderFX. You heard me right. I'll say it again. FaderFX.
-Hot Looping. One knob to change the value of the loop, click that knob to set the loop. Sup S4?
-Filter always on. Because seriously. Who needs a button to turn their filter on and off? Just center that knob like a boss.
-Crossfader sensitivity boosted. Because I like to believe I can crab after like 4 drinks.
-Tempo and Key knob sensitivity boosted in fear of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Minor Changes
-Shift buttons now blink with the beat.
-ALL LEDs brightened/colors changed for visibility and feedback.
-Assorted knob sensitivity adjusted for less sprained wrists and more fun.
-The .tsi has been completely cleaned up of all redundancies and professionally commented. Don't like the effects that a button selects? Widen the comments section and look for the part you don't like, then get to personalizing.

***The Bad***
-NO 4 DECK SUPPORT. I know, I know. You love using 4 decks and I'm a real douchebag for not putting it in. But hey, how's about you do it? I'm feeling lazy after making this mapping so damn awesome.
-Because there are so many effects between the FX bank, Grat bank and FaderFX, you need to be a little mindful of which effects are currently loaded. Not always a big deal, but can be offputting when you turn on Transpose Stretch at 0 when you mean to hit a Gater at 75 or something like that.
-Some knobs are not encoders, so they force a soft takeover. Hoping to find a way to fix this soon, it doesn't affect performance, it's just kind of annoying.
-No combos in Grat mode. If anyone can point me in the direction of some help in regards to programming the midi fighter's beatmasher spin-down combo I would be most grateful.


My main focus with this mapping has been to remove the focus from the computer. I want to be able to do as much as I can without looking at the screen often. Now I only need to touch my computer when I'm searching for a specific track or double-checking effect values. I've even turned the mixer portion off of my screen
I was able to give the mapping a test run last evening between myself and my friend that DJs on vinyl timecode in Traktor. He was able to jump right in and start mixing like a champ. At one point in the evening , the both of us were using the Twitch to create a massive supercombo into a big drop. It was an absolute blast.
I'm now able to create live mashups and remixes on the fly using the Slicer and FaderFX. You like to ploop? I like to ploop. Now that the loops are on a simple knob instead of using 8 pads, I've been enjoying looping down into 1/32 and crabbing that GGRRRRRR sound in with another track while changing the key using shift-tempo. Throw in some Filter92:LFO and we're getting DIRTY. The Twitch is now much more expressive for me and my style of playing. I can't wait for you all to try it out!

Thanks for reading and stay fresh,
-Bread