Anyone want a special Traktor keyboard overlay for their MBP?
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  1. #1

    Default Anyone want a special Traktor keyboard overlay for their MBP?

    hey all

    this is in part a selfish offer here, but may well help out a few members on the forum as well as me so thought i'd stick it on....


    The way I have both my old VCI-100 and now my VCI-400 set up is to have the tempo fader on the controller set up to work a very small range, only going about 2.5% in either direction. So when i'm beatmatching (and not syncing obviously) I have some keyboard shortcuts set up to jump the tempo up in larger steps to get ballpark correct, then use use the very fine resolution of the pitchfaders to get exact.

    This was fine and easy to spot/remember what keys were what when i just had the 2 channel VCI-100, but now I have the 400 i've rearranged the keys to include keys for all 4 decks as well as some other functions and triggers/load buttons for samples.

    I've been searching for a while to find a company who could produce a custom rubber overlay for they keys, both to label all the keys and also to protect the lappy and make them waterproof in case of spilled drinks in a club.

    Have finally found one but they arent set up to provide individual or one off designs, only really big runs. There is a significant and very large set up cost to get these made, with the idea that this would be made back in bulk orders of a couple of hundred printed units.

    However I dont have 100 laptops! Now i'm not looking to sell 100 units by any means, but if i could get maybe 10 people interested that would make it something that was viable, and more people above that would bring the cost down further. These would be about £15 each, maybe cheaper depending on numbers, and i wouldnt be making any profit on these (and indeed still paying about £50 towatds the set up costs on top of my own £15 for mine).


    So a little more detail on how the mapping is set up, each deck has a tempo up and down button as well as reset to zero, and each also has a tap tempo button to help quickly grid songs. Decks C and D also have a button for cycling through sample deck, music track and external input, and a button for turning vinyl/timecode control on and off.

    Across the number keys there is triggers for all 4 sample banks on each side, and you can hold shift and press these to load into the sample slot from the browser.

    You also have some buttons top left to switch between two and 4 deck view and a quick button to change to browser view and back again.

    Originally I had it pretty multi coloured but have scaled it back to basically black blue and white to keep the colours and hence cost down, but also to match the EGE VCI-400 and newest VCI-100 colours. These would be professionally printed by a company that specialises in printing these types of keyboard overlays and would be fantastic quality.


    If people had any ideas for one or two more functions that could be added over to the right side of the keyboard, around and next to the Enter button, we could add stuff in but once the design was set the problem, and the whole point, is that there cant be any design changes or its another expensive set up fee, so only works if people are interested in the layout exactly as is :-) Not gonna be especially common I know but as I say if even 10 people like the look of it then would be worth looking into.


    Anyway a picture of the current layout idea is attached, let me know what you all think and if anyone is interested.


    Lappy-Buttons-Layout-v2.jpg

  2. #2

    Default

    lol anyone?

  3. #3

  4. #4

    Default

    hey

    yeah am aware of that one, its the same one thats in the DJTT store isnt it? However my point is that I was a particulular, custom layout to match the way I have my keys mapped, not that one


    k

  5. #5
    Tech Guru lethal_pizzle's Avatar
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    Default

    I think it's likely that anyone who wants a keyboard overlay (which isn't the stock one) has probably customised their mappings to their own specific needs
    DJTT Nu Disco Mix Train Vol 1
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  6. #6
    Tech Guru zestoi's Avatar
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    i wouldn't mind a completely blank overlay that i could add some stickers on or something but the layout you're proposing is totally specific to what u need - can't see many people going for that.
    11mba / 13mbp / tsp2 / live9 / audio10 / 2x reloop rp7000gold / 2x xdj1000 / 2x d2
    maschine mk2 / x1 mk2 / z1 / f1 / midifighter / lpd8 / 2x launchpad / launchkontrol xl
    Quote Originally Posted by derschaich
    "wohoo, i'm touched, turn on the FX"

  7. #7
    Tech Mentor deckard26354's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by zestoi View Post
    i wouldn't mind a completely blank overlay that i could add some stickers on or something but the layout you're proposing is totally specific to what u need - can't see many people going for that.
    Interesting idea, something with individual slots to add in your customized setting's. A little plastic pouch? more tooling cost's I would imagine.
    At end of the day you generally set up/macro program the keyboard for Traktor/Serato/Ableton etc to your specific needs. Then remember the letters/number's till it become's instinctual.

    kevinmcdonough, Good idea a little flawed.

  8. #8
    Tech Guru zestoi's Avatar
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    i haven't really had any need to use my mac keyboard yet for any mappings but i can see that it might be handy in some situations. all i would do is wack some coloured stickers on the buttons that i wanted to use, i figure then it'd be easier to jump to any set of buttons that i needed, esp if all the unused ones were just blacked out. the only keyboard covers that i can find are either transparent or have the normal letters/symbols on. i guess i could just paint the inside of a transparent one tho for what i want...
    11mba / 13mbp / tsp2 / live9 / audio10 / 2x reloop rp7000gold / 2x xdj1000 / 2x d2
    maschine mk2 / x1 mk2 / z1 / f1 / midifighter / lpd8 / 2x launchpad / launchkontrol xl
    Quote Originally Posted by derschaich
    "wohoo, i'm touched, turn on the FX"

  9. #9

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    hahaha

    as I said in the very first post, i do realise that this mapping is very specific to me and probably wouldnt be of interest to very many people. However thought id offer it to everyone incase even a handfull of people were interested A) to be helpful and B) to make it a little more attractive to the printing company and try and get a slightly bigger order


    k

  10. #10
    Tech Guru lethal_pizzle's Avatar
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    I just used one of these:
    omega-dymo-machine.jpg
    ...although on a MDP I'd be wary of scratching my screen...
    DJTT Nu Disco Mix Train Vol 1
    beats and balearic bobs in north-west london
    iTunes podcast
    soundcloud

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