CDJ 400 Desperate Help

Hey guys and gals

I'm having a little (complete lie, shit loads!) of trouble with a small issue that causes big problems. Also still a little stupid and need some questions answered. Here's what I've just posted on a pioneer forum.

Hi guys

I'm hoping your going to give me great news here as I'm almost a %100 satisfied customer.
First of all I have looked EVERYWHERE for help on this, I've rang Australia, Uk and finally Belgium (who were the best FYI).
I'm so desperate for an answer !

Here's what I'm running via HID

X 2 CDJ 400 (Firm 1.33)
X 1 DJM 800
X 1 (2009) Mac Book Pro - 10.5.8 (Leopard)
Traktor Scratch Pro 1.2.6
X 1 Motu traveler MK 3 (Latest Firmware)
HDJ 2000's
APC 40 Midi Controller

Everything is near perfect with my setup except 1 major drama! The tempo control/pitch fader seems to fall asleep on me or just not respond after I've been using it. In other words I will be halfway through a track and go to move it and it wont respond unless I give it a few wiggles to kick it in (like a latency thing I guess?) this also happens with an occasional button I have mapped to switch between modes. This is a major pain in the arse and i don't have this problem with any other controllers I have and use with traktor? please help!

I have researched as much as i can and to be honest found little except that this may be a handball game between you guys and traktor due to coding issues? please let this be crap.

My knowledge is probably still a little hazy too so here are some more quick questions.

1: Am i actually using HID mode? as in I've assigned 2 ports within traktor and have the CDJ 400's hooked up via a usb cable, I've assigned them as Deck A and Deck B once traktor starts but is this HID mode? ... because.....

2: I have created Aggregate devices but am not really sure what it does, at a guess I'd say uses each CDJ 400 as an external soundcard, would this improve the sound quality if I used the Digital out as it passes in from traktor and through to the desk?

3: Can I still have my CDJ's mapped to traktor whilst using them as an aggregate device?

4: Would Bomes midi translator software help with this issue as I've read somewhere that this could help?

Thanks guys and sorry for so many questions

groovenutz



If anyone out there can help it would be greatly appreciated

I bought two cdj-400's a year, one with firmware 1.3 and the other with 1.33 and everytime I tried to use them as an aggregate device, it wouldn't read the one that had 1.33. This was back on Traktor Pro 1.2. I'm not sure if they've done anything since then to match the CDJ-400 mystery firmware. Honestly, I haven't even seen articles on v1.33. So i just "downgraded" to v1.3 and everything works well for me.

1) It's HID mode if you've made you're MIDI map under a blank CDJ-400 section. If it's General MIDI, then it's MIDI. You can also tell if you're getting LED feedback and track info on your CDJ's.

2) Making an Aggregate Device is the correct way to use both soundcards for Traktor. I don't know the difference of sound between the CDJ's digital outs and regular RCA's as I don't have anything that can receive digital sound, but theoretically, they should sound "better."

3) Yes, you can use the CDJ's HID functionality in conjunction with it's soundcard (this is my setup). Just make sure they're each getting their own usb ports. (I'm having some trouble as I'm using a hub, but I have very dangerous and unconventional work-arounds for this.)

4) If you're not so sure whether you want to downgrade your firmware (as it is a one time deal cause I can't find anything higher than 1.3) to test if that works, then you could also use that. Note that you will then be using MIDI as opposed to HID. I'm getting a feeling that this could be a power issue. Because you're using the CDJ's as soundcards, they MUST have their own usb port or a powered usb hub.

So let me get this straight, general midi feeds back the LED lights (like the red one that circles the 400's jog wheel)? or is it HID that feed back the LED lights? My firmware is 1.3 so I'm just assuming I have HID and I have missunderstood you.

I am using a Motu traveler MK3 as a firewire sound card to take some of the load off the USB hub's, plus it's a good soundcard most of the time. So I actually dont use the CDJ's as seperate sound card devices, I have just set up the aggregate device incase i change my mind or need to test it out.

I know this isn't a sound card issue as I have tested it with my Audio 4 Soundcard

I know this is not a USB hub latency issue as I've just had the one plugged in to the high speed hub of my macbook pro.

Just last night I checked the mapping to make sure the tempo was set to direct and not relative as another user suggested but it was ok.

I haven't tried using a powered hub yet ?
Obviously if I'm using HID then midi translator software is out of the question?

Argghhhh!!!

You have almost the exact setup I have (including 1.33 firmware), but it sounds like you are over-complicating the issue (no offense).

While I might be confused about this myself as I'm new, I believe that if you're seeing Track info on your CDJ display, then you have HID mode.

An aggregate device simply combines both external soundcards into one "soundcard" with separate channels that relate to each individual CDJ. This way, you can select your "aggregate soundcard" in Traktor, and allow you to have two separate outputs.

Regardless of audio device you choose to use, mapping the control works or it doesn't because it's MIDI. If it's mapped correctly and you're using the external source, you should see the control icon light up in Traktor when you press a button, touch the wheel, etc.

To me, it sounds like a mapping issue. Did you create your own? Did you let Traktor create the mapping by default then modify it somehow? Or is this just stock Traktor mappings?

Also, you could have overlapped mappings. Occasionally when setting my gear up, I would have more than one midi mapping for each CDJ400, and they would seemingly cancel each other out, or other weird nonsense.

With your gear, I would export all your midi mappings of each device to an external file, then delete it. This way, you can reimport later if you need to. Once you have exported and deleted, I would close traktor and turn off all the gear. Once it's down, check your Audio Devices setup. It should look like this:

http://teamvertex.net/images/ss1_audio.png

Note: I have two aggregate devices because it *does* matter what USB plug you're using (I am using a powered USB hub, so both CDJs are connected to that, and the hub plugs into the "First" usb port nearest to the back of the MBP).

Open up traktor. Go to Audio setup. Should look something like this:

http://teamvertex.net/images/ss2_audio.png

Then go to output routing and verify you're selecting your output like this:

http://teamvertex.net/images/ss3_audio.png

This is what works for me, and aside from the OS version difference, our initial setup sounds identical.