iCon iStage Help

[WastedYouth]

Hey DJTT!

I've just bought an Icon Istage 'cause I needed more mapable buttons for traktor, but It seems pretty hard to map this piece of hardware.
Does anyone have experience with this?

It looks like it is pre-mapped, and I don't know how to undo this so I can map all the buttons & LED's myself.

Anyone more experience with this?

Thanks.

[Rip van Winkle]

Can't you remap it using the midi learn function? thats how i remapped my RMX. you just highlight the function you want and press the button on the controller you want to use for it

[Stewe]

How is the feel on the buttons? I'm thinking of getting one to replace my pc kryboard shortcuts...

[WastedYouth]

How is the feel on the buttons? I'm thinking of getting one to replace my pc kryboard shortcuts...

Its good, works well.
The mapping is a pain in the ass tough

[Stewe]

Its good, works well.

Thanks for this!

What do you mean by it is premaped in traktor? Some example would be helpful.

[WastedYouth]

Thanks for this!

What do you mean by it is premaped in traktor? Some example would be helpful.

Premapped, I mean it's not a blank template with which you can map every button and every LED.
The LED's are almost NOT mapable, and the DAW & Drummer can't be mapped.
Should save for a Launchpad instead I think, after using it for a week

[Stewe]

Does controller comes with some editor where you can create new template for midi CC? I didn't use ableton in a while but watching from software side I don't see the reason why you shouldn't be able to delete current preset from ableton and start new mapping.

[synthet1c]

It's good quality construction and the buttons have a nice amount of resistance, but It is not very good to map.. The problem is that all the good functions are locked to mackie control protocol, so in traktor mode you lose the aftertouch and you lose control of both of the LED's.

How it works is you only get two modes. The button matrix mode only allows note on/off for the buttons and you can only control whether the button is red. The controller will however be split into two sides with blue and purple lighting that you cannot control or disable. The encoder is mappable, but the encoder push is not.

The other mode gives 12 virtual faders sending CC messages. to adjust the position you can either press the top two buttons to incrementally change the value or you can use the encoder on the side. The bottom two rows of leds show you the value of the last used virtual slider by lighting up in a bar.

The istage does have a midi editor that you can reassign the notes with if you need to change them for any reason, but it does not allow the full use of the LED's or the aftertouch function.

Finally I had a lot of issues mapping it in virtual dj as the midi out messages lit duplicate LED's in some instances. I tried contacting Icon about the issue but never even received a reply so gave up.

P.S. the mackie protocol is not HID so you can't use any middleware to get access to it, but I did find that to be able to use a button you first need to send the midi out to light the button then you can press it. I think it is this way as it's designed for ableton. The launchpad is probably a better buy TBH as you can fully control the led colors which are important when creating complex mappings. Zestoi's midimasher is also essential when mapping it as it speeds up the reaction time of the device and allows multiple virtual pages.

>this is my thread on the VDJ Forum detailing the problem<

[Stewe]

Hey synthet1c, so this issue comes with mac but have you ever tried it on pc?

[synthet1c]

Hey Steve,

That is on PC, I'm not a fan of Mac's... I'm hoping anyone with traktor can confirm if the duplicate led's occur in traktor... It may just be an issue with VDJ, if that is the case I can ask the atomix dev's to look into it further because it is a good controller and I would have a definite use for it if it worked properly.