MIDI question for Traktor
Hey guys
I posted this on the NI forum but got nothing in response, so I might as well bring it here.
I use Traktor 3 with a VCI-100 and I’m trying to program it to move between 4 midi pages. I’ve been using the black loop function buttons on the top left to do this. I programmed the output so the LED’s light up depending on what MIDI page I’m on. Top is 1, then down to four broken down as:
Page 1: Decks A&B
Page 2: Decks C&D
Page 3: Decks A&D
Page 4: Decks C&B
I have it programmed so switching between pages turns off previous lights, turns on the newly selected page, etc. etc.. It could work really well.
THe issue I’m running into, however, is that when I get to MIDI page 4 it locks up. It won’t leave page 4, no matter what, and the LEDs start flashing randomly, while the light for 4 stays on permanently. Also, I lose control of the crossfader, which is the really odd part.
I would have no problem posting my tks doc so someone can check it out on theirs and all, but it’s really weird. I’ve tried it with other buttons on the VCI, and on my PadKontrol, but it locks up everytime. 
Any one else have this problem? Any ideas? Thanks
Only thing I can think of off the top of my head is that your page 4 message is causing a feedback loop somehow. Check to see if your output message (to trigger the LED change) is the same as your page 4 message or conflicting with another message.
Have you tried running something like MIDIHack to see what is being send and recieved?
whenever I try to install MIDI Hack it just runs my Project installer for some reason… odd.
Any idea how to get around a feedback loop like that? Should I contact NI?
No. If it’s a feedback loop, it’s a misconfiguration on your end. Try taking out the LED feedback message for page 4 and see if it still breaks Traktor.
It would really help if you could get an idea of what is being sent and recieved. Give this a shot…
http://www.nem0nic.com/midihack.zip
You don’t need to install anything, just unzip it and run the exe. You can also try MIDIOX if that still doesn’t work for you.
I’ll give this a shot when I get home from work 
Thanks a lot man
Alright, so it’s a MIDI feedback loop. I turned off the LED’s and it still happens. I moved the commands to my PadKontrol and it STILL happens. I’m really at a loss here. THe only thing I can think to do is set it to a HOLD command instead of TOGGLE and I really want to avoid that so I can have two hands to, y’know, mix.
Any ideas or help? Be much appreciated.
Email me your tks file and let me have a look at it.
admin@nem0nic.com
they must have enabled toggle midi pages in the new version of traktor? you could only perform hold before and i was told by the dev team that this was one of reasons.
this may be a simple solution but perhaps you could just stick to 3 pages.
a/b
b/c
a/c (make this page the combo deck that you would usually use)
by utilizing deck move you can move songs around so when running 3 decks that third slot will always work for you. It seems like the 4th one might not be needed really.
I went into the tks and changed the MIDI command so it will toggle. I think you change it from 2 to 3. I don’t have the tks in front of me but I can check when I get home.
For now I might have to put it together to stick to three pages. I’d prefer four, of course, just for that little extra oomph, y’know? I didn’t think using Deck Move, though. Will that move EQ/FX/volume and everything, or just the track?
I’m giving this tks a look right now and without owning a VCI100, what pops out at me right now are several conflicts in the message mapping for the MIDI pages and feedback. It looks like you’ve got the MIDI pages function mapped to the looping section on the VCI, but you’ve got 5 messages associated to each page change, and 4 of those are output mesages. That can’t be right.
It’s not totally clear in the VCI documentation, but I’m assuming that the message to trigger the LED for each button is the same as the button’s output. If so, then this is how I would guess it needs to be mapped…
Select MIDI page 1 - Global - Toggle - Note F-7 (ch1)
Select MIDI page 1 - Global - Output - Note F-7 (ch1)
Select MIDI page 2 - Global - Toggle - Note F#-7 (ch1)
Select MIDI page 2 - Global - Output - Note F#-7 (ch1)
Select MIDI page 3 - Global - Toggle - Note G-7 (ch1)
Select MIDI page 3 - Global - Output - Note G-7 (ch1)
Select MIDI page 4 - Global - Toggle - Note G#-7 (ch1)
Select MIDI page 4 - Global - Output - Note G#-7 (ch1)
This is assuming default mapping of the VCI (can you change it’s output?). I’m not sure of what the LEDs in the VCI want to hear to activate, but I’ll assume a 0 and 127 message. Some of your output messages are set to 0 and 0.
EDIT - I’m assuming that those extraneous output messages are clearing out old data. Try getting rid of all the feedback and JUST have the button mappings. Does that fix it?
Yeah, I’ve tried taking them off and it still does the feedback loop. I ran MIDI-OX with just the toggle and no output. The Outputs were supposed to turn on the LEDs for the toggled MIDI page, and I had it set up at one point to also turn off all other lights when it’s chosen, regardless of which page I was coming from.
Another idea would be to test to see if you encounter the same loop if you use keyboard mapping instead of MIDI data. Try it and see. If it works, you can use a program like MIDI Translator to turn the MIDI output of those 4 buttons into keystroke data.
Might be a workaround.
Yeah, the keys worked. I set it to my f, g, h, j, keys and it worked perfectly. Had to set it to toggle in the tks, but once I did that it was fine.
so now onto keystroke data, right?
Grab that software and convert the F7, F#7, G7, and G#7 MIDI notes to keystrokes. Make sure they’re keys that arent going to get in your way (maybe Insert, Home, Page Up, and Page Down - you get the idea). See if that works.
would that be able to output LED messages too? If so then I’m set.
I would try just the page changing first, then add basic LED output messages for each page using the normal mapping in Traktor (like you had it), then build your tks further to add the messages you had to clear old data last.
If you run into a problem in that process, hook the VCI to the computer (but without running Traktor) and monitor the data you get from it using MIDIHack when pressing those buttons and see if it corresponds to the data you EXPECT to see. Might be a firmware bug or odd glitch. I wish I had one at my disposal so I could test this more thoroughly, but alas I don’t.
Please let us all know if this solution works for you. MIDI Translator is an amazing program, and you can do alot of neat stuff with it (especially with the conditional statements in the Pro version). You might find many other uses for it as well.
Yeah, that’s what I figure I’ll do, just step by step and see if/where the problems arise.
If this works this’ll be the first place I go with it. And maybe I’ll actually dig into MIDI translator and see what I can get out of it
thanks a lot for the help, man, really.
Alright, so here’s an update.
I downloaded Bome’s translator. I programmed it in so the down command of the black buttons = different mIDI pages.
No feedback on page four.
BUT
I lose the crossfader, and only the crossfader control, even though MIDI-OX is reading it as active. And the jog wheel for what should be deck B is controlling deck A. Also, oddly, I lose the toggle control for Key, Cue, etc… it’s weird.
This has to be a bug. Very strange. I’ll send it to the beta group for further testing.