Right now I’m sort’ve rearranging all of my controls and such. I’m using the Spin as the mixer, set it up so that if I hit the “Automix” button on it, it triggers a modifier that changes it from decks A/B to C/D, so I can control volume/eq/filter for all 4 decks. Also turned the “Mic Pitch” and “Mic On/Off” buttons into the “Drama/Sweep Buildup” from ArmyofMe’s Youtube video and have another modifier that allows the jogwheels to control 2 effects.
I’ve made a bastardized Midi Fighter mapping that is in 4 pages mode where 1 page is basically Deckalized with a button combo to change the Deck Focus and another page is Instant Gratification, but set to the active deck instead of a specific one. I’m planning on mapping another page to the sample decks when TP2 arrives in a couple weeks. The 4th page I’m sort’ve at a loss about right now. Maybe looping, maybe trying to do some Traktor/Ableton voodoo and have it control iZotope Stutter Edit? Not sure yet.
Before I had the MidiFighter, the iPad did all of my cue point work. TouchOSC is so genius because you can make whatever layouts you want, in several different pages, so I had it doing a couple things. I actually made a page that emulated the MidiFighter completely and used that before I had a real one.
Now, I’m thinking I’ll have the iPad control my looping, as that’s not something I feel needs to be tactical for me. I’ll also have the cue points still available, more for getting around songs quickly than trying to juggle with them.
I’m also going to dedicate a page of TouchOSC solely to the “wobble bass” technique. I’m going to make a couple buttons to set up the right effects and deck focus and set the proper loop, then a couple x-y pads to control the sound.
There’s also a page I’ve got that basically is the top row minus effects. It controls volume, monitor level, mix, tick, quantize, record, tempo, etc. I had a page previously that did all of the effects controls, every single fader/toggle, etc, but I found that I just didn’t use it. I’m not there in my skill level yet where I can in the moment think of a complex effect and just go there. Instead, I’m relying more on programming effects ahead of time for very specific things and using those. The beauty of the iPad with TouchOSC is that it’s virtually limitless, so I can go all out with that and not have to worry about “using up” knobs and faders.
Basically for now, I think I’m good with the setup I’ve got. I’ve got all the gear I need to do good work, I just need to work on my chops now. Down the road, I’ll probably take a closer look at the S4 or something, but for now it’s a good enough setup for me.
