Slightly disappointing news about Traktor Remix Decks
hey
was just looking at the official NI forums and they have launched the latest round of “On The Record”.
On the one hand I was slightly chuffed that the answered my question and while the feature I was looking for isnt there just now they’re planning to implement it.
However some very disappointing news about remix decks. Most of us have had visions of programming MIDI fighters, Machine controllers or APC 40’s to be able to trigger all of the 16 samples available to each deck. Or at least programming the two rows of buttons above the platter on a VCI-400 to be able to at least play 8 a side.
However this isn’t possible Much like high definition jog wheels, the controls for these use some special NI only programming that (either technically or by choice to sell more F1’s) isn’t available to the normal MIDI mapping system. If you have any controller that isn’t an F1, you only have access to the top row of samples, giving you pretty much the exact functionality you get with the 4 sample decks we have already.
While you can understand it from a business/marketing perspective, not great news for all of us who don’t really wanna invest in or carry about a whole extra pile of gear and like to try and do everything from a compact set up.
ass… i always figured that being able to map different coloured led feedback may or may not be possible for the remix decks via midi but naively assumed that we’d at least be able to trigger samples the same way as the F1.
we’ll still be able to scroll thru the different rows of samples or we will literally only have with remix decks what we have at the moment with sample slots?
guess i haven’t wasted my experimenting with ableton live the last few days then
don’t see how midi would be the limiting factor here - ofc it have meant a lot of controls to map for a midi device - but i think it’s clear that they just want to sell more F1’s
this actually makes me want an F1 less and think more seriously about just using ableton or VDJ or how good “the one” may be as i don’t want to get tied into any software+hardware combination.
When they anounced that Traktor 2.5 was going to be a free upgrade I knew they were going to lock down the Remix Decks somehow. Oh well, I’ll start putting my pennies away.
sounds that way… or at least can only be mapped to them the way u can atm for sample slots. i.e: one row at a time - so no need for more than one row of buttons.
Yeah I was the same, assumed the multi-coloured LED feedback would be out but that triggering all the samples would be fine.
Yeah they’ve said that there will be an ability to be able move down the slot. They mentioned clicking with the mouse (and they mentioned a button combination on an S4 not sure if that’ll translate to other controllers) and being able to move the “focus” of that particular sample deck from sample 1 to 2 within that column or whatever, which I suppose saves a little bit of loading. But only one of the samples being triggered or playing within any one sample slot so only 4 at a time on either side of the mixer, just exactly as we have now with the current sample slots.
it’s a far cry from being able to have different buttons mapped to each sample slot i guess and trigger them ableton-tyle. there again… if it’s possible to stack controls to “move sample slot X to row Y” and also “play sample slot X” then we’d still be able to get more functionality than with the current sample decks. in fact if we can do that then we’d basically be able to do what we expected?
Just going by their answers I would think not though. They mentioned the main way to do this was by clicking the mouse to select what sample you wanted, and while they did also mention some particuluar S4 controls, they spok about switching from Legacy Mode to Remix Mode depending on whether you were using 2.5 with sample decks or earlier versions without, so sounds to me like more custom programming that may not be available to midi.
However that may just have been my interpretation of their wording, others may take something different from it.
However even if it is and you can chain up button functions to move about the grid, your still limited to playing only 4 at a time, one for each sample slot, rather than 16.
not a good sign i’m too knackered right now but i’ll have to have a read on the NI forum tomorrow. i bet there’s a lot of posts about this…
[quote]however even if it is and you can chain up button functions to move about the grid, your still limited to playing only 4 at a time, one for each sample slot, rather than 16.
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i thought that was always going to be a limitation - one sample per slot at a time - the same way that ableton works basically. i think that seems sensible and means no extra work for the audio engine. i’d just like to be able to trigger a sample from any row in the slot - knowing that it’ll ofc disable any previous one playing in that slot.
hopefully “legacy” doesn’t mean “exactly the way it works pre 2.5”
only limitation would be due to them not wanting to provide the needed controls to be mapped i guess… not that midi won’t allow it. if we can map a button to change the current row for a sample slot and stack it with the play/unmute command or whatever then we should be ok tho… will have to see - not too long to wait now i guess. 30th may i think?
No. I think MIDI is more than capable of addressing 16 things, in fact I think it may even be able to address 128 different velocities per control per channel.
Much like high definition jog wheels, the controls for these use some special NI only programming that (either technically or by choice to sell more F1’s) isn’t available to the normal MIDI mapping system. If you have any controller that isn’t an F1, you only have access to the top row of samples, giving you pretty much the exact functionality you get with the 4 sample decks we have already. 