Numark DJ2Go controller map

[beatfix]

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the boards - want to say that I am a big fan of Mixxx, and open-source software in general. The 1.10 update is really an excellent step forward, and after playing with many different DJ programs, I'm now trying to center my digital DJ efforts around Mixxx.

To that end I've worked up a controller mapping for the Numark DJ2Go, based off the Mixtrack mapping. It's quick and dirty, but works for me. I noticed that joachim has also done a very nice mapping for the DJ2Go - mine incorporates some slightly different functions geared toward my style (no scratching, long blends).

Most of the controls work as expected, except:
Browse "Back" button -> Deck A 4-bar loop on/off
Browse "Enter" button -> Deck B 4-bar loop on/off
Pitch Bend down (both decks) -> Low kill on/off
Pitch Bend up (both decks) -> Flange FX on/off

I also reduced the sensitivity of the jogwheels a bit - feels smoother to me now.

Hope this is of use to some folks out there - I have gotten so much from the open software community, it is a pleasure to share back in any small way possible...

cheers,
j e f f

[merb]

How did you reduce the sensitivity of the jog wheels? I'm trying to do that with the Numark Mixtrack Pro mapping.

[likkyla]

You have to edit the JavaScript (numarkmixtrack.js).

I recently did a mapping for the DJ2Go that is on the main dj2go entry in this forum. I kept my mapping pretty sensitive for scratch-like jogging. I could see how some people would prefer to keep it slow for slight nudges, pushes, pulls, etc. for technical sync-ups and such.

If you open up / edit the JavaScript (go to 'numarkmixtrack.jogwheel' you have to edit the values in that JavaScript).

-Mostly- adjust the posNeg, adjustedjog and var gammainputrange. There are some other variables to adjust but that should get you going in the right track with those three. It's a lot of trial and error in terms of what you are trying to accomplish. I'm not going to put on any specific values because the REAL mixxx developers don't care for n00bs (such as myself) to confuse people and cause wide-spread confusion. Feel free to drop me a PM if you want me to try to help you out with the specifics. Pegasus is also the man when it comes to helping people out... especially with controller issues.

Lastly, I do want to say I'm no expert at this stuff but I did edited the hell out of a dj2go mapping and I'm proud of what I was able to accomplish however I think there will be a number of people such as yourself that will need help with lowering the values to get a smoother feel to their mapping. All I can say is open source is for sure a great thing.

[z3r0]

I have not tryed your mapping but did you adjust it for a more vinal feel if not I can help that is what I have been doing recently so that it feels more like scratching and not reversing if you need help for that stuff just reply (note I dislike spellcheck )

[rryan]

Thanks John!

I added an <info> section to the mapping and committed it to the trunk so it will be included in Mixxx 1.11.

Thanks,
RJ

[OneMixDJ]

Hi Guys,

Although I plan to use this on a Linux box, I have a test Win7 machine that I now have Mixxx installed.

I have a DJ2GO controller that I will bring in to help where needed.

I want to try out the new script provided, but I'm not sure what directory it's supposed to go to.

Any ideas would be great. Thanks!

[likkyla]

onemix,

I can't tell you for sure for the linux box... but for the win machine I can give you a rough idea... for me its:

'\users\appdata\local\mixxx\midi'

but it might also be in '\Program Files\Mixxx\midi'

Eitherway, on your PC if you just search midi on your file search, you can find it. If you do a file search for 'midi' on your computer and the results show controller names followed by '.midi' or '.midi.xml' (depending on if you hide or show file extensions on your computer, if you right click and go to 'open file location' that will be were to put the .midi.xml and the .js files.

For linux, I'm not sure... but according to the mixxx wiki it should be '/usr/share/mixxx/midi' or '/usr/local/share/mixxx/midi'

while you are testing maps and such, for sure please test out mine which can be found at this thread: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=2732&start=110

I haven't received any sort of feedback on it, but I think it's pretty clean. I do think I need to slow down the jogwheel a bit... but I made it sort of for scratching in mind, I suppose.

Hope some of that helps.

Cheers.

[beatfix]

After taking a break, I've dug back into controller mapping for Mixxx - and the result is a substantial reworking of my DJ2Go map, complete with a new name. As always, this is largely based on the code of others, but I've customized and changed things a lot more this time around. It's now much closer to the functionality that suits my style - to the point where I feel like I can now throw down a half-decent set with this tiny controller.

Let me start by saying that I probably spent way more time on this mapping than I should have, for what is essentially a really neat, but functionally limited, DJ toy. But I can't resist the portability - I pair it with a MacBook Air for a stupidly lightweight DJ setup. So I've become enamored of trying to squeeze as much as possible out of this tiny little device.

The core of this mapping comes from using the "Back" and "Enter" buttons as wide-ranging shift keys. My goal was to make the base behavior completely vanilla (with one exception), and then add fun stuff (kills, loops, fx) when a shift key is held down. You can think broadly of Back as "EQ mode" and Enter as "Loop Mode":

** SHIFT FUNCTIONS **
Pitch Bend Up
Back+ : High Kill
Enter+ : Loop Double

Pitch Bend Down
Back+ : Low Kill
Enter+ : Loop Halve

Sync
Back+ : Mid kill
Enter+ : 4-Bar Rolling Loop on/off

Headphone select
Back+ : Flanger on/off
Enter+ : Quantize

Browse knob
Back+ : Flanger depth

Cue
Back+ : jump to beginning of track

** MORE TWEAKS **
- Each jog wheel jogs pitch while a track is playing in its deck. If the track is paused, it works as a scratch wheel (for cueing new tracks).

- The pitch bend buttons bend the pitch while a track is playing. When it's paused, they nudge the playhead (also for cueing).

- The one exception to the "vanilla" base controls - for the headphone knob, I prioritized headphone mix over headphone volume. So the knob works as headphone mix by default, and headphone volume when shifted.

** WEIRD STUFF **
Along the way I noticed a few odd things that could be bugs, or could be things I just haven't figured out yet:

- Soft takeover doesn't appear to work when multiple functions are mapped to the same knob or slider via javascript. For this reason the master volume, channel volume, crossfader, and pitch rate are all single-function controls, since hard takeover on any of these would be disastrous during a gig.

- When mapping them via javascript, the volume knobs have a tricky gain curve.

- I couldn't get lfoPeriod or lfoDelay to map to the track select knob, despite the fact that lfoDepth works fine using the exact same code.

There's room for a few more shift functions, but I didn't want to stuff things in just for the sake of it. As I get more comfortable I may add more. I'm also working on an even more advanced version that can control all 4 sampler decks (though I hardly use them currently). When Mixxx gets a master pitch control I'll probably want the sampler decks more. And now off to bed - let me know if I left any bugs in by accident!

cheers,
j e f f

[Alimantado]

Hi Jeff

Nice mapping!

Regarding lfoPeriod and lfoDelay, the three effects have hugely different ranges: lfoDelay goes between 50 and 10000, lfoPeriod between 50000 and 2000000, and lfoDepth 0 to 1. At the moment, you're getting the track select knob to change lfoDelay by increments of 3, which is a 0.03% change, requiring you to turn it for about a year.

Interesting about soft takeover not working. I've got four functions mapped to deck volume--lfoPeriod, lfoDelay, lfoPeriod and deck volume--and yet the soft takeover works fine. Also, I've not encountered anything odd about the 0-127 (volume etc) knobs when scripting them.

You've packed in a lot of features! I've done a DJ2Go one recently that also uses a 'shift key' method to give buttons and knobs alternate functions. I did it by using the sync button to toggle between a 'normal mode' and a 'scratch mode', so it's more of a caps lock method than a shift.

I've attached my mapping for comparison. They are similar overall but we've each added some different extra features. Mine doesn't do headMix and it doesn't do high kill, just mid and low. Mine also doesn't have any loop functions or quantize. On the other hand, mine can do a spin back, a slow stop (like turning a vinyl deck off without pressing stop), and a semi-slow stop (like pressing stop on a vinyl deck). Good for those that like hard cutting! For the full 'spec' for mine, see here.

We both have a pitchbend mode for the jog wheels, but I notice yours isn't ramping. I think the MixTrack code you've used is supposed to do ramping, but it doesn't work with DJ2Go. The standard temp_rate_up/temp_rate_down functions also don't ramp when they are assigned to the jog wheels, even though they ramp ok when assigned to the pitchbend buttons. Odd! I ended up having to write a new bit of code to get ramping pitchbend to work for the jog wheels--feel free to use it.

Cool to see different approaches!

Cheers

Carl

[rryan]

Hi folks,

Thanks for the continued work on the DJ2Go support. Since none of the dev-team has the controller we rely on you to make the call about which is the best general-purpose DJ2Go mapping to include in Mixxx.

Coval_pl has made some mods to the preset to include some Mixxx 1.11.x features. Could you please work with him to decide which preset should be included in 1.11? In general I would like to include the 1.11 features if possible but it's important that the preset closely follow the markings on the actual controller so that users who haven't read your manual / forum posts won't be confused when they press a button marked "hotcue" and it does something totally different.

Thanks!
RJ