Confused VCI-100 user

Ok i have bought Bomes Midi Pro Edition and installed midi yoke...

and now in totally confused...

I did figure out how to configure it all correctly, with setting them all up to communicate with one another...

but..

I cant seem to wrap my (small) brain around the concept...

After hours of trying this is what I came up with....

I think the Bome program will allow me to go through the VCI-100 buttons, Jogs and faders and map them through a midi yoke channel (like, midi yoke 1).....then once I do that, I can use the Traktor Midi Learn Key assignment to make more specific commands to those buttons, jogs and faders to work the commands of Traktor.

Im assuming the idea is to get multable (or different) values for lets say...a Jog Wheel for instance....

Im really confused about the TKS file and how that plays into the formula.....Im thinking that once the button jogs and faders are mapped thru MT than they can be used within the accaull Traktor midi learn???? Is this correct???


I just wanted to know if im on the right track with the general idea, before I move on....

Can anyone point me in the right direction to help me specifically use Bome Midi Translator, Traktor 3.3, VCI-100 and Windows XP ?

Website blogs....or even a forum responce?

Im not looking for anyone to hold my hand here......just need to be pointed in the right direction....

Hi,

it sounds as if you're on the right track.

Using multiple setups from one controller and being able to quickly change the setup (e.g. by way of different presets in MT) is one of the many uses for MT. So it's possible to use the jog wheel for one function in Ableton, and then to use it for a different function with a different preset in MT.

Another use of MT is to map MIDI messages (e.g. from buttons, keys, rotary encoders, etc.) to simulated keystrokes. With those keystrokes, you can control functions in Ableton (or other applications) that aren't available by way of MIDI. For example, most programs will open a file with Ctrl-O. Now mapping a MIDI message to Ctrl-O will let you open a file by way of your MIDI device.

If you use Traktor's MIDI Learn function, you don't need the TKS file that ships with Midi Translator. But you may have a look at it to see how the setup was made for users of the BCD2000. The same applies to "BCD2000 (V1.1.1.0) and TRAKTOR 3.bmtp" that you can load into MT and see how the translators are defined for the BCD2000. Taking that as a start, you can map the Incoming MIDI messages and replace them with the corresponding messages of your VCI device.

Let us know your progress!
Regards,
Florian

Use the Direct Input type for multiselect controllers and set the control type to Analog Fader / Knob in Traktor. When in this mode the control has a range of values from 1 to 127 (7bits for those that care about such details). Next you count the number of options you have for your multi-select. In the case of FX selection it is 10 including THRU let call this N. The number of selectable options is actually (N-1) Now divide the control range of 127 by (N-1) and you get 14.111111. We need just the integer portion of that. NI thoughtfully provided a min and max zone top and bottom on the control range 0-8 & 120-127 to ensure that the first and last items in the list have a small control range to work in. The value seems to be fixed at 7 or 8 so starting at th bottom the change from Thru to LP occurs at 8. The next change occurs at 22, the next at 36, 50, 64, 78, 92, 108, 120.


To make the BCR 2000 buttons select an individual FX, setup 9 buttons to produce the same Parameter (Say CC1 Ch16), set the Value 1 to be the item index value you just worked out (7, 22, 36 etc), Val 2 is 0 or the same value as Val 1. Setting it 0 will make Thru always alternately selectable for the button. Set the Mode to Toggle= on to do all this. if you don't the FX will only be selected when the button is pressed.

Note the word "buttons" used three times in the paragraph. It does not describe applying that to a "knob", I dunno how you got there, but what you want to do is not possible... today. I described how to do this as an alternative to using a knob for control. Using Bomes Midi Translator and some logic you could get what you want. Its been a while and will be rather complicated to describe.

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I was givin this advice from someone over at Traktor to help me with the problem of the Effects panel in Traktor 3.3.

Apparently I can set a default button (to a slider on the VCI) within Traktor to help me togggle between 2 (out of the Effects, so I dont have to keep hitting the Effects next button.

Can you explain in detail how to do this.

Im confused about a million things.....like the differences between incoming/outgoing, why when I use the "capture midi" feature in Bome, do I get mutable numbers, and where in the Bome program can I set this box that allows me to make changes from 1-127?

Hi,

OK now I start to understand what you want to do. It's worthwhile reading through some posts here on the forum to get some of the basics, e.g. http://www.bome.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2041

MT handles MIDI messages in hexadecimal (hex) form. So instead of 0.127 you get 00..7F. Clicking the Help button in the Edit Translator windows in MT will give you a hex<->decimal converter. The rules editor in MT will display all numbers in decimal.

If you want to understand the following, I also recommend to get to know the basic concepts of MIDI messages. There are numerous sites on the Internet for that.

Since I got neither Traktor nor the VCI-100, I will assume a lot of things which you should double-check and/or adapt.

I assume you want to set up one slider on the VCI to toggle from one effect to another effect in Traktor: for this example, I set it up as follows: when the slider is in the left/bottom position, effect 3 is selected. When it's at the right/top position, effect 7 is selected.

1) Pre-requisite
in MT:
- select VCI-100 as MIDI IN
- select Yoke 1 as MIDI OUT
- check Options|Midi Thru

in Traktor:
- select Yoke 1 as MIDI Input

2) Set up Incoming Trigger
Add a translator in MT and edit it. The Edit Translator window pops up. Go to the Incoming page and choose MIDI as incoming type. Check "Capture" and move the slider to the left/bottom position. I assume the VCI sends continuous controller data, so you should see e.g.
BF 03 pp

"B" means controller, F is the MIDI channel (hex F = 15 decimal, -> MIDI channel 16), 03 is the controller number (00..7F hex), and pp is the slider value: when moving, the variable pp is set to the current value.

This Translator will always be executed if this message with arbitrary value is sent from the VCI.

3) Set up Outgoing
We use the following message to switch to the selected effect:
BF qq 0
qq is a variable that will need to be set to the value that the guy at the Traktor forum talks about, i.e. 22 for effect 2, and 108 for effect 7 (I assume).
The Rules will take care of that:

4) Set up Rules
Here we need to look at pp (which is the slider position) and send an event if it reached the extreme positions.

Enter these rules:
qq=-1
IF pp=0 THEN qq=22
IF pp=127 THEN qq=108
IF qq=-1 THEN EXIT RULES, DO NOT EXECUTE ACTION

5) Use Traktor's Learn function
Now go to Traktor and use Learn as explained by the Traktor forum guy.

6) Test it
You may check out what MT is doing by inspecting the Options|Log.

Now this is an initial setup that you can test. It may expose a couple of problems, e.g. if your slider is not going entirely from 00 to 7F, or how Traktor switches the effects, e.g. will it suspend effect 2 when switching to effect 7? etc.

Let us know how/if it works.

Regards,
Florian

.....of course this does nothing except cycle through the effects in the same (F-ed up) way it does in just using Traktor's Midi learn and the VCI by itself.......

and I think I am slightly cross eyed at the moment from staring at my computer screen for 5 days now trying to understand in the :SLIGHTEST DEGREE" how on earth anything makes sence using the Translator...

im done....

florian I cant take this, I sould have evaluated this program before jumping to buy it....please can you respond to my email and hopfully we can reach an agreement...