NOVATION DICER: Can I physically swap the buttons around?

[lethal_pizzle]

Dicer owners, did you get your dicers and immediately think: the buttons are in the wrong order?

I certainly did. I don't use my TTs in battle mode so going clockwise from high to low seems a bit weird to me. From my aethetic I reckon it should be the other way round. Anyway, what I'm asking is:

- does that make me weird?
- has anyone opened up a dicer for any reason and can confirm if I can swap the buttons about
- if I did that, would that make me weird?

I'm debating on doing just this before I map it!

[TreTuna]

Honestly.. Instead of switching the buttons physically, you could just reroute the mapping for the buttons. The numbers may go backwards, but as long as you know what your mapping is you'd be fine.

[lethal_pizzle]

The mapping isn't the problem, as I'll be creating it from scratch. I'd just like the buttons to reflect the mappings. I plan for my mapping to have incremental/decremental loop size buttons etc and I'd like it to be as simple as possible for my DJ partner who doesn't do mappings at all. I'm probably being a bit anal.

One other thing that's a bit annoying is I can't boot the dicer up into one of the alternative modes automatically, and I can't select the modes from the device either. I'd like to select the mode whereby the shift buttons also send note on/off messages to Traktor and to do that I've got to do some Bome's wizardy to send the Dicer's special MIDI commands every time I plug one in. Booo.

[zestoi]

One other thing that's a bit annoying is I can't boot the dicer up into one of the alternative modes automatically, and I can't select the modes from the device either. I'd like to select the mode whereby the shift buttons also send note on/off messages to Traktor and to do that I've got to do some Bome's wizardy to send the Dicer's special MIDI commands every time I plug one in. Booo.

being how novation are pretty good at their midi implementations... all it takes is two CC's which u could map to some 'out' in traktor if u can trigger it? using a 'direct' to send the first CC and a 'direct' inverted to send the second?

u could ofc use midimasher to just route all data untouched bomes style and automatically send the CC's when it first connects. does mean using virtual midi ports tho ofc. no biggie if on mac, but midimasher can't automatically create ports on windows. pretty sure bomes has a builtin virtual port tho no matter what platform you're on.

[lethal_pizzle]

being how novation are pretty good at their midi implementations... all it takes is two CC's which u could map to some 'out' in traktor if u can trigger it? using a 'direct' to send the first CC and a 'direct' inverted to send the second?

Ooh, that could work, depending on what the commands are. I could MIDI map every button on the dicer to send these 2 commands whilst a modifier = 0 and then set the modifier = 1 so I'm not continually telling the Dicer to change into another mode. That'll work as long as I don't have to reconnect the dicers. Good enough though I think. It'd mean I can implement a 'direct thru' mode by hitting all 3 shift buttons.

[zestoi]

Ooh, that could work, depending on what the commands are. I could MIDI map every button on the dicer to send these 2 commands whilst a modifier = 0 and then set the modifier = 1 so I'm not continually telling the Dicer to change into another mode. That'll work as long as I don't have to reconnect the dicers. Good enough though I think. It'd mean I can implement a 'direct thru' mode by hitting all 3 shift buttons.

cool - should work...

the manual says to send this first 0xBA, 0x11, 0x55 which will be CC017, channel 11 with a value of 85

then this to transmit mode button events: 0xBA, 0x15, 0x01 which will be CC021, channel 11 with a value of 1

i think...

[lethal_pizzle]

Wicked. I mean the obvious thing to do would be to set it to 1 page mode, then you could set up stuff like 3 shifts per mode; 5 different coloured pages per mode, implement sample decks etc etc. The full monty. However beyond the scope of the time I've got put aside for it at the mo'.

[zestoi]

true... but u sneed to send the dicers two midi CC's to put it into that mode anyway i think - default is multi modes and mode buttons not sending data, anything else needs to be configured via CC's. shame it doesn't save it's state when u turn it off... launchpad doesn't either tho. i have to send it CC's to enable flashing colors and stuff.

[lethal_pizzle]

Hmmm, looking at the programmers guide, the Dicer sends out some MIDI when it is powered up. If I can use that to change the status of a modifier then I can send the status of the modifier back out to the Dicer in the way you've described, and automatically sent it into a different mode whenever it is plugged in. You'd just have to get Traktor started, then plug in the dicer. Cheers!

I'd best keep the buttons in their present 'southpaw' state then, just in case I end up with something awesome.

[zestoi]

sounds like a cunning plan