Akai APC40 and traktor pro, full midi maping incl. led lights and led rings work

[Timmio]

Hey that is indeed quite hard to do. Normally you can use the 'send monitor state' for this, but this only works good on a Mac, the Windows machine is giving some bad hickup using this command (NI needs to solve this..)

I'm also busy with this myself (but on the normal buttons), and it seems that I need to use modifiers. These modifiers need to read the state and when switching modes there must be a out-command that sends, depending on the modifier setting, a state update to the buttons (or rotaries).

[Xct]

Hey Buzz, I would love to try out your mapping, message me if you will!

[jimfuso02]

Buzz - when you have time can you send me the tsi. sounds and looks really cool.
jimfuso at yahoo dot com

jimfuso@yahoo.com

looking at what ean has created with midi fighter the APC is pretty much two midi fighters minus the super responsive arcade buttons.

thanks

[Zac Kyoti]

@Timmio: Thanks for the props man, I appreciate it!

For those looking to update led ring states on the APC, ie focus on a deck and have rings update, the only simple way I've found to do this is by using the send monitor state command. It's really unfortunate, since windows users are getting the short end of the stick on this one. The culprit is really just that Traktor sends info from EVERYTHING at once, and for whatever reason, windows gets bogged down on this. Hell, this command crashes my VCI once in a while too, and I'm on a mac... Maybe asking for inclusion of "send monitor state" commands that can be tied to a single midi note, for a future Traktor version would be worth our while.

HOWEVER, another (more complex) trick you can use is just what Timmio mentioned. Tie output commands to modifiers such that switching decks sends output info only for the selected deck. I'm not in front of my machine so I can't test, but you might have to zero (clear) the ring momentarily before sending the new output info. I'm not sure. You could do this by sending a value of zero on press, and send the new output info on release (an inverted command). As mentioned, things may behave differently depending on the APC state. I'll mess around with this a bit, since I'd really love to bail the "send monitor state" commands - I want to be able to share my work with non mac users! In the meantime though I can't recommend Bomes MT enough. It makes all of these Traktor headaches a thing of the past...

[Timmio]

@Zac, do you really mean that the NativeKontrol tool will make this a lot easier?

I've tried that tool using the trail version and it still seems a lot of work and hard to do. Although that might be because of my lack of knowledge of that tool. For now it looked easier to me to program this in Traktor, but since I got a lot of modifier stuff and a lot of LED's to control, I might need a more easy tool. I probably need to check that NK tool again..

[Zac Kyoti]

No, I mean the stand-alone program Bomes Midi Translator. I think NativeKontrol uses a Bomes runtime or something like that, and it's all pre-packaged into templates. I've never used it though, so don't quote me on it. The application version of Bomes MT is a blank slate, you have to build your own template. But you can do pretty much anything with it, translate multiple inputs into single outputs or vice versa, translate to or from keystrokes, timers, complex rules, nearly endless modifiers (they call 'em variables). It's really a great program.

[Timmio]

I was a bit confused also, as I noticed that I was talking about Bome as well, not NativeKontrol.

Bome has indeed a lot of great options, but still it requires a lot of mapping (~skill ). And I think I can this as easy in Traktor Pro directly myself. for now I've got everything working. Even now with some advanced midi-fighter-like style effects and mapping. I'll try to post some vid on this asap.

[buzz33]

Old thread, but now my led rings are working almost perfectly!

Send monitor state is also working great now with TP 2.

For any knob in TP that I want to send state to APC led ring, I used it as relative, not direct knob.

So let say that i want Traktor`s filter knob send state to APC knob that has midi note CH01 CC-48:

ADD IN - Filter Deck A - MIDI: CH01 CC-48 (Interaction mode RELATIVE)
ADD OUT - Filter Deck A - MIDI: CH01 CC-48
ADD OUT - Send monitor state -MIDI: CH01 CC-56 (midi range min03 - max03, for pan style)

In this case, i found that when twisting the knob, its little bit slowed down, but it is working fine.

Cheers

[skyshaper13]

Hello everyone and thanks for all of the great information! I finally decided to post after almost 2 weeks of frustration. Simply put, I'm trying to use just an APC40 to control traktor and I'm unable to get it to work properly.... I've tried countless solutions that I've read on several forums and nothing seems to work. I'll try to keep this concise and I'll focus on 3 major issues:

1) LEDs not working: I've made TSI files from scratch and tried numerous TSI files from other people. Any TSI files that uses output commands to control the LEDs on the apc40 act very strange... The LEDs aren't lit up when I first turn the APC40 on- I have to actually hit each button to light the LEDs up.. Which works for a moment, but the second I start messing with my knobs all of the lights will turn off until I physically trigger them again. Also, moving the knobs at the top right will sometimes cause other knobs below them to light up. Needless to say, this is extremely annoying and makes any effort to using LEDs pointless... Any ideas?

2) Random MIDI signals: Again, this seems to be tied to any TSI that uses output commands. I would love to be able to use the "track seek" function with my faders. If I use a TSI without output commands, this works perfectly... However, if there are any output commands (say, to control LEDs) then all hell breaks loose when I use a fader tied to track seek on any deck. All sorts of parameters start to change by themselves- decks will stop/play.. EQ controls go nuts, tracks will jump around randomly, etc.. The second I return the fader tied to track seek all the way down, or 0 value, everything returns to 'normal'. Any ideas?

3) Midispy crashes: In trying to troubleshoot my issues, I decided to download an app called Midispy. It is a very simple program that captures midi signals. My APC40 communicates with this program perfectly. The second I launch traktor, Midispy crashes. Midispy works perfectly alone or with ableton (no crashes)..

I come to you guys hoping that someone can help.. I'm almost considering giving up on my aspirations of using an apc40 to DJ with traktor . I don't want to do that, but I don't have many options at this point.. My APC40 seems to be in full working order (it works perfectly in ableton, LEDs and all).. I've tried uninstalling/reinstalling traktor scratch pro 2 and I've tried an older version of traktor (traktor scratch pro). All software/drivers are up to date. Airport/bluetooth has been disabled, and I'm not using a USB hub.

It seems the problem is a software issue within traktor... but what really throws me off is that both the new and old versions act exactly the same... so I'm completely lost . And NI support hasn't been very helpful... I hope someone here can. Thanks!

Oh, here are my specs: 2011 macbook pro (2.3ghz intel core i5, 4g ddr3 memory, os x 10.6.7), traktor audio 6, akai APC40, traktor scratch pro 2.0.1.