Novation Nocturn Any Good?

DJ Gear & Hardware Hardware: Controllers, Mods and Gear
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Novation Nocturn Any Good?

Ok so my mapping for the Numark Stealth Control only can control two effects and doesnt have buttons to turn those on any decks so I have to leave the effect on, but turn all 3 of the parameters off- which is kind of a pain in some mixes. So I went looking for a cheap knob controller with a few buttons. I saw the Novation Nocturn, and it was perfect for me. I know that it has endless rotary, however. So that will be challenging to use for effects parameters, but I will make it work. So has anyone ever gotten one of these and found something they really like/dislike. Please post it.

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I’m not a fan of the layout. It just doesn’t lend itself to any particular mappings the way I think about things. (I like to have obvious correlation between controller and mixer/software layouts when possible…it’s a personal problem)

Have you thought about an Akai LPD8? I have one and like it for the price I got it for (was like $35 on sale at guitar center, but I’d pay the $50 or whatever it costs normally…not more than about $65 though).

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korg nanokontrol??? look good and thinking of getting one myself

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Korg nanokontorl: LASTS 1-2 months

Novation Nocturn: MUCH MUCH MUCH LONGER

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?do you eh even know the mapping? i dont eh think i posted it..

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remap your stealth for starters. It has all sorts of knobs and buttons just get a bit creative.

If not, I’d say lpd8 for size and build quality.

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The nocturn isn’t to terrible. Automap takes a while to learn/get used to, and apparently traktor doesn’t support the encoders. Other than that it’s a pretty good controller with lots of mapping options. Pretty perfect for effects if i may say so myself

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i remapped when it came in the mail maybe bout 2 weeks ago… its not the mapping i posted ya know..

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I didn’t even know you did post a mapping. You said…

And I’m saying you can control much more than that with a little remapping and maybe a modifier or 2. I spent weeks on end mapping my omni control (this was before I got the VCI), used it as a way of teaching myself traktor midi, and I’ve found that extremely beneficial in the long run.

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oh yeah i know… at first i had an amzing mapping for it… but eh… lets just a say i forgot 1 or 2 of the most important things in it… So i had to redo it.. and eh well i love the mapping now - but i would like to have full effect control.. which as said before is perferct for the nocturn

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I own (and use often) a nocturn, bought it second hand, for 50 eur.
if you find one second hand around that price, it is a good option. But keep in mind that it wasn’t build to withstand the abuses of a dj ( and here is where you have to know yourself, if you take good care of your equipment or not, if you are heavy handed, etc…).
The nocturn is good once you get how automap works (specifically in midi mode), and will benefit you a lot if you also produce.
But like FEP said, the akai lpd8 is the best contender for that price point. I never used one myself, but i have other akai products, and the build quality is on the tough side, not like the korg nanokontrol whose build quality really lacks.
If you find some taller knobs to put on it, it will serve its purpose very well and for quit some time i imagine.

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I don’t know what you’re thinking. But that’s not relevant to what I meant. That layout doesn’t lend itself to an obvious mapping as i see it. I mentioned that it’s a personal preference (some call it a problem) that my controllers vaguely look like either a physical device or the software they’re controlling. As an example, the VCM-600 is the only controller I could see using for DJing with Ableton because it looks like a mixer with some clip controls.

That’s very different from the outlooks of a lot of people on DJTT, and I realize that. I just wanted to point out that you should think carefully about how you want to map it before you shoehorn it into your idea of what a controller is.

If you’re the type of person who can map it and just know what the knobs do, cool. Novation stuff generally isn’t crap.

I didn’t realize it worked with automap…that’s kinda cool. I still don’t think it’s particularly useful to me but I’m curious…how well does automap work if the knobs/buttons don’t have scribble strips? How does it tell you what it’s auto-mapping to, or was that what you meant…that you just have to try it and get used to what it maps to?

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when you use the nocturn’s automap in midi mode the possibilities are endless, basically each of the 4 banks (user, fx, inst, mixer ) can use (actually you are forced to use ) a different midi channel.
Once in that mode you can either create an automatic assignment ( and it will assign the knobs and buttons to all the different message a midi channel can have, so 127 cc’s plus all the notes, plus one pitchbend).

Or you can do it manually, you have several option for the the pots (normal, reverse, encoder, and you can set a min/max of the values it will send so you can have one with say : -64min / 63max, and it will put the knob in center = 0, like knobs on dj hardware).
And for the buttons, its cc’s or notes, with normal mode, toggle, and temporary, you can define the number of follow values in the automap too, so as to for example have a button or knob send 0-127 in only 10 steps, instead of 127 ( this allows to have much finer adjustements on knobs for example if you use 200 steps instead of 127).

Then you also have pages for each user banks, the pages can reach a high number if you use the “make automatic midi mapping”, because it will map all controls from a midi channel.

And for the leg rings, they are controlled by the automap, so if you change the page in the bank, or you go to another user bank, the led position is saved by the automap and directly recalled when you go back to it (no distinguishable latency).
The rings and buttons can receive traktor midi output led messages but if you want to display the phase, or volume, or something like that, you cannot use the knob to control anything due to conflicts (automap thinks that the incoming led messages are user generated, so, conflicts).
But because jumping between pages, and banks is very easy, you can dedicate one for all incoming led messages.

To wrap up, hiding and showing the automap window is also super fast/easy (dedicated button), and you can name the knobs and buttons when you set them up, so if in doubt of wich page your are in, or what button does what, pull up the automap screen, check that you are good to go and hide it.

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Ah, sorry i missed a point in your post mostapha.

The automaping automap (humm…), only really works for plugins (vst’s, au’s, etc…), and does so by “wrapping” the plugin wich creates a new plugin called : nameoftheplug(automap) in your your daw. And it works by using the parameters that are available for the daw to automate (so its not midi) and thus is more precise than midi for this usage in daws.
But it can also be used in what novation calls automap midi, wich does what i described above.
And both automap midi and wrapped plugins can coexist in the banks, wich adds another step when you want to select something with the banks buttons. You select for example the fx bank, and a number of knobs correspondent to the number of fx plugins plus midi pages will lit up, you then touch the knob you want ( the show/hide automap comes in handy), and it takes you to the page/plugin page you selected.

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K. So you bring up a window to see the equivalent of scribble strips.

I know it’s a lot cheaper than anything that has them, but it seems a lot less…umm…neat. (meaning “tidy,” not “cool”)

It’s still a cool idea. I just don’t see it working out for me, but the OP will probably value that information. I do if only because it confirms what I saw as shortcomings of the device that I don’t want to live with. Glad you seem to like it, though.
Cheers.

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Hi oneapemob!! and thanks a lot for your excellent explanation!

I’ve just bought a nocturn, but I can’t set the knobs in the center because when I set -64, automatically automap leaves a 0 instead. I’m using automap 3.7.4. Do you know how to solve this issue?

Thanks!

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thats slightly subjective :stuck_out_tongue: (and yes i realised i’m replying to an old post) i’ve had mine at least 6 months and zero issues with it.

if they changed the layout of the nocturn a bit i’d probably get one but don’t really like the way it is atm. i think the pots and pads of the lpd8 are more suited to traktor anyway.

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For Truku :
You need to “unlock max and min editing” → open automap then in the setting its one of the options.

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i’ve got one for sale in the buy/sell forum if anyone is interested :slight_smile:

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nice!

Thx man!!!