4 decks with timecode (and set ups without)

[dodge]

I use timecode vinyl with Traktor Scratch. I'm used to fast mixing, before traktor I would mark up my vinyl with stickers. Now I obviously have cue points for quicker mixing and I'm thinking it's about time I got into the 4 deck thing. My roots are kinda more from the turntablism side of things so don't want to ditch the vinyl but still would like to hear from anyone using 4 decks with a pure midi set up.
Just a couple of questions. Is there anyone out there who uses timecode vinyl (or CDJ's) whilst mixing with with 4 decks? If so how do you have your gear set up? I generally switch between internal mode and timecode during sets but is there anyone busting vinyl along with 2 other tracks running. I'm wondering about how you'd have the master deck set up, I have mine on manual as I like to be in control of that kind of thing. I don't mind switching between fully internal whilst mixing on 4 decks, as keeping on top of beat matching would be a nightmare, and timecode in order to pull off any turntable trickery like scratching and such.
Also what controls do people have mapped to their controllers to operate 4 decks (with or without timecode)? I'm still tweaking my set up & I'm interested to hear how other people work. Currently my mapped controls are:

loading buttons for all four decks
5 cue points for each deck
play/pause for all decks
loop in, out and active for each deck (I am playing with having the loop in button with an auto 4 bar activation on it)
loop end adjust for decks A and B
relative mode for decks A and B
pitch lock for decks A and B
sync buttons for decks A and B
master buttons for decks A and B

So yeah, if anyone could shed some light on the situation that would be sweet. Like any buttons I should include or get rid of and any modifiers on anything.

Thanks

[slaanesh]

I've got my vci-100 (v1.2) mapped to 4 decks without timecode. The way I did it was to assign 2 twin state modifiers to the pan knobs. This way when I have the knob at center position all the transport controls on the left deck control deck A. When I have that knob in any other position it then controls deck C. Its obviously the same on the other side except the controls are mapped for deck B and D.

I've also reassigned the pitch fader to control loop size and the standard loop button simply activates the loop at whatever length it was set by the fader. Once the loop is activated the fader still controls the lengths of the loop so you can change the size of the loop on the fly.

To control effects routing for all 4 decks, I have mapped the 4 little black buttons to the left of the browser controls on the vci, to the following, from the top:

Deck A effect 1 on/off -toggle
Deck A effect 2 on/off -toggle
Deck B effect 1 on/off -toggle
Deck B effect 2 on/off -toggle

These switch from controlling Deck A to C and Deck B to D, depending on the position of the pan knobs mentioned earlier.

Also, I'm not really sure if this is what you had in mind, but I don't think you can plug 4 TT's into an audio8 dj. Reason being is that of its 4 inputs only 2 are phono the other 2 are line inputs.

[lethal_pizzle]

Also, I'm not really sure if this is what you had in mind, but I don't think you can plug 4 TT's into an audio8 dj. Reason being is that of its 4 inputs only 2 are phono the other 2 are line inputs.

You can, but you will need phono preamps for the 2 line input channels.

[slaanesh]

You can, but you will need phono preamps for the 2 line input channels.

Sweet! Didn't think of that.

[dodge]

I've got my vci-100 (v1.2) mapped to 4 decks without timecode. The way I did it was to assign 2 twin state modifiers to the pan knobs. This way when I have the knob at center position all the transport controls on the left deck control deck A. When I have that knob in any other position it then controls deck C. Its obviously the same on the other side except the controls are mapped for deck B and D.

I've also reassigned the pitch fader to control loop size and the standard loop button simply activates the loop at whatever length it was set by the fader. Once the loop is activated the fader still controls the lengths of the loop so you can change the size of the loop on the fly.

To control effects routing for all 4 decks, I have mapped the 4 little black buttons to the left of the browser controls on the vci, to the following, from the top:

Deck A effect 1 on/off -toggle
Deck A effect 2 on/off -toggle
Deck B effect 1 on/off -toggle
Deck B effect 2 on/off -toggle

These switch from controlling Deck A to C and Deck B to D, depending on the position of the pan knobs mentioned earlier.

Also, I'm not really sure if this is what you had in mind, but I don't think you can plug 4 TT's into an audio8 dj. Reason being is that of its 4 inputs only 2 are phono the other 2 are line inputs.

Cool, thanks for that. I'm feeling the idea of having a dial that switches between decks. That way you don't have to have 4 individual deck mappings. My only issue with that is though, I like to have everything doing the same thing all the time. I personally don't want to have a button that controls one thing, but if a knob is in a different position it controls something else. I like to know that I can push a button or turn a knob and I don't have to stay on top of whether it's going to do it to the correct deck. It's like a DJ mixer, the bass is always going to be the bass, the treble is always treble and so on.
One problem I have run into is the pitch thing. I'm trying to think of a way to map a pitch control as I generally mix different genres of music and therefore different tempos. I find that if I have 4 decks sync'd and start trying to add in faster tempos of music I'd like to be able to turn the pitch up. But I don't want to map it to a dial or fader on my nanokontrol as it doesn't have a dipped fader (like when you're at zero on a technics 1210 mk2), same with the knobs. There's no definate way of knowing I'm exactly in the middle without squinting at the screen. I'm thinking I might do a pitch bend on 2 buttons but map it to all 4 decks so that they all go up or down together.
I've just had a thought, I might try and map just decks A & B and do the same mappings (button wise) to decks C & D only I have to push shift in order to control them. Saves the amount of buttons I'm using I guess.

ANYWAY, sorry I'm rambling. Anyone else care to share their 4 deck secrets?

Oh and by the way, no i don't want to hook up 4 TT's, that would be far to many decks in the DJ booth.

[LoveBass]

I am adding 2x xone 1ds to my xone 42 with my turntables. I have made a mapping so I can use the whole setup, just the mixer and the 1ds or just the two 1ds.

[Nephew]

I run 4 decks using just midi controllers. Long story short, I just use deck A & B for the mixing of actual tracks and then have deck C & D for loops, one shots, accapella's and so on.

[dodge]

I run 4 decks using just midi controllers. Long story short, I just use deck A & B for the mixing of actual tracks and then have deck C & D for loops, one shots, accapella's and so on.

This is exactly the sort of thing I had in mind. Was curious to see if anyone else was rockin that kinda shit. I was actually thinking about having like 3 or 4 different house beats lined up, the same for breaks, and maybe DnB etc. I was thinking that decks C & D could be used for the beats, then decks A & B could be used for everything else. Like pella's bass lines melodies etc. or even full tracks but kill the bass if Im using beats from decks C & D. So basically I could mash up anything I wanted. I could have a regular track playing then at the drop switch the drums to a house beat, then at the next 16 bars switch it to a break beat and so on.
Nice. The possibilities are endless!

[Nephew]

You could definitely go that route, but with how much you're trying to do I think Ableton would be a lot of efficient and productive. But if you want to give it a go with Traktor than by all means do and let us hear the results some time.

[dodge]

You could definitely go that route, but with how much you're trying to do I think Ableton would be a lot of efficient and productive. But if you want to give it a go with Traktor than by all means do and let us hear the results some time.

Ableton aint for me man! too much faffing about and setting things up. At least with traktor you can whack a tune in it and away you go without the need to warp shit. I feel restrained with ableton. Traktor is definately the one for me. I'll be sure to let you hear something but it might take me a while to get sumink together.