My entry to the Midifighter contest
UPDATE: HOLY SHIT! I WON!!! http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/05/20/midi-fighter-contest-winning-videos/ THANKS DJ TECH TOOLS!!!
UPDATE: Contest winner won't be announced until Monday, May 24 Friday, May 21. Stay tuned.
I am in love with the concept of this midi controller. (A midi controller is this.) Not only does the Midifighter look cool as shit, but arcade buttons were designed by engineers to be rapid fire. That is a very useful thing with midi controllers.
The guys who make this also run a blog called DJ Tech Tools. Last month, they launched a contest here to WIN A FREE MIDIFIGHTER! People were invited to do a cue point juggling routine using any controller. You had to use their four songs.
Coincidentally, one of the tracks was a Gangstar acapella. I should note they chose this track before the tragic death last month of Gangstar's Guru at age 43. Turned out to be a timely selection.
Here's the DJTT example.
Now here's my vain attempt at winning! I'm using a Novation Launchpad, which I custom mapped to Traktor Pro. My mapping divides the Launchpad into four parts. Each quarter of the grid controls one of four decks in Traktor. Each deck has eight illuminated cue points that trigger specific points in each track. You can see the Traktor window in the bottom right of the video.
(Vimeo version of this video here.)
8 comments:
Man, that is a great mix - very nicely done! That Novation Launchpad looks like a blast to use.
Was there a big learning curve in getting it synced up to multiple decks in Traktor like that?
Thanks man! I find out Sunday if I win a free Midifighter.
Mapping the Launchpad is a little annoying and time consuming but not difficult. There's no easy "midi learn" feature in Traktor, so you can't just click on a control and press a button and have it be assigned like you can in Ableton Live.
Instead, you have to use their "Controller Manager" in preferences. You use a menu to choose which control you want to affect, and THEN you can activate midi learn and press the button you want. It can get a little tricky if you're not sure what the official name of a particular control is, but this midi command finder tool helps with that: http://www.traktorbible.com/en/midifinder.aspx
Getting Traktor to output midi is slightly more annoying but worth it for the LEDs to turn on. Once you assign a button to a control, the Controller Manager tells you the midi CC of the button. Then you just "Add out..." for that command (Filter on/off, for example). But to assign the CC note there is no midi learn feature. You have to use this stupid menu interface to select the right midi note so the correct LED turns on/off depending on whether your Filter is turned on/off.
I'm probably not explaining this the easiest way possible. Fortunately there are a lot of people online who are much better at this than me.
But it's totally fun! I recommend if you're considering a controller for Traktor that you make sure you have something with knobs or faders to control stuff like volume/cross fader/filter. The VCI 100 is perfect for this. I found a refurbished one on eBay about a year ago. I think it was $400.
Some people like Ean Golden who runs DJ Tech Tools swear by an Oxygen 8 to control Traktor. You can do a fuck of a lot with Traktor and an Oxygen 8. The fun part about this whole controllerism hobby is that you can just figure out whatever the fuck you want and mess around.
And by "figure out whatever the fuck you want" I mean just take anything that outputs midi or even HID (like a video game controller like a Wiimote or Guitar Hero guitar) and map it to Traktor or other software. There's a bunch of cool shit like that on YouTube if you're interested. Some people have no timing but some are awesome.
Sounds straightforward enough. I'm pretty gearless now, but it looks like a ton of fun!
Also, they should throw a joystick onto the MIDI Figther controller for modwheel/pitch/other cc messages! Then tie in controller+button sequences to trigger certain loops/samples so you can e.g. SHORYUKEN or fireball slam into the onbeat!
Joysticks, totally! One of the early Midifighter protoypes I saw online had two small joysticks, like the ones you find on Playstation controllers. But the Midifighter actually does have an expansion slot for up to 4 faders/knobs and 4 buttons. So theoretically you could add 2 joysticks. You'd have to figure out an enclosure for it though.
Thanks dude. Actually, they're not choosing a winner until Tuesday...so it's not even retroactive.
Whoa! I can't believe I won! http://www.djtechtools.com/2010/05/20/midi-fighter-contest-winning-videos/ I can't wait to make some Midifighter videos!
AWESOME! Congrats man, i was seriously impressed by the video.
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