Holy crap. You guys need to get in on this if you haven't already.
For those that don't know, MIDI Translation is where you run a program that intercepts all the MIDI messages coming out of your MIDI controllers, and 'translates' them into whatever you want your DJ software to receive. To start, you could make Traktor think you're pressing keys on your keyboard when you twist a knob, or even that you've moved your mouse to a certain position on screen or you've twisted another virtual knob. The possibilities really are endless and it's up to you to get creative and find new uses for your MIDI controller.
So far, I created a rather basic translation which took an idea from Ean's VCI 1.3, with smart knobs. In this case, I first re-assigned (in Traktor) my volume faders on my VCI to control the FX AMOUNT knob. The problem is, there's a separate button to turn ON the effect.
After some tinkering, I got the result I wanted: if I move the fader a little bit, the effect will turn ON, and if I keep moving the fader up, the AMOUNT goes up. I did this by assigning a hotkey for the FX ON function, and through MIDI translation, Traktor thinks I'm holding that hotkey when my fader is past a certain point, effectively turning on the FX. At the same time, the fader is still acting as my regular FX AMOUNT, so as I move it up the FX AMOUNT increases too. In short, the fader outputs the following:
FX OFF.../ FX ON -> AMOUNT INCREASES as you move it up. Pretty cool isn't it?
Today, I spent some time on layouts (I'm still on Traktor 3.3). I started with my FX layout. Basically, when I flip through the layout pages in Traktor, I press Shift + 1, 2, 3, or 4 depending on which page I want to be on. All my FX are on page 4. So what I did today was assign any button that has anything to do with FX to also output a keystroke of Shift + 4. Now whenever I use my FX, the page in my layout changes automatically. The next step will be to identify which controls I want to go back to the default page and so forth. Logical examples would be to have any looping functions go to the page with your loop controls, and any cue point juggling go to the page with your cue list, and so forth. Perhaps my LOAD TRACK button will go back to page 1 (my 'default' page).
I love this stuff, and it's so easy after you mess with it for about an hour.
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