Flip the script- and your Jog Wheel
As a follow up to this jog wheel post last week, here are two more ways you can you can creatively re-use your jog wheels for tighter performance. Are you really going to scratch on a vci-100 or similar small jog wheel? Lets be honest with ourselves- most likely not. So what do you do the most during a song?
- Adjust the tempo in small increments
- Pitch bend a track
Then why not have your Jog wheel dedicated to those 2 functions?
The vci-100, for instance, has 2 zones. The outside area is for pitch bends:
the touch sensitive metal zone is used for scratching:
There are several problems with this concept including:
- the pitch bend area is too small, so its quite easy to accidentally trigger the touch sensitive zone (stopping the song because you have just “scratched”)
- Scratching is really only used in the begining of the song when you are cuing up to find the first beat.
Fortunately, Traktor has a great assignment which allows you to re-assign the touch sensitive zone to a CDJ-1000 style controller. That means that when a song is not playing you can use the top to search through a track and once you hit play that same zone now becomes a dedicated pitch bend area. That frees up the outside edge to be assigned a new function. To rock a CDJ style jog wheel just re-assign yours in the following way:
(note- the CC number of your jog wheel is going to be different)
TEMPO NUDGE
With bpm sync and fined tuned tempos your really only going to make small adjustments to the BPM of a playing track. Unfortunately, many controllers don’t have buttons dedicated to this function. So why not use the outside of the jog wheel to make fine up and down adjustments to the tempo. I can tell you it works quite well and after a little practice feels very natural. Here is what that assignment should look like:
DOWNLOAD THE GOODS
Owners of the VCI-100SE can download a new TKS file with the jog wheels remapped using the method above. Owners of a standard vci-100 can also try the technique using this TKS but the other controls may act funny. Don’t worry though, the upgrade package will soon be available.
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July 22nd, 2008 at 2:25 am Quote
Thanks for the info Ean
-Jesse
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:39 am Quote
Is there a list of untold CC/note values for the VCI-100? it appears there are many that are not listed in the manual.
Sheph
July 22nd, 2008 at 7:01 am Quote
Just use the midi learn function, and if you really need to learn the midi messages that the vci is sending out i personally use a midi monitor like midi-ox for that.
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:54 am Quote
Nice… tempo bending… :D Got that mapped on my BCR too. :P
But looks nice! :D
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:39 am Quote
Ya know…I was thinking along these lines but was probably about 40 miles off of where you just took it. Thank you.
Side note: WHAT VCI IN THE PICTURE IS THAT WITH THE NICE MULTI-COLORED LIGHTS?!!
July 22nd, 2008 at 2:05 pm Quote
Thats the standard VCI in all its glory :p
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:10 am Quote
There is a list on the back page of the manual but a midi monitor will work much better.
July 24th, 2008 at 12:08 am Quote
brilliant! these new mappings sound amazing.
would be great if someone could make up a TKS file for non-SE owners that will work perfectly!! can’t wait for SE but these little adjustments sound the trick.
it has happened to me a few times, especially after a few drinks, when im making fine adjustments then accidentally touch the centre of the wheel and it suddenly ’scratches’. bah!!
July 24th, 2008 at 8:34 am Quote
gah! i cant work this out for a standard vci-100. can someone save a new TKS for this from the standard TKS with the new CDJ-style jog wheel and tempo nudge?
July 24th, 2008 at 5:08 pm Quote
You can always try and do it yourself, just follow the instructions above. :)
August 1st, 2008 at 5:06 pm Quote
Only got around to adding this mod in now! It’s fuckin’ wicked, really loving it!
August 1st, 2008 at 8:38 pm Quote
Argh… can someone publish a TKS file for that? can’t get around that :/
August 4th, 2008 at 9:13 pm Quote
awesome. got the cd j style jog wheel to work flawlessly, but can’t get the tempo nudge working at all. it adjusts only in one direction – down.
is there a way to adjust the pitch bend so it’s more harsh and wammy bar-esque?
August 5th, 2008 at 5:22 am Quote
You need to make sure you assign the notes being sent by the plastic, our outside of your jog wheel. It will only work if they are sending one note in each direction (as the vci-100 does)
August 14th, 2008 at 5:23 am Quote
thanks ean.
September 2nd, 2008 at 6:19 am Quote
nice updates ean! i love the track search feature! and the fact that i wont scratch on accident. i dont think i really need the pitch bend or the tempo adjust that much, as i really can do both of those with the pitch fader; but, it’ll keep me from accidentally scratching. and, it adds to the arsenal of –
How hard would it be to speed up the tempo nudge to a tempo shove? So i can use the pitch fader for nudging, and the outside of the jog wheels for larger faster adjustments.
*thinks* i really need those grippies now!
September 9th, 2008 at 9:47 pm Quote
ehmm.. heeyyaa… just finaly arrived from UK and FINALY openned my estax 100 black from japan.. ehmm.. just wondering noow- is here some good tks for this version 1.2??or everything only for 1.3??? thanx guys
September 9th, 2008 at 10:34 pm Quote
sure, there is a standard TKS file on our site- just search for TKS and you will find the post.
http://www.djtechtools.com/2008/03/12/traktor-tks-files-for-controllers/
September 10th, 2008 at 11:50 pm Quote
thanx a lot.. great job in here ean.. thanx a loooooot
September 11th, 2008 at 8:25 am Quote
heyaa.. im looking everywhere but i cant find tks for my new vci 100 (black from ishibashi)- with cue points juggling.. pleaaaaaaaaaaaaseeeee heeeelp
aand its possible to use m audio o2 any button or rattary or keys instead of sustain pedal????
October 15th, 2008 at 1:47 pm Quote
wow, this is really slick…thanks Ean. Makes so much sense to use the wheels for searching/pitch & tempo bending. I’m learning a lot on this site…fantastic! Too bad we can’t all get together for a VCi jam! ;-)
October 29th, 2008 at 8:16 pm Quote
Mine is setup so that when my hand is on the metal it’s a for searching thru a song quickly – and adjusting via the plastic moves my beat markers back and forth.
My workflow is generally searching for where to drop the beat marker (via metal wheel), then hit the button to drop the marker, and then the plastic to move the marker exactly where I need it.
Once I’m playing the track I use the plastic to move the marker (and therefore the grid) on the fly in case something doesn’t line up exactly somewhere further down the track. This allows me to take full advantage of sync and master tempo – but still make adjustments when I need to.
October 31st, 2008 at 10:43 pm Quote
thanks for sharing, thats a creative mapping!
September 1st, 2009 at 11:56 am Quote
having great trouble mapping my jog wheels. Am using VCi-100 and Tractor Pro. Wish them to function as they do in Traktor LE but not having any luck. Advice please! Thanks in advance.