How to properly handle rotary encoders in software?
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  1. #1
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    Sep 2013
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    Default How to properly handle rotary encoders in software?

    Hi All, does anyone know the proper way to handle encoders in software? here's my problem, I have serato dj and a numark mixtrack pro II, I wondered why the effects wet/dry knobs were sounding a bit clunky, on the mixtrack pro II they're using rotary encoders that send out a 1 or 127 depending on direction. The problem is, even though serato and numark have worked together to make their products work together, serato appear to have crippled the effects knobs to a really low resolution on the numark controller, with a mouse or a pot on a 3rd party controller assigned, the knob moves very smoothly, with an encoder it moves in big chunks. Poor show imho.

    I have also been trying to map rotary encoders in FL Studio, which appeared to be a fruitless effort even with the user defined formula that you can put it, mine failed to produce the response I wanted, in fact, FL Studio for some reason thinks that my encoder is an 'absolute knob', somehow, I think the software is taunting me

    I also have a custom midi controller with pots and encoders on it, I assigned a pot to the same knobs in serato/fl studio and it's smooth as silk. With this controller, I can reprogram any of the buttons, knobs or encoders to send out whatever midi messages I like, so I'm wondering if fruitly loops is just looking for other specfic data to be able to recognise a control as relative and whether serato is capable of fine control using encoders and if so, what messages I actually need to send to achieve that.

    I've just managed to get fl Studio to respond to my rotary encoder and recognise it as as an endless knob.

    The problem I am finding is the lack of documentation on acceptable values, so far, I can get serato to respond to 1/127, 63/65 but I think there are at least 2-3 more types, but the only thing that works for fruity loops is a combination of CC 96/97 and hopping midi channels.

  2. #2
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    Jan 2014
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    475

    Default

    I also have a mixtrack pro 2. The rotary encoders are simply not analog, there's only about 24 clicks before they go full circle. If you want to fix it in Serato, you can't due to the unique way Serato manages mappings (i.e. not at all). You can get it more precise in software that does allow mapping by changing the sensitivity, but then you'll have to turn quite far if you want to turn the effect up high.

  3. #3
    Tech Mentor
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    Sep 2013
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    159

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    I've almost given up on serato, there's no way to fix the issue with rotary encoders, I don't care about the number of clicks a rotation takes as such, it's whether I can fine tune certain controls without having a crazy jump, I could just add more potentiometers and use those instead. Traktor on the other hand will allow me to do all sorts of stuff with the encoders including fine control. With traktor you can easily set it up to have the fine control and also have a modifier button setup so that you can do coarse control as well.

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