just wanted to share with the DJTT community how i managed to use a USB gaming controller with Traktor (as the title suggests). note - this is not my idea - i combined other methods that i found on the internets.

1. (assuming you have the controller plugged in, and drivers installed) Download 'Fergo JoystickMIDI' and 'LoopMIDI'. Fergo converts HID to MIDI, and LoopMidi does some other good stuff that i dont understand.
2. Open LoopMidi and click the '+' sign.
3. Open Fergo. In the 'Presets' section click 'New', give it a title and click 'Load'
4. In the Output device dropdown select LoopMIDI port.
5. hold down the button that you want to control and click add. in the box that opens, under 'source' select the button/control that you held down, and set 'Note' to 1. hit save
6. do the same thing for every other button/control that you want to use, but make sure that you use an different note for every button/control.
7. hit 'Activate'
8. open up Traktor, create a new mapping for 'Generic Midi' and select loopMIDI as the in-port/out-port.
9. get mapping!!

feel free to ask questions