Mapping the volume sliders/ fx knobs to ableton WITHOUT going into Midi mode

Hey guys,

So I have been trying to figure this problem out for a couple of days now. I am currently running Traktor Pro on External mixing thus the volume and the fader is not being controlled by the Traktor software. Thus I routed the audio from Traktor to Ableton Live via Soundflower. Everything is doing fine in that department.

The problem I am having is that when I am trying to route the volume slider to ableton I have to keep going into the midi mode on my S4MK2. I have done research and I believe it is doing this because of the default mapping that the S4 has with Traktor. I find that limitation to be stupid because the volume sliders is not being used by Traktor but Traktor is holding that midi signal hostage and not allowing me to route it to ableton where I can use it to control the volume on each deck in ableton. I have been pulling my hair out at this problem. If anyone has any ideas what to do please tell me I am dying to fix this problem!

Thanks in advance guys and gals!

You can't really fix what's not broken so it's not "stupid". The default mapping uses a protocol that is different from midi so you're stuck here. I guess you'll have to make a choice if you want to mix externally -> midi mode.

Have you tried deleting the volume sliders from the Traktor Mapping, then re-mapping in Ableton?

I suspect you'll need to set up some translators or split the controller so that anything NOT being utilised by Traktor is sending on a different midi channel. What you essentially do, is split the S4 into TWO different controllers - 1 sending on one channel (and going into Traktor (VIA separate Midi software) and 1 sending on a different channel (via same midi software) into Ableton Live.

On Windows, you'd use a combination of Bomes Midi Translator and MidiOx. On Mac, I *think* you would use ControlAid/MidiPipe/MidiStroke.

It is ALWAYS gonna be difficult using 1 controller with 2 pieces of software, because of 2 way communication between software and controller. If you're using 2 pieces of software, how does the controller know which piece of software is talking and which one to talk back to? If you "split" the controller (using said software) there are only single channels of communication between Controller Channel "A" and Traktor, and Controller Channel "B" and Live.