I’ve played with USB Sticks a lot of time, and now I use a laptop with a controller. After playing a lot with this controller I realized I rarely use any button that is not present on CDJs and if I do I could just map it to the laptop keyboard, so, I could be using the CDJs to control Traktor instead of the controller, and that would save me time and space on the booth.
Now I see stuff about HID on CDJ-2000/900 and MIDI on 850s, whats the difference? I imagine that it could be the display showing you live info about waveforms on HID mode and MIDI not doing it but, whats the general idea about this two modes?
Can I just stick with MIDI and use it for 2000/2000Nexus, 900/900Nexus and 850s (maybe XDJ-1000s)? Is HID a problem when considering the possibility that the CDJs are not firmware updated?
Traktor. Why CDJs are terrible midi controllers? PS: I use no jogwheel.
Because I abominate rekordbox, and I’m tired of beatmatching. I’m not into using intro & outro of tracks, I want to throw a track suddenly in the middle of the other and Traktor’s markers are perfect for this. I also use a little bit of remix decks, so.
Also if there were CDJ-2000s all over the place here in Brazil it would be easy, but there are too many CDJ-1000s or worse and I can’t stand burning god damn cds…
So my idea is to use CDJs when good ones (>850) are available and controller when there is a cheap setup in front of me.
The jog wheel is actually good in Midi, but the pitch faders are horrible resolution. I hate when I show up to a gig and there are 800 mk2’s or 1000’s. It’s like really?
HID stands for Human Interface Device. It’s a standard for input devices to a PC/MAC over USB, used for things like mouses, keyboards, etc.
Unlike MIDI, which sends standards based messages between devices, HID is dependent on the manufacturer of the controller to provide a driver for working with the hardware.
In the case of the CDJ’s, Serato and Traktor have HID drivers for the 2000’s and such.
Standard old-school MIDI only support 7-bit MIDI messages, meaning a control (knob, slider, etc) can have values in the range 0-128. This is far below what is needed for a high resolution pitch slider. There is a 14-bit MIDI standard, but the CDJ’s don’t support it as far as I know.
The beauty of the HID modes is how well integrated they are. You plug in the deck, and everything just works, screens, everything in high resolution, they work beautifully.
If you find yourself playing out on CDJ-1000’s or CDJ-800’s, timecode CD’s actually work pretty well.
Well, I don’t need so much precision on the pitch faders, just need them to work as I will use sync. I don’t know if you were sarcastic abou the 800s and 1000s, but I just can’t stand burning cds anymore… I have CDJ-200s at home, I’m sick and tired of this…
Thanks for the info! I know I can use timecode cds but its just more shit to carry you know… haha And I really find those vinyl control knobs on the right of the CDJs useful as MIDI controllers, I can imagine a very handle command for them.
Now another question, what will give me more errors/bugs, HID or MIDI? I just feel like MIDI is more problem-proof, am I right?
Also, are HID controls tunable? Can I go to controller manager and change the command of the buttons if I want when in HID mode?
And a third question, will I be able to send sound through MIDI? Or CDJs in MIDI mode will only control the software but not work as soundcards?
Either is reliable, but HID support in Traktor is so tightly integrated with the CDJ’s you’ll likely have less trouble. It’s also all set up for two way communication - you don’t have the “takeover” issues like you see with regular MIDI.
MIDI and HID have nothing to do with sound, only control. You can use the internal soundcards in either mode.
I believe you can change some settings in the controller manager for CDJ HID mode. I haven’t bothered on my setup.
I wasnt sarcastic at all about the CDJ’s. I hate when I show up to 800 MK2’s or 1000’s. They are outdate. No Midi or HID, no thumd drive, and they feel like plastic. Bleh.
Sure you can, but, as you may have observed like I did, some of the people who work in this night business have no fucking clue about what they are doing lol