I’ve been hunting around this forum and the Internet looking for a mac-compatible programming API that can read and write tsi files. Sorry if I missed a previous thread, but can anyone here help me find one?
The reason I am looking is that I have an idea for a scripting language (using Ruby, for those who are interested) that would make complex mappings much easier in Tracktor - especially when using modifiers.
It’s very early days so haven’t really worked out the exact syntax yet, but I would like to be able to write commands something like this…
holding midi_note(47).sets_modifier(1).to(1)
given modifier(1).is_set_to(1) do
midi_note(48).toggles(:sync).on :deck_a
midi_note(49).toggles(:sync).on :deck_b
midi_note(50).increases(:master_tempo)
midi_note(51).decreases(:master_tempo)
end
… and run it through a converter that would generate a tsi file
(this is not a sensible example, of course, but hopefully you get the idea)
The advantage would be that you can make the modifier usage much more succinct and easy to change, as well as opening the door for interesting extensions like mapping families of features. For example, this might make it easy to flip between deck a and deck c when a modifier is set without having to mess around with 2 sets of nearly identical mappings in traktor.
given modifier(2).is_set_to(1) do
re_map(:deck_a).commands.to(:deck_c)
end
Although I’m an experienced programmer, I’m new to all MIDI and mapping files so all comments etc would be greatly appreciated.
After traktor 1.2.0 they’ve changed the mapping screen and closed the main source code of the TSI file. More info by the traktorbible writer (Rainer) here:
Now all we can do is wait for the next mapping screen upgrade
PS: I’m also a developer and I can’t stand to use all my logic thinking skill with that awful programming interface
Hey man. What a shame. I knew about the traktor bible stuff, but it’s Windows only so I can’t run it on my mac. I was hoping to make something cross-platform - albeit a bit lower level.
Never mind. Hopefully NI will lighten up and open the file format or provide a decent programming API we can use.
Does anybody know if there’s an e-mail address at Native Instruments that would be best to make our opinions on this known?
It irks me to death that they release tools to edit their own hardware’s functionality yet let the custom MIDI mapping interface for other people’s hardware go so terribly mis-managed. Maybe we should start a petition?
as a coder myself, I do like this idea.. however, you might find yourself frustrated in that you can perform complex actions in your development environment (ruby, java whatever..) but that the midi mapping engine in traktor is frankly, quite basic.
I’d love to see a script approach as per virtual DJ, implemented into traktor.
