Traktor Pro with VCI-100 (MISA 4 Deck, 32 HotCue, Master Tempo, Key Locks, Preview)
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Traktor Pro with VCI-100 (MISA 4 Deck, 32 HotCue, Master Tempo, Key Locks, Preview) Posted on: 03.06.2009 by Estela Follansbee DJ TechTools CommunityThis is my first post but I've gained valuable insight into controllerism from everyone contributing to the community over the last few months. This TSI closely resembles the official 2.2 DJ TechTools MIDI mapping with access to 4 decks and the Loop/FX1/FX2 section. The Juggle mode is altered and gives access to 2 banks of 4 buttons for each deck. Additionally, it provides access to what I feel are useful tools in Traktor like Key Locks, Master Tempo, designation of Master deck, and the Preview Player. There are also some minor changes to the locations of buttons and sensitivity settings. Overall, it provides me with a more straighforward correlation between the software and the controller. I also use Ableton and have recently purchased an Akai APC 40. I am hoping to create a TSI mapping for using the VCI-100 and APC 40 together in Traktor in the next couple of weeks. If anyone has some feature requests or good ideas on how the two controllers can complement each other, please let me know. With the upcoming update to Traktor claiming to provide 4 FX banks, the extra knobs will certainly come in handy. I'll then look to transfer over some of the functionality this setup provides to a more portable one using the VCI-100 and the Korg NanoKontrol. Lastly, thanks to Ean for setting up this community and for everyone involved in keeping it going. I feel it is the most vibrant and positive community for digital music creation and DJing on the internet. I hope I can be a vital part of advancing it. misa+ ***UPDATE: For use with the DJ TechTools 2.2 Overlay, check out this other thread: ***http://www.djranking s.com/community /showthread.php?t=6309 | |
| Estela Follansbee 17.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by JesterNZDJ
I guess if you're willing to give up your cueing and use that channel as an additional out, you could route it to play samples. Or if you use the tempo of the song in the preview player in the master BPM, you could then sync the other four decks to it and end up with Traktor playing 5 decks!? Nice idea Jester. |
| Estela Follansbee 17.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by Cheek Bone
Do you have a preference on how to use the fx section? I've been tweeking my own setup since the first post and have added an APC40, nanoKontrol, and iPod Touch into the mix as well. I'll wait till Sunday for people to submit what they would like to see/what they would like to have changed in the fx section of my mapping before working it all out. |
| Barbera Lowson 23.05.2010 | Thanks for the update - that's what I'm after really, the MIDI dialogue within Traktor software - almost need a degree in Computer Science to operate it! My VCI-100 manual says the jog wheels are "Touch 1/ENC1, Touch 2/ENC 2" and the faders "VR 1, 2, 3". Assume I need to look for those in the mapping to amend. Bit confusing - really need a detailed manual other than this vague booklet which came with the VC1-100. |
| Estela Follansbee 09.04.2010 | The VCI-100 has two knobs in the back of the unit to adjust jog wheel touch sensitivity. If you are referring to what degree a song reacts to movements of the jog wheel, that can be adjusted on the MIDI commands within the software. I'm not sure what your intent is on using the "two crossfaders in the middle." Some people certainly mix their songs by using what are typically considered the volume faders to blend rather than the crossfader. Where you trying to utilize 1 volume fader as a crossfader for A-B and the other to blend C-D? Regardless, these things can all be adjusted in the MIDI dialogue within Traktor software. |
| Barbera Lowson 07.03.2010 | Thanks that would be great. I've been using this layout and works well. 2 questions: Is it possible to adjust jog wheel sensitivity without taking a screwdriver to them (ie: can you adjust using Tracktor) and how may I amend it so I use the two crossfaders in the middle, rather than the bottom single cross fader. Thanks again. Damian. |
| Estela Follansbee 18.02.2010 | Sorry I haven't kept up with the thread in a while, been busy with work and some other projects. I'll check into reloading the PDF for this TSI file. |
| Barbera Lowson 11.02.2010 | Hmm - looks good, I really wish to operate 4 decks at once (Tracktor Pro + VCI-100). Could not download pdf's supplied... |
| Pedro Gooding 01.02.2010 | Hi Misa i like your mapping. Does it work with traktor pro 1.2.4? Thank you very much |
| Estela Follansbee 20.07.2009 | Alright, just posted a new thread for the mapping that combines the official DJTT 2.2 TSI with some of the features I like. You now have access to all HotCues, Preview Player, and Key Lock with minimal disturbance to everything else so you can still use your overlay. New stuff is explained on the thread, but I basically made use of the SNAP BEAT and QUANTIZE buttons that seemed a bit underused. http://www.djranking s.com/community /showthread.php?t=6309 |
| Cecile Eyo 20.07.2009 | Many thanks really appreciate it. This will be the TSI that will be really useable. Cheers CB. |
| Estela Follansbee 20.07.2009 | I was waiting to receive some input by Sunday regarding the fx section...but not having heard back from anyone, I may just throw in a couple of mods to the official DJTT midi mapping to allow for Preview, 2nd Bank of HotCues, and Key Locks. I'll work on that today and should have it posted in a few hours. |
| Cecile Eyo 20.07.2009 | Re the preview agree with all that has been mentioned, the preview makes it really quick and easy to select tracks whilst using all decks or even just two. I don't believe I can or want to use the DJTT overlay's without this. Any chance of adding it and still using Ean's overlay. Also any news on when the next update will be posted? Cheers CB. |
| Estela Follansbee 17.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by JesterNZDJ
I guess if you're willing to give up your cueing and use that channel as an additional out, you could route it to play samples. Or if you use the tempo of the song in the preview player in the master BPM, you could then sync the other four decks to it and end up with Traktor playing 5 decks!? Nice idea Jester. |
| Estela Follansbee 17.07.2009 |
Originally Posted by Cheek Bone
Do you have a preference on how to use the fx section? I've been tweeking my own setup since the first post and have added an APC40, nanoKontrol, and iPod Touch into the mix as well. I'll wait till Sunday for people to submit what they would like to see/what they would like to have changed in the fx section of my mapping before working it all out. |
| Doug Bieling 17.07.2009 | ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh niiiiice |
| Latoria Kavulich 17.07.2009 | so you can have both decks full and you can check a track out if you aren't sure if it will fit or not....thats how i use it anyway. Or, depending on how u set it up, you can use it for samples! |
| Doug Bieling 17.07.2009 | Sorry to take this off topic a little but what is the benfit of the preview player, over headphone cue? |
| Cecile Eyo 16.07.2009 | Hi Having read all your threads, do you have your latest version of your file using DJ TT overlay availble? I particularly like the fact you have included and want to use the preview and key lock which for some reason Ean has not included. Many thanks CB |
| Leota Saniuk 10.06.2009 | Like I said, it specifically tries to force people to write in a structured manner. It also leaves out stuff like loops. Instead you have to use timers and things like this, which I guess are easier to grasp. Maybe we should open a new thread for this topic? I might also write an article on DJTT about bome's. Actually I believe Bento is already working on one. |
| Reece Murray 09.06.2009 | lsmith- It looks like I may have to purchase and learn the bome's software too, I want to develop a hybrid TPro/Live set-up that it seems can't be done without a translator. But, what is your honest opinion on the learning curve for someone with no scripting experience? I know you are a programmer, so believe back before you knew what you know now I've got a good head for logic and have the TPro modifier system in the bag, but how friendly is bome's for the non-programmer? |
| Leota Saniuk 09.06.2009 | Bomes so far as given me the flexibility to do what I want with fairly minimal fuss. The stuff in the video took me 3-4 hours to implement with zero prior knowledge of bome's. That being said, bome's tries really hard to keep things simple. So some things require more so called "translators" than necessary. More over it forces you to write all the code using their forms which provide drop downs for the different type of control structures, expressions and assignments. As a programmer I wouldn't mind just being able to call the underlying API directly. But I believe that for non programmers this helps a lot in keeping things somewhat structured and maintainable. |
| Estela Follansbee 09.06.2009 | i just watched your vid...i'm glad you were able to implement everything you were looking for through bomes i too was believeing about trying bomes out, especially since the VCI-100 and the new APC40 have several MIDI note and cc values repeated...and it seems you have increased control of LEDs as well how was your experience with bomes? |
| Leota Saniuk 07.06.2009 | Ok, got it to work using bome's. juggle button + juggle knob = hotcue 1-8 on the focused deck. also fixed the bug where pressing the juggle button when the juggle knob is turned would take you out of juggle mode. Here is the bome script and my current TSI with all its modifications. For now I did not remove all the modifiers, but I might eventually do this. I should also note that I keep finding commands, that do not seem to do anything in Ean's TSI. I guess a resizeable preference window (I have hopes this will come in TP 1.2) will go along way to help find stuff like these kind of accidental mappings. Edit: I have removed the attachments. Instead check out my blog posts. It contains links to the current versions of the code and a video showing off the implementation. |
| Reece Murray 06.06.2009 | lsmith: From my understanding "hold" won't let a modifier go back to the previous state, but just sends it back to default (zero) when released. Can you set things up so that the juggle functions just work as a toggle instead? That way you turn the unit on (M3=0), then the first time you hit the juggle button or knob it goes into it's variable state, and stays there, switching between your various values when you turn it on or off? IE setup a duplicate modifer, to enter the sequence from zero, then the various modifier commands to do what you are wanting. I'm sorry about not being more specific, but I haven't looked at this tsi yet... |
| Leota Saniuk 06.06.2009 | Hmm .. now things are really getting wierd .. it seems like the order in how i define the midi mappings matters. Also as you can see in the above mappings, i am doing M3=0 checks and setting to the same value as if M3 would not be set at all. It was my understanding that an unset modifier has the value 0, but I guess not. Really fishy stuff. Maybe its time to give up on modifiers and move to bomes. Especially now that I discovered that there isn't really much hope in trying to use tools to merge differences between tsi's due to the crappy XML format Traktor Pro uses to store its preferences. |
| Leota Saniuk 06.06.2009 | ok am getting closer to complete my concept: 1) normal mode (sync, drop, pause, play on each side), juggle button LED not lid 2) holding juggle button OR juggle knob switches to hotcue 1-4 on each side for each deck, the juggle button LED is lid 3) holding juggle button AND juggle knob switches to hotcue 1-8 for the deck in focus, the juggle button LED is lid For this purpose I only want to use a single modifier because in the end I also want to include a deck c/d modifier to toggle deck selection between A-C and B-D. So I made a table with the different states and values I want to assign to the modifier.: Code:
mod | bt. | bt. led | knob | b1 | b2 | b3 | b4 | b5 | b6 | b7 | b8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | dA s | dA d | dA p | dA pl | dB s | dB d | dB p | dB pl | 1) normal mode 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | dA h1 | dA h2 | dA h3 | dA h4 | dB h1 | dB h2 | dB h3 | dB h4 | 2) knob on 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | dA h1 | dA h2 | dA h3 | dA h4 | dB h1 | dB h2 | dB h3 | dB h4 | 2) button on 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | dF h1 | dF h2 | dF h3 | dF h4 | dF h5 | dF h6 | dF h7 | dF h8 | 3) button+knob on mod = modifier value bt. = juggle button bt. led = juggle button led knob = juggle knob b1-8 = the 8 buttons at the bottom dA = deck A dB = deck B dF = deck with focus h1-8 = hotcue 1-8 s = sync d = drop p = pause pl = play Example: dA h1 means deck A hotcue 1 I got it working .. well almost. For test purposes I assigned another button that selects the deck based on the modifier value. So for value 0 it selects deck A, value 1 deck B, value 2 deck C and value 3 deck D. Here is a screenshot: Note that the 6 hold commands set M3 to the follow values from top to bottom: 1, 1, 3, 2, 2, 3 What works: 1) normal mode works just fine 2) holding either the button or knob works just fine Issues: 3) holding both the button and knob doesn't work Specifically when I turn on the juggle knob and then hold the juggle button it works as expected. However when I release it doesn't jump back to just juggle knob on (it stays at M3=4). Furthermore when I then press the juggle button after that again, it jumps back to normal mode (M3=0). Also when I disable the juggle knob and then enable the juggle knob again while already holding the juggle button it doesn't set M3=3, rather it sets M3=2. When I release the juggle button then, it stays at M3=2 which is correct. |
| Estela Follansbee 04.06.2009 | What if the knob changes mod3 from 0 to 1 to activate JUGGLE mode and make HotCues 1-4 accessible on both sides. Once mod3 is equal to 1, the JUGGLE button can toggle between mod3=1 and mod3=2. Mod3=2 assigns 1-4 on left and 5-8 on right. You can go back and forth until you turn the knob back to mod3=0 and return to the default transport controls. Or you can do away completely with the knob and just use the JUGGLE button to swith between mod3=0 to 1 to 2 back to 0. You'll have to add in several lines of assignments for the HotCues in different states of mod3. I don't have my personal computer or VCI with me, but it seems workable. I'll help out if you haven't got it to work over the weekend. |
| Leota Saniuk 04.06.2009 | hmm .. i am stuck with changing the juggle mode to support 5-8. it seems the "juggle on" and the "juggle knob" are both the same modifier #3. this is also why pressing the juggle on button, while the juggle knob is active, deactivates the juggle mode, which i consider to be a serious bug. know i am not sure how to proceed, it seems that the DJTT tsi already uses up all available 8 modifiers, so i cannot add another modifier. and this will probably not help anyways because then all the normal mappings would need a third modifier. hmm i so feel that it must be possible .. somehow. |
| Leota Saniuk 04.06.2009 | ok .. i have already gotten some interesting results. i now have the shift action to get the previews going. i chose a different order. from top to bottom: load, play/pause, seek forward, seek backward i also turned the cross fader into a deck focus selector when shift is pressed. also if i press snap and shift i get a keylock on the active deck. |
| Estela Follansbee 04.06.2009 | I'm about to leave town for the weekend, otherwise I'd help you out with the specifics of the TSI file. You may find out that you're running low on modifiers but there is probably a workaround. FYI, on my TSI, the top left buttons are assigned to modifier 1, 2, and 3. The SHIFT button is assigned to modifier 4. Post the questions you run into over the weekend, and I'll answer them when I get back on Sunday. For the DJTT TSI, maybe you can use the little knob to activate JUGGLE mode and then use the JUGGLE button to toggle between 1234 -|- 1234 and 1234 -|- 5678. You could even have a number of different configurations you could scroll through with the JUGGLE button. Have fun digging into it this weekend. Let me know what come out with! |
| Leota Saniuk 04.06.2009 | Actually I have been believeing about the hotcue 5-8 support. I believe what I really would want is the ability to switch on a per deck basis. This way I could duplicate a track to the other deck and have access to all 8 hotcue buttons for a single track. Of course this requires even more buttons to handle the "shifting", since I would need two switches to handle each side separately. Right now I am still very much confused about how to best understand how to change the mappings in these complex TSI's you and Ean have provided. I have tried to follow things a bit with a midi monitor. At least Ean's TSI also doesnt have any comments, which makes things even harder. I will dive into this over the weekend. |
| Estela Follansbee 03.06.2009 | Thanks. I used the PNG file that is downloaded with the official DJTT TSI file. I opened it up in Fireworks and brushed over all of the existing labels. Then, I put in my own labels using Illustrator. I can upload my AI or blacked out PNG file on the community if you like. |
| Reece Murray 03.06.2009 | Great job on looking at things in a fresh way! It's work like this that inspires the community to keep pushing the envelope. Misa, just as an aside, what program did you use to do your mock-up layout? Illustrator I presume. And also, what did you use as the starting images? Is there an unflattened djtt illustrator file out there somewhere? |
| Estela Follansbee 03.06.2009 | Great! Thanks for taking a look at the mapping and giving your thoughts. I've already started planning some changes to it myself. I like your thought of assigning Key Locks to a large button. I believe the VINYL button changes the MIDI CC and notes sent by the jog wheels through firmware, so that may be problematic. Maybe holding KEY LOCK and pressing SYNC, although there is some benefit in being able to access all four decks and changing their status with a single hand. I also like your idea of accessing the Load function for all four decks with the small buttons. HOTCUE simply switches between the modifier value of 0, 1 , 2 then back to 0. I'm not sure how the modifiers are set up in the official mapping, but I would believe there would be a quick way of implementing that change. I don't have the DJ TechTools overlay for my VCI100, so the current button placement actually makes more sense to the standard labels on the controller (PLAY assigned to Play button, PAUSE assigned to Cue/Pause, SYNC assigned to Sync). I imagine there are many users like you though, so if there are some requests, I can make an alternate that maps to the overlay better or that implements some of my features into the official mapping. I hope I provided some different ways of believeing about how the VCI100 could be used. PS I too noticed the error in the guide depicting the TEMPO button as the KEY LOCK button. I'll try to update that soon. |
| Leota Saniuk 03.06.2009 | So what I would love for the DJTT TSI FX deck selection section. The LED's always show the current FX selection in Traktor. The little buttons alone work as in the DJTT TSI. Now if I press the snap button and one of the buttons with the scratch button, I will toggle the keylock for deck A or B (depending on what side of the VCI I press the scratch button on). When pressing the quant button and one of the scratch buttons I will toggle kelock for deck C and D. If I press the snap button and one of the FX bank select buttons, then I can select the focused track from top the bottom (A, B, C, D). Pressing the quant or shift button with the FX deck select buttons would work just like in your setup. So quant would handle the master temp and shift the preview mode. |
| Leota Saniuk 03.06.2009 | Very nice. I agree that the large buttons for snap and quantize are "wasted" in the DJTT TSI. I guess with the keylock being the big button, it should be easy to press and hold, while searching for the relatively small buttons to keylock the given deck. I kinda like playing with keylock as an effect now and then, but I am not sure if given the size of the buttons I will manage to do this quickly and precisely enough. Atm I just have these mapped on m laptop keyboard. Maybe a better, albeit limited approach would be to use the vinyl button with your keylock button to keylock the focused deck A/C or B/D. I believe you have a small issue in the PDF guide where you explain the tempo button, since you show the key lock button in the image on page 6. I very much like what you did for the preview buttons. I need to checkout how you do the hotcue remapping, but if I understand this correctly, this change should be able to be applied to the DJTT TSI. So when using the DJTT TSI, it would be nice if it could be limited to turning on the juggle mode via the little knob. Then while the the juggle knob is enabled and one pressed the juggle on button it switches between the hotcue banks 1-4 and 5-8. Disabling the juggle knob then gives you the play/pause/etc buttons and holding the juggle button gives you hot cue points 1-4. Speaking as an owner of the current DJTT overlay, I do not see that much value in the changing of the positions of the sync and loop buttons. Would be nice if you can keep those in their current position as much as possible, then again I guess you like having the blue lights for the sync button? I have not fully grasped what you did to the FX section, but I believe so far I prefer the DJTT TSI and find it more intuitive. So in conclusion I believe I want to stick with the DJTT TSI at this point. However I want to look into getting the above mentioned modification to the juggle mode so that I can access the 5-8 hot cues. I also want to look into adding the support for previewing. I might also use the snap and quantize buttons as a shift for the vinyl mode button to be able to set the keylock for each deck individually regardless what deck mode is enabled. Since I am also looking at the smart mixing approach, I actually might drop the scratch mode entirely and reuse those for smart-low-swap and smart-high-swap buttons. I just do not see myself scratching. I will also use the gain knobs for smart-low and smart-high. So I still need to find one more knob for the frequency splitter. For seek I will use the large endless rotary knob on my AK1, though this requires that I first select the focused deck. For this I am pondering what buttons to reuse. Maybe if I add that keylock A/B and C/D shift button (as a replacement for the DJTT snap/quant buttons), I can also use it to select the focused decks with the FX selection buttons of the DJTT TSI (though I have to look into how I can prevent this changing the lights .. hope that is possible). |
| Estela Follansbee 03.06.2009 | I created a guide for how to access the features and use the TSI mapping and is posted as the MISA_VCI100_01_00Guide.pdf in the original post. Basically, two of the three large buttons on the top left of the controller act as modifiers for the four small buttons next to them. As the default, the small buttons map to Snap, Quantize, CD Mode, and LFO Reset. Holding down the first large button turns them into Key Locks for each deck. Holding down the second large button turns them into Master Tempo controls: Mode, BPM Increase, BPM Decrease, and Tap. Holding down the SHIFT button (center button in browser section) turns them into Preview controls: Load, Jump Forward, Jump Backward, Pause. The third large button on the top left of the controller toggles the four buttons below each jog wheel between Default Settings, HotCues 1-4, and HotCues 5-8. There are some other changes to button locations, in particular with the FX section. I believe you'll find the layout key and guide posted as attachments in the original post helpful in sorting everything out. |
| Leota Saniuk 03.06.2009 | Sounds interesting .. could you go into a bit more detail on the exact differences and how to access the features you mention? |
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