YAVM - (not) Yet Another VCI-100 Mapping (extensive 4D Layout for TPro)
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YAVM - (not) Yet Another VCI-100 Mapping (extensive 4D Layout for TPro) Posted on: 28.01.2009 by Madelyn Dunmon Hi Guys!After pulling my hair out and loosing a lot of time during the last weeks, I finally managed to get a decent VCI Mapping up and running. If I knew what efforts I had to undertake, maybe this would never have seen the light of day ..... Anyway ... so I thought I'd share my work, maybe someone likes this, too And the efforts weren't for nothing because I did manage to squeeze a lot out of Traktor Pros very limited Midi Setup capabilites. I did this by using the modifiers as 1-bit switches, thus giving me much more states to work with. Unfortunately, this led to a LOT of additional commands needed and I really wished Traktor would give me more features like bitwise operation and more conditions, modifers, macros etc. So I ended up with 1100 commands, controlling about 250 Parameters .... ouch! Basically, this Layout is a bit more "traditional" than some others and more or less tries to follow the original VCI Layout, but dramatically extends the controls by adding a SHIFT key and 3 distinct modes which also can be used together. Another goal was to enable seamless 4D integration and there are some experiments with UI Feedback etc. Also, this mapping has a very flexible FX Layout IMHO. And here are the main features: 1) Seamless 4D Integration, all Decks have identical control configuration 2) Works with any FX Setup, controls both chained & advanced FX 3) FX Mode with simultaneous control of both FX Units via Jog & Faders 4) Special Loop Mode for working with Loops, works together with FX Mode 5) Beatjump & Hotcue Support 6) Setup Mode for configuring things 7) synchronized Traktor UI Feedback with Loop Mode, Setup Mode and Deck Modes 8) Use Jogwheels for List & Tree Scrolling and last but not least .... 9) a Reset / Panic Button in case anything goes wrong More detailed information and an overview of all Midi commands can be found inside the zip file, also the .tsi of course. BEWARE: this is BETA! I have tested this for a while, and so far it's running nicely, but I didn't do any live performance using this mapping. So there might be still some bugs lingering around. Sooooo .... let me know what you believe! Would also be thankful for bug reports, if any. Thanks, Frank ------------------------------------------------ DOWNLOAD HERE ------------------------------------------------ | |
| Madelyn Dunmon 19.02.2009 |
Originally Posted by mrmlbell
First of all, make sure that you startup YAVM with both FX Slots set to "Advanced" in TPro or press "Reset" before using it! You can change the type of FX later on, but YAVM needs to keep track which is selected. To use FX, do the following: 1) Press "Insert 1" on a Deck of your choice to activate FX Slot 1 for this Deck. (and/or "Insert 2" for FX Slot 2) 2) To start controlling FX Slot 1, press "FX Select" so that it is set to "A" (Original Label on the VCI-100, upper LED glows) A Setting of "B" will control FX Slot "2" while a setting of "mas" (startup setting) will allow you to configure FX Type and select FX with the knobs. Think of it as three different banks. 3) Now, use the 4 knobs and 3 Buttons in the FX Section to manipulate FX. YAVM does set params according to your FX type selection. 4) You can also use FX Mode to control FX in both slots simultaneously by using Jog Wheels and Faders The reason you only have 3 buttons in the mapping, but often 4 in Traktor is because on the VCI-100 with original firmware, the 4th button is hardlinked to another button. So, to use the "reset FX" Command, you have to press SHIFT with the 2nd FX Button. So this is a bit weird, but I cannot solve this until a version for firmware 1.3+ is ready. So, that's about all. If you are still having problems, please describe exactly what is causing them. |
| Madelyn Dunmon 25.04.2011 | Well, after a long long time, here is another update of my mapping! What's new:
Still does not support 4 FX Decks and also no Sample Decks, but I am at least believeing of a way to implement these. But no guarantees this will happen, as this will be HUGE work. If anybody is actually using my mappings, I will consider posting further updates. Feedback, suggestions etc are always welcome! Download is HERE, as always. Have fun! |
| Aurore Deeson 16.02.2011 | Great work. Have some troubbles - FX, but I still figure out if this is only my way of using it. Wondering if in 4D version crossfader might better work as control for Focus Deck and leave volumes only on Faders. I really like softtakeover and direct mode. Wonder if this mapping would work on 1,4FW. I will not update less I am sure this works on 1,4. Thanks man. |
| Tressie Nodes 08.11.2010 | Hey man, I just got a hold of one of your mappings... Been playing with it all evening
... Way to go, I never thought my VCI would be so powerful... Thanks! |
| Leota Saniuk 09.09.2009 | Cool stuff! Have you checked out TP 1.2 yet? Would love to hear your POV. I have summarized my thoughts here: http://ifnotwhynot.me/traktor-pro-12...a-world-of-fun Unfortunately it seems NI is content with what they have done .. which is unfortunate. |
| Madelyn Dunmon 26.02.2009 | Hi JonChase, regarding the constant flickering: look at the upper left corner of your VCI and check if the 4 little red LEDs are pulsating. If this is the case you have actually hit the peak limit. The reason why the other LEDs are also flickering is presumably a bug in the VCI's firmware, so there's nothing I can do about it. But in this case, the flickering is actually a good thing because yes, it shall annoy me, because when it flickers, I am TOO LOUD :eek: So this also helps me keeping disciplined with volume, which I - like most DJs - tend to crank up more and more over time (psychological effect where esp. high volume of sound seems to decrease over time when getting used to it). Even if you have your limiter on, you should not drive levels over the peak limit. I also recommend this article on DJTT, a very good reading about mixing and volume in general. About the stuttering: hmmmm don't know why you have this problem. Maybe it has nothing to do with my mapping like overall latency, which I don't believe will be affected by a midi mapping or it is some other TPro setting. I also had problems with keylock range at the beginning, setting it to 30% helped. Don't know if my mapping will affect performance since it is (unfortunately) way more complex than most others, so a lot of things can happen when you press certain keys. But I don't believe it will really tax your CPU, so your problem might be somewhere else. Hope this helps! regards, Frank |
| Kaylene Nickles 26.02.2009 | Hey Frankiee, so I was excited about using this tsi as it has just the layout and functionality I was looking for. However, after I loaded it into traktor, whenever I play a track or use the jog wheels, the audio keeps on jumping and stuttering. You can see this happen with the track on screen too. This makes it completely unusable for me. Also the LED lights on my vci flicker constantly. I know it works ok for other folks. Any ideas what could be causing the problems for me? Cheers |
| Darla Gandarilla 26.02.2009 | very nice work! Seems like someone finally managed to create a tsi, which is very intuitive to use. I will try it out this weekend and get back to you with my feedback |
| Madelyn Dunmon 20.02.2009 |
This looks pretty nice. So when I switch from deck a to b, how does the volume slider work? Relative?
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| Jose Crawmer 19.02.2009 | This looks pretty nice. So when I switch from deck a to b, how does the volume slider work? Relative? |
| Mia Boonie 19.02.2009 | There is no problems, with the file Just me not knowing how to use it. And you explained it perfectly for me. Thanks Very much and i will keep my eye out for your next installment. Cheers Michael |
| Madelyn Dunmon 19.02.2009 |
Originally Posted by mrmlbell
First of all, make sure that you startup YAVM with both FX Slots set to "Advanced" in TPro or press "Reset" before using it! You can change the type of FX later on, but YAVM needs to keep track which is selected. To use FX, do the following: 1) Press "Insert 1" on a Deck of your choice to activate FX Slot 1 for this Deck. (and/or "Insert 2" for FX Slot 2) 2) To start controlling FX Slot 1, press "FX Select" so that it is set to "A" (Original Label on the VCI-100, upper LED glows) A Setting of "B" will control FX Slot "2" while a setting of "mas" (startup setting) will allow you to configure FX Type and select FX with the knobs. Think of it as three different banks. 3) Now, use the 4 knobs and 3 Buttons in the FX Section to manipulate FX. YAVM does set params according to your FX type selection. 4) You can also use FX Mode to control FX in both slots simultaneously by using Jog Wheels and Faders The reason you only have 3 buttons in the mapping, but often 4 in Traktor is because on the VCI-100 with original firmware, the 4th button is hardlinked to another button. So, to use the "reset FX" Command, you have to press SHIFT with the 2nd FX Button. So this is a bit weird, but I cannot solve this until a version for firmware 1.3+ is ready. So, that's about all. If you are still having problems, please describe exactly what is causing them. |
| Mia Boonie 19.02.2009 | Everything about effects to be honest. I have got as far as selecting them effect and Cue buttons. After that ,selecting them and controlling them i am a bit lost. Cheers Michael P.s. I like the sound of the new bits above. Especially the cross fader idea. Keep up the good work its much appreciated |
| Madelyn Dunmon 18.02.2009 | So, I have a new Version for you Unfortunately still beta, because the edits under the hood were rather huge. New features & changes:
Okay, so we are nearing release I believe. No new features will be implemented before declaring YAVM "final", just bug fixes, if any. I still have some ideas for future features, like a Juggle Mode per individual deck - like with Loop Mode - but not for this release As soon as I get my hands on an upgrade kit, there will be some future development, maybe for firmware 1.4 only as I don't see many - at least major - remaining features anyway that make sense to be implemented. So, I will see how I can improve YAVM using the new firmware. Maybe I can improve LED feedback or use some other nice suprice this might bring. Have fun meanwhile! PS: Bento, I'd like to accept your offer with the BOME File so if you want to convert it, just grab it from the ZIP and sent it to me / post it here, so I can include it in the download. Thanks a lot! -------------------- DOWNLOAD HERE |
| Madelyn Dunmon 18.02.2009 |
I cant figure out how to use the effects yet but i am sure it will come.
After lokking at the tsi file setup i dont believe i will be changing anything.
But no fear - b5 is just around the corner, just testing if everything is still OK with TPro 1.1.1 |
| Mia Boonie 18.02.2009 | Hi Been using this all day and its excellent. The 4 deck control is genious, i love it. I cant figure out how to use the effects yet but i am sure it will come. Well done Can't wait for your next version. After lokking at the tsi file setup i dont believe i will be changing anything. Cheers Michael |
| Madelyn Dunmon 16.02.2009 |
But thanks a lot for some really cool features on here. Very excited, I just wish I understood more under the hood.
One example: to test if a Modifier is smaller than 4 you have to do the following 4 commands: M1=0 ... M1=1 ... M1=2 ... M1=3 ... each doing the same thing. Imagine you could do the following: M1<4 ... So therefore, many of the commands are just workarounds to limitations of TPro. Another reason for the bloat is that I tried to maximise the Modifier flexibility by seeing them as binary switches. But since I only have their decimal representations to work with (that's 0-7 which is also exactly 3 bits), I have to use a lot of commands to test the Modifiers for single bits. But even then, YAVM b5 will use _all_ available bits of the Modifiers :eek: I also use other techniques like deck locking to cram even more functionality in some controls and so on. Last but not least, a lot of commands are there to make sure nothing gets messed up when combining all of these modes. If somebody really is interested, I could maybe write a bit more about how I did it. Btw: at least the Modifier use is described on the last page of the manual. Other than that, I have implemented everything I have posted in my preview, so stay tuned for a few days while I do some testing and update my docs etc. But for now everything looks just fine |
| Mia Boonie 16.02.2009 | Great work Mr Loving the beat jumps and loop mode this is excellent. Really simple, but i also love the effects on and off where my cue used to be. I am going to try and add some of this to my very gradually building Me TSI. But thanks a lot for some really cool features on here. Very excited, I just wish I understood more under the hood. Keep up the good work Michael |
| Madelyn Dunmon 14.02.2009 |
Also ill be able to convert your bomes pro file into a translator that anyone can use with Bomes Midi Player if you want
The only way to overcome those limitations is to use Bomes instead of modifiers within the Traktor - this will fill in all your multi conditional desires and let you do heaps of things you can do with just Traktor alone.
But there is another solution: stubbornness This coupled with the realization that you actually can walk around some brickwalls led me to a way to realise all of this stuff. This should be doable with sacrificing another Modifier (which didn't do much anyway) and using it as a second storage of information which deck is active. Also, another "lockbit" is introduced so that I have 2 locking mechanisms and therefore can lock the Jogs independently from the rest. The locking technique is very important for me since it is a nice way to work around the limit of only having 2 mod. conditions per command. But yes, this would result in even more work, so I am not sure if I should ruin my weekend. But I know my desire for perection, so .... we will see But nice to know that it is doable. I also attached a sneak preview of the new mapping, this is how it should look like in version b5. Will still be beta though, because there will be a _lot_ of changes under the hood to realise this and therefore, new bugs could appear. But I really like this mapping now, and I hope you do too! Everything seems to have the best possible logical place now, and I believe this mapping does have almost everything inside that is doable / makes sense to use with this controller in TPro. If you don't believe so, let me know and I'll look what I can do Well, a huge price had to be paid for this, but I hope the effort was worth it. The only thing I am not still 100% sure is if I should place the new "Juggle Mode" Button under the Deck Mode Buttons or leave it above them like it was the case with SHIFT Lock. What do you believe is more logical? Okay, another question is if I should actually swap Balance and Key controls, since I actually use keying more often and surely will even more after the next update. Do you guys use keying or balance at all? I mean keying is so nice to match tracks which don't harmonize in their original pitches. I also believe it does not make sense to cram much more stuff in to this controller before things get too complicated and unintuitive, but there are still some things left you could do in FX or Setup mode without adding too much additional complexity, and of course I will look what I can do to improve things with the firmware kit. One thing I'd really like to make better is LED Feedback, maybe 1.4 brings some improvements in this area. So, most new stuff will likely only support upgraded firmware versions after this one is going final. Bring on these kits back again, please! Also still some time left for feedback and wishes - if you have another idea, let me know, but the window is closing now. Of course, always open for bug reports. have fun! Frank |
| Xavier Emanuels 12.02.2009 | The only way to overcome those limitations is to use Bomes instead of modifiers within the Traktor - this will fill in all your multi conditional desires and let you do heaps of things you can do with just Traktor alone. Also ill be able to convert your bomes pro file into a translator that anyone can use with Bomes Midi Player if you want Just hit me up a email with the file you want to work with Bomes Midi Player and ill use Bomes Midi Author to save it into a format anyone can use. |
| Madelyn Dunmon 12.02.2009 | Yeah, after further investigating on how to implement these new features, I believe I am unfortunately hitting a wall or getting close to it. Especially the deck copy command is not possible to implement how I'd like it with only 2 Modifier conditions to work with. Man, this is really mad. I don't know how many ways I've tried to overcome these limitations and suddenly there is another brickwall coming up, presented to you by Native Instruments :eek: If I only could manage to combine Deck select and the SHIFT key, but it seems that this is not possible atm. So here is what I could do: a) Yes, dedicated Juggle Mode would be possible, but add a lot more commands by using the last bit of my modes modifier .... but you have at least a "non dedicated" Juggle Mode right now by using SHIFT Lock. The only thing you can't do there that is relevant is juggling and scratching at the same time, since the jogs do scrolling in this mode (which is also nice I believe ^^) So you can't have everything, that becomes pretty clear. Not with this controller, I feel it is getting close to be maxed out now. b) Deck copy would only be possible from A/C to "Focus" and from B/D to "Focus". By this way, it would get a bit complicated and unreliable IMHO. The reason for this is that I only have 2 modifier conditions to work with, and I cannot combine the SHIFT mod. with anything else. Would be really happy to learn how you can trick Trakor into setting back a Modifier to it's last value and not "0" when using a "Hold" control (the SHIFT key in this case). So I have decided to wait for TPro 1.1, which is around the corner and might bring some improvements with MIDI (but I believe not with my case ... ) We'll see ... meanwhile I will try to get out all remaining bugs, if any, so if you stumble around some, pls report. I am especially interested if BOME support is going okay for you windows guys, since I did and only tried this with the OS X beta. |
| Audrea Korgan 11.02.2009 | I believe thats a good idea, I never use the preview function, its just not very practical, at least for me, when playing live. I also like the beat juggling idea, in reality thats the only thing this is missing. Sweet shit man. |
| Madelyn Dunmon 08.02.2009 | Okay, apart from the points above I am believeing about another new feature: How about throwing the 2 remaining "preview" functions out and replace them with "deck copy" commands? Deck Copy would go from "L" to "R" and vice versa, depending on which decks you have selected. So you could go from "A" to "B" as well as from "A" to "D" etc. A least for me, the preview function is not too useful anyway, starting with the fact that it does not even allow volume control Oo. So this might be one of the last features before finally going final - for firmware 1.2 at least. But still believeing about a more dedicated beat juggling mode, too. Does anyone of you actually use preview? |
| Audrea Korgan 07.02.2009 | Dude this is awesome, I havent had to time fully run through it yet, but so far its sweet. |
| Madelyn Dunmon 07.02.2009 | changes:
The BOME Support means that there is an additional Setup File for use with Bome's Midi Translator Pro. With this File, LED Feedback should now be consistent in 4D Mode so that the LEDs are always updated correctly when switching Decks! This is done by letting MTP capture the LED output from TPro and save these states. When switching decks, MTP restores these values accordingly to the selected decks and lits the LEDs correctly. The setup is wired in a way so MTP does not interfere with VCI and Traktor communication so if MTP should ever crash, you will be able to continue as if nothing happened. (extended LED feedback of course doesn't work anymore in this case until you restart MTP) PS: DL Link same as in first Post Have fun! Frank PS: anybody still interested in this project??? |
| Madelyn Dunmon 02.02.2009 |
Originally Posted by mtvstinks
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| Petra Georgianna 02.02.2009 | Will try this evening I am having an issue with deck A/C cue. I must press twice to activate and deactivate. Is this by design. Other cue works with single click |
| Madelyn Dunmon 02.02.2009 | So here is the next update to YAVM, now in beta3. The following is new/has changed:
So I believe we are nearing the "final" Release and there are all features inside I can dream of, but there are still some points where I am not 100% sure what to do, so they are still open for discussion:
Also, let me know if you have additional ideas. Also let me know if you still find any bugs (I hope not ) Have fun with playing around, Frank PS: Download Link is the same as in my first post. |
| Audrea Korgan 31.01.2009 | Sweet work on the tsi file man, Im liking it alot. Its everything I wanted to put into a tsi file but wasnt exactly sure how. Looking forward to the next version. |
| Madelyn Dunmon 31.01.2009 | thanks for feedback! btw if I get my hands on 1.3 or higher firmware (I will order an upgrade kit as soon as they are availabe again) there will be also a version for 1.3, and if it's only to get by that damn double FX button bug I hope also to be able to improve LED Feedback somehow and even consider building a BOME setup for consistent 4 Deck LED States. next beta will be up soon, with the new features mentioned above, so a few controls might change until the final release (SHIFT-Lock rocks! just another mode with beat juggle now, as well as "browse mode" for the jogs) |
| Petra Georgianna 31.01.2009 | I loaded v1 of YAVM and started to work with it yesterday. I like that is uses og layout for us that don't have the overlays. I have 1.3 firmware and so far this works just fine. Will try new version today. Documentation was very helpful too. |
| Madelyn Dunmon 31.01.2009 | beta2 is out with the following changes:
The DL Link is the same as above For the release, I am now believeing of implementing a "SHIFT-Lock" key and redo the play buttons a bit so you get 4 hotcue buttons. The "SHIFT-Lock" Mode will then basically work like "Juggle Mode" in the SE Layout. I also will tweak the FX Mode a bit. Suggestions, feedback etc still welcome |
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