"Intermediary midi mapping" software *discussion thread* (Traktor mapping is a pain)

[MiL0]

any updates?

[Mudo]

Processing?

http://processing.org/

[deevey]

As some will know I went and decided to buy xtreme mapping last night, once I got the bugs sorted out (corruption on my original TSI) it works like a champ, but not as good as I thought it might be.

But could do with some real improvement in relation to the mapping process - so heres my thoughts on it.

1. Live Mapping somehow - so changes are realtime within traktor and not requiring an import.

2. GUI Skin with selection, even if its not actually overlayed physically on traktor itself (which would be cool) it'd be nice to just click a fader for example on the "dummy GUI" and assign.

3. FX Combo's built in - its one of the most time consuming parts of the mapping process, being able to select a knob on a GUI and just assign for example "beatroll reverb" would be the dogs nuts, if you have complex Combos right now you might need to assign 6 or 10 parameters via selection and manually, right pain in the Arse.

4. Multiple Selection learn - Simply being able to select multiple Objects e.g. Select both Cue and Assign via list or ctrl+select on a gui, and turn a single knob to learn.

When I was mapping I was a lil disappointed that I had to map the outs separatly to the buttons even though its the same CC, this would be a massive timesaver on something like the APC.

Of course NI could get off their asses and improve the editing functions ... Torq and Ableton style "click n' map" would be the icing on the cake, maybe a rightclick Dropdown for FX Combos

[zestoi]

i've been messing with trying to work out the best names etc for the api before i release a copy so i don't have to make any uber changes later on and trying various mappings to find issues but it's about time i uploaded a zip.

i've been compiling under cygwin so will need to include that dll for now - dont *think* its really needed as 99% sure i can compile under mingw but that'd need more testing.

will package up whats ready to release and do a quick test on my xp laptop. should in theory work as its only a 32bit compile - hope so anyway, dont fancy having to compile 2 diff versions for win7 and xp.

the final mapping i have atm for the lpd8 isnt exactly awesome and the slicer gets confused by traktors quantize sometimes, but all that code is all just lua so anyone else can have a go at improving it anyway.

will report back today with a zip file.

edit: also this lpd8 mapping probably has way too many layers to be really usable - its more a test bed for the code, since it uses pad/cc/pc mode doubled up for decks a and b (so 64 virtual pads already) then the cc mode pads become slicer pads instead of hotcues when the slicer is active (so more like 80 virtual pads) plus there's a shift button in hotcue mode for deleting hot cues....

[zestoi]

As some will know I went and decided to buy xtreme mapping last night, once I got the bugs sorted out (corruption on my original TSI) it works like a champ, but not as good as I thought it might be.

i hope NI implement some ideas from XM into traktor sometime soon or the XM team port their code to windows. neither of which i suspect is likely.

[zestoi]

ok, here's a first version of the code. included is the lpd8 mapping i've been working on as a testbed for it, tidied up and rearranged so it's at least half useful - maybe.

download link: http://djism.com/mm/midimasher-20110910.zip

i'm using loopMIDI for the 2 required virtual midi devices - but any other app should in theory work too, make sure you have two virtual devices called "MM to Traktor" and "Traktor to MM"

all the config for this setup is in config/lpd8.lua, you can rename the device names there if you need to. it assumes the lpd8 is called "LPD8" in your device list, but will also ignore a prefix like "1-" etc - as windows tends to add those when you connect to different usb ports.

double click on midimasher.bat and you should see this output more or less (you have to enter the number for the lpd8.lua config file):

midimasher: build 20110910

#1: default.lua
#2: lpd8.lua

select a config > 2

midi: scan devices...
midi.in.0: From SCS.3 DaRouter
midi.in.1: MIDI Sync
midi.in.2: MM to Traktor
midi.in.3: Traktor to MM
midi.in.4: LPD8
midi.out.0: Microsoft GS Wavetable Synth
midi.out.1: 2- To SCS.3 DaRouter
midi.out.2: MIDI Sync
midi.out.3: MM to Traktor
midi.out.4: Traktor to MM
midi.out.5: LPD8
lua: register functions...
lua: run embedded lua...
loading: lib/startup.lua
loading: config/lpd8.lua
traktor: open midi.in.3: Traktor to MM
traktor: open midi.out.3: MM to Traktor
loading: devices/traktor.lua
lpd8: open midi.in.4: LPD8
lpd8: open midi.out.5: LPD8
loading: devices/lpd8.lua
registering events...

running... <ctrl>-<c> to quit.

you need to startup things in this order:

1 - loopMIDI (or other virtual midi device app)
2 - midimasher.bat
3 - traktor

once you've done that you can kill and restart midimasher as often as you need to when editting configs etc, but it needs to be running before traktor initially else traktor seems to lock the midi ports.

in the "settings" dir is my settings for the lpd8 editor which is just the defaults afaik and the traktor.tsi file. connect the tsi to the "MM to Traktor" and "Traktor to MM" ports (which is which should be obvious )

checkout config/lpd8.lua for more info but this is the layout:

-- +--------+--------+--------+--------+
-- | slicer | slicer | sync   | deck   |  
-- | on/off |loopmode|        | a/b    |  \
-- +--------+--------+----- --+--------+   * PAD mode
-- | play   | cue    | seek-  | seek+  |  /
-- |        |        |        |        |
-- +--------+--------+--------+--------+
-- | hot    | hot    | hot    | hot    |  
-- | cue 1  | cue 2  | cue 3  | cue 4  |  \
-- +--------+--------+--------+--------+   * CC mode
-- | loop   | loop-  | loop+  | shift  |  /
-- | active |        |        |        |
-- +--------+--------+--------+--------+
-- | beatjmp| beatjmp| beatmp | beatjmp|  
-- | -16    | -8     | +8     | +16    |  \
-- +--------+--------+--------+--------+   * PC mode
-- | beatjmp| beatmp | beatjmp| beatjmp|  /
-- | -4     | -2     | +2     | +4     |
-- +--------+--------+--------+--------+
--
-- * when 'deck' pad is lit, controls are for deck b
-- * when slicer is active CC mode pads become the slicer pads
-- * shift & hotcue to delete else they set/jump
-- * shift & loop+ or loop- to tempo bend
-- * pots control eq+levels for decks a+b
-- * slicer starts on the beat u activate it on

if anyone wants to tweak anything look in devices/traktor.lua for the names for events that tie into the tsi file, lib/slicer.lua for the slicer code. the slicer is far from perfect and gets confused easily depending on when you press pads - so if anyone wants to have a look at that code that's fine by me

hack around as much or as little as needed in config/lpd8.lua too ofc...

it seemed to run ok on my xp laptop, tho i didnt have any midi devices attached.

probably way too many layers here - for example u need to be in PAD mode to toggle between decks a and b - but as said this is more of a testbed than anything.

the worst that should happen is that it just doesnt run - but hopefully i included all needed files - use at your own risk - comes with no warranty of any kind

[zestoi]

i'll post a new version with a config to run virtual midifighters in a couple of days - but would appreciate any feedback to see if it actually runs ok on other peoples laptops first.

if so then i might risk posting a new thread to get more visibility...

[kostis12345]

Ooooh, first version. Great, I now need to overcome my laziness and hatred for windows and turn on my Win Laptop to test it. Nah, a bit later :P

[zestoi]

Ooooh, first version. Great, I now need to overcome my laziness and hatred for windows and turn on my Win Laptop to test it. Nah, a bit later :P

cool lol. yep - posted the first version 3 days ago. i don't *want* loads of people to see it yet, hence not creating a new thread with a more obvious title like "lpd8 slicer mapping for traktor" as i want to try and iron out any possible issues on the quiet first...

and as said the slicer is far from perfect - i need the code to generate a quantize event that coincides with traktors quantize zones so it can make a better guess as to where traktor will jump to when it's told to beat jump.

edit: afaik all thats really missing atm are some simple-ish functions to create virtual faders ala automap/midikatapult and to test/fix the virtual midifighter functions and my scs.3d specific code - as i wrote those for a previous incarntion of my core api - and then i can actually start using it to create all the mappings i want/need (and anyone else ofc)

edit2: i'm also open to the idea of a more simple config format more along the lines of the ones in midikatapult. i.e: not raw lua calls, but lines that specify what mappings are needed that then gets parsed and calls the needed lua stuff etc. a gui might be a nice idea of some kind, but i'm not really a gui coder, and would restrict what u could and couldnt do with it probably.

[zestoi]

new version which includes a config for a virtual midifighter in 4banks mode on a lpd8, should also work on a launchpad with the device name changed:

http://djism.com/mm/midimasher-20110915.zip

edit: forgot to add that since this is just emulating a midifighter it needs two new virtual midi ports (via loopMIDI etc):

* MidiFighter1 Input
* MidiFighter1 Output

they are case sensitive... you then just load the instant grat tsi as you would if u had a real midifighter and set the input port in traktor as ""MidiFighter1 Output" and the output port as ""MidiFighter1 Input"

this is the contents of "config/lpd8_midifighter_4banks.lua" and there's a couple of lines u can comment out if you have 2 lpd8's to be used pushed together to give u the full 4x4 grid without needing to change between PAD and CC modes (tho i dont have two (yet) so can't test):

--
-- virtual midifighter using a lpd8. PAD mode is the top half and CC mode is the bottom half of the MF
--

open_midi_device("traktor", "traktor", "Traktor to MM", "MM to Traktor", 2);
open_midi_device("lpd8", "lpd8", "LPD8", "LPD8", 2);
open_midi_device("midifighter1", "generic", "MidiFighter1 Input", "MidiFighter1 Output")
virtual_midifighter_4banks("lpd8", 0, "midifighter1", 0, 0, 0, 127)

--
-- to use a 2nd lpd8 to be the other half of the midifighter, set one to PAD mode and
-- one to CC mode and then uncomment the following lines:
--
--open_midi_device("lpd8-2", "lpd8", "LPD8", "LPD8", 2);
--virtual_midifighter_4banks("lpd8-2", 0, "midifighter1", 0, 0, 0, 127)
--

final edit: this config will actually work on any controller that has 16 pads. just need to run learn.exe, enter how many rows+cols and press each pad in turn to create a config file for that controller...