Hello,
I would like to share a simple yet powerful touchscreen MIDI controller I made using Lemur for iOS. I call it “21” because it puts 21 of your favorite effects in Traktor at your fingertips. Literally. It doesn’t offer any effect presets, but instead lets you create your own combinations on the fly. The freely assignable touch-sensitive XY pads with optional physic allow for quick effect inserts and some extra craziness.
First, here is what you’ll need aside from Traktor and iPad.
- Lemur for iOS installed on your iPad: http://liine.net/en/products/lemur/
- Lemur Editor installed on your Mac or PC: http://liine.net/en/support/
- My Lemur template: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8992976/My21FX.jzml
- My Traktor mapping: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/8992976/my21FX.tsi
Additionally, you’ll need to trim down the list of effects in Traktor to exactly 21. This can be done through “Preferences -> Effects -> FX Pre-Selection”. If your list of effects differs from mine, you’ll also need to use Lemur editor to make changes to the effect names in the template. Unfortunately, those are hard-coded and can’t be easily changed on the fly. Needless to say, the order of effects must be exactly the same both in Traktor preferences and in the template.
NOTE: The controller is designed to work with 4 FX units. Make sure Traktor is configured accordingly.
I won’t explain how to load the template into Lemur running on iPad or how to load the mapping in Traktor. Those processes are very well documented in many other places.
Here is a screenshot of the controller with most functions explained. It’s just one page that consists of 4 FX units. Each unit can be switched between “Single” and “Group” modes with most of the controls effectively mirroring those of the FX units as they appear in the Traktor interface. The layout is a bit different though.
Below the regular effect controls is a section that lets you assign any of the three sliders controlling fx amount (in Group mode) or fx parameters (in Single mode) to X and Y of the XY pad. If any of the sliders is assigned, XY pad will turn the effect on while being touched. This is great for creating quick filter sweeps, drum fills, short glitches, etc.
NOTE: It’s recommended to assign each parameter (in Single mode) or effect (in Group mode) to only one axis of the XY pad. Assigning one thing to both X and Y isn’t very useful and can create unexpected results.
The “Invert” button will invert the X/Y control to go from 1 to 0 instead of 0 to 1. This can be useful with certain types of effects.
And finally, the button marked with “P” will turn on/off the physic for its respective XY pad. This can help create some extra madness with an additional layer of modulation.
NOTE: When “P” is enabled the XY pad is no longer touch-sensitive and effects need to be turned on and off using the corresponding buttons. This is because you’ll probably want to change the direction of the ball while it’s bouncing. Attraction, friction, speed, etc. are not adjustable. You may change those by editing the template.
One last thing – everything is mapped for two-way communication. In other words, if something changes in Traktor (for example, you use a different controller to select an effect or change any of the parameters), the change will be immediately reflected on the controller screen.
Have fun and please let me know if you have any questions or comments ☺
P.S. If you are running iOS 5, you’ll wish it was possible to disable multi-touch gestures on iPad ☺
P.P.S. A couple more screenshots of the controller in action.
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