Xbox 360 Controller Midi for Traktor?
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  1. #1
    Tech Wizard Modus Operandi's Avatar
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    Default Xbox 360 Controller Midi for Traktor?

    http://www.djtechtools.com/2008/09/05/how-to-wiij/

    After reading the above aritcle I am curious has anyone tried this or know if the same principle could work with an xbox 360 controller. I assume that xbox controllers work off IR signals similar to the Wiimote, its just a matter of interpreting these signals as midi.

    Its just an idea, i would never perform like this but as a short term solution before i buy a VCI-100 for Traktor, but would it do the job?

    Thanks,

    PS: i would just be using it for transport functions such as loading tracks and playing, Toggle deck A/B/C/D, maybe loop in loop out also? nothing too fancy

  2. #2
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    Lol !

    Cool idea ! also if you have a pad with arcade button XD

    STREET FIGHTER POWAH !

  3. #3
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    I used to use my xbox 360 controller w/ traktor 3.4 it wasn't bad, there is actually an article on the blog for it if you search around.

    personally though, I wouldn't just use it, but would favor mixing with the keyboard and then using it to control the expression on multiple parameters of effects. Ie. x-axis controls expression of one knob, y the other knob. And you could use both joysticks for a lot of fast changes over multiple parameters that you can't make with the mouse and keyboard (well not very smoothly if you are moving multiple objects simultaneously, like you might when using a gater and reverb in conjunction.
    Last edited by mpetersen3; 07-25-2009 at 05:49 PM.
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  4. #4
    Tech Mentor kaleaf's Avatar
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    also just so you know there is a version of the 360 controller that works with windows (says on the box). If you happen to have that one it would be easy with a midi translator program. Also the wiimote is bluetooth and you use a bluetooth card in the pc to pick up its signal. When I used wii-mote it was kinda flakey to activate dont know if it was just my setup or not.


    the 360 controller for windows uses a usb cord (not wireless) as far as I know

  5. #5
    Tech Wizard Modus Operandi's Avatar
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    ^ now that u mention it i have seen the said windows xbox control in a store one time and always wondered how that worked...

    On the subject of bluetooth and the wiimote, is it hard/costly to install a bluetooth card to a laptop? does it work via USB socket?

  6. #6
    Tech Wizard djin50mnia's Avatar
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    fairly inexpensive i paid 30$ for a bluetooth dongle and its no bigger than a small flash drive. ive got one for my headset i use

  7. #7
    Tech Mentor kaleaf's Avatar
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    yup they are cheap... only some are compatible with the wiimote and the only thing I thought was glitchy about the wiimote was possibly just my setup but after it was idle for awile I would have to resync the thing and my software didnt always sync it right and I would have to "discover" it again.

    other than that it was ok for games. as far as using it for music you should be able to do what you want with a x/y pad unless you have something you want velocity on.

    if you google wiimote midi you find a few youtube drum videos. I would prefer a pad like the new akai lpd8 for cheaper than wiimote/usb bluetooth
    Last edited by kaleaf; 07-27-2009 at 12:42 AM.

  8. #8
    Tech Wizard Modus Operandi's Avatar
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    ^ is the akai lpd8 out yet? cant find it on thomann or musicstore so i guess not..

    anyone know what the expected price is gonna be?

  9. #9
    Tech Mentor kaleaf's Avatar
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    I think your right modus the lpd8 is not out.

  10. #10
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    Hi Modus, after reading this forum I started doing some research and can tell you that it is very possible to dj with an xbox 360 controller! i have done it, but as of yet its not a perfect solution.

    See theres lots of free midi translators for windows but these are either incomplete or unstable. Even GlovePie wasnt working that well for me. So I eventually had a half decent solution using 2 translators at once, one for the analogues and triggers and one for the buttons. But even with this solution not all the buttons were available.

    So I decided to get cracking to make a better solution, I'm writing a C#.net app and so far its going really well, all buttons (including left and right analogue buttons) are available except the big silver "X" button in the middle, but this has always been the case since its not exposed in the DirectX API. Thats a total of 14 buttons (with the D-pad up/down/left/right which hasnt been avaialble on any translator so far) plus 6 axes for the analogues, thats a lot of control! And the app is also talking quite nicely to traktor via a midi port.

    OK so I need some feedback and advice from guys with Midi programming experience to make this app rock solid.

    1. I'm currently using this midi toolkit from http://www.codeproject.com/KB/audio-...DIToolkit.aspx and it sends one message at a time, it cant send messages on all 16 midi channels in one go. Now what I want to know is will this affect traktor modifiers since the messages are not being received by traktor at the same time when buttons are pressed simultaneously? I can easily remedy this by setting up the messages before being sent and when they're all ready to go I then send them all at once by using one thread per midi channel. Unless somebody has a better midi library that they can point me to?

    2. Buttons - how should they react? When you press a button and hold it should it send one NoteOn message immediately followed by a NoteOff to act like a trigger or should I just send continuous NoteOn's while its held down to indicate its still pressed? I tried the continuous NoteOn's method thinking thats the right way for modifiers but its not working very well.

    3. Currently I'm just sending messages as buttons are pressed, ie. they're getting sent asynchronously. Would it be better to synchronize these messages so traktor wouldnt have to deal with hundreds of messages within a small space of time and what should the period between message sending be?

    Help would be appreciated guys! If i can get those issues sorted I can release this app for everyone by next week!

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