Novation Nocturn Questions
Hi everyone,
I’m thinking about getting a Novation Nocturn to control FX in traktor. I just wanted to know if the “speed dial” encoder and the green buttons on the bottom row send midi data? or are they just for bank changes and stuff?
thanks for any answers
Why the nocturn? it is extremely overpriced imo, an LPD8 can do pretty much the same. you could buy two lpd8s for the price of 1 nocturn.. 
The LPD 8 doesn’t do LED feedback as far as I know. The nocturn has encoders, which would be more useful than knobs, and they are lit so they are easier to see in the dark. Also I don’t need the pads..
Considered the BCR2000 then? way more bang for the buck.
too large, I need something small to use alongside other gear…and i’d rather invest in a higher quality product i guess
be warned the nocturn NEEDS automap software in order to work at all, there are NO onboard midi messages, it will not appear in your audio midi preferences, I got rid of my nocturn for these very reasons.
Daft Punk uses two, to each their own though. 
And no the buttons on the bottom of the Nocturn cannot be remapped they have fixed functions in automap. If there is a hack for this I have no idea.
I believe all the green lighted stuff is automap stuff.
I used a nocturn for controlling fx in traktor alongside my vci300 and it worked brilliantly mate.
The four encoders and buttons each side match the fx section perfectly and you can save loads of different presets / scenes that you can easily move between using those bottom buttons.
So you can have fx1 & fx2 set up, then press a button at the bottom and it changes to fx3 & fx4 instantly.
Then press again and it changes back, or changes to a custom fx - like ean’s drum roll etc.
thanks for the replies guys
do you have to start up automap every time you use the nocturn? I’ve never used novation products before and I don’t really know what automap is…
Yeah you start it every time you want to use it.
It just runs minimised to the tray though - does not get in the way.
Its just novation’s interface to convert their hardware signals to midi.
I have a love hate relationship with my Nocturn. I love the cross fader in the middle, led feed back on all the pots is great, but the resolution it sends is very very low for the price, the software is great for DAW’s but annoying for Traktor. If your quicked fingered with your button triggering it’s very easy to accidently hit the green lights under the midi buttons. To be fair you should never expect quality for it’s price range but the Nocturn does feel very cheap in use.
That said there’s a part of me that still likes it, but the poor resolution and cheap feel really lets it down.
Can anybody suggest a better alternative in a similar price range and a small size?
Here is your list of rotary controllers you could use for FX off the top of my head.
BCR2000
LPD8
Nocturn
X-Session
X-Session Pro
Evolution UC-16
Evolution UC-33
Kenton Spin Doctor
Xone 1D, 2D, 3D
Kontrol 1
Kontrol X1
Novation Remote Zero SL, and SLMK2
Korg Nano
Most of those are too big or an overkill of controls and most importantly no LED feedback
I use a nocturn with traktor, and as someone has already said: I have a love hate relationship with it.
Firstly, It’s initially quite complicated to wrap your head around assigning it - Simply because I found very little concise information on the net that showed me how to. Once I had figured it out it became simple enough..
I use it primarily to trigger my effects - which works great.
Occasionally I use it as a standalone mixer/controller (at gigs where I need to set up super quick after a DJ etc..) - It’s fine for this purpose as well, although a little limiting simply due to the amount of knobs and buttons it has..
I’ve set up the “effects” on 1 page, and my “mixer” settings on another..
Things that disapointed me:
I couldn’t assign pages to the user/fx/inst/mixer buttons
when I start using it for my set, I need to turn every knob and press every button so that traktor recognises the value (I’ve been caught out a couple of times where I have adjusted a track volume using the nocturn, and suddenly the volume shoots down to zero - not a good look)
I busted one of the rotary knobs clean off.. Yeah it was my fault.. but makes me sad
Overall - is a great little cheap controller that has a fair amount of versatility. It’s kind of plasticky in build quailty, so it scratches up easily, and I don’t really expect it to last very long - but the price was good and it’s something that I use at every gig, every weekend - So it’s served me well..
I’m now looking at getting the Icon IDJ when it’s released next month. Similar price to the nocturn - similar size, and a heap more buttons / fader etc which will really let me use it as a standalone controller for those times that I need one