Using an EFX1000 as a MIDI controller with Traktor

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-- Using an EFX1000 as a MIDI controller with Traktor

Posted by Stu Cox on Aug-21-2010 12:58:

Using an EFX1000 as a MIDI controller with Traktor

Thought I'd give this a go today.

My 2D's great for transport (play/pause/cueing/looping/pitch control), but with 4 decks' worth I then run out of buttons for anything else - like effects.

So yeah I could just use the FX on my EFX1000... but I know there are a few gems in the Traktor FX banks, so knowing that the EFX1000 can output MIDI signals I thought it made sense for the EFX to be my effects controller - either using its own FX, or flick a switch and use it to control the FX in Traktor.

If you're thinking of doing this, my one bit of advice is: DON'T haha, the EFX's MIDI layout is strange to say the least. It's all documented in the manual, but can still take a bit of effort to get your head around.

Well, setting the rotary knobs up is easy enough, but I wanted to use the effect select buttons (orange ones saying DELAY, ECHO, etc) to select FX in Traktor. But they generate Program Change signals, which Traktor doesn't support...!

Also, Traktor shares controls between various parameters so some buttons can have undesirable effects.

But it turns out it is possible with a MIDI Translator (I used Bome's MIDI Translator) and a Virtual MIDI Port (I used Sony Virtual MIDI Router) - plus of course a MIDI-capable soundcard (I used my Xone:2D) and hopefully some basic knowledge about how MIDI commands work.

Basically the solution I came up with is creating the following chain:

EFX1000 -> soundcard MIDI port -> MIDI translator -> Virtual MIDI Port -> Traktor

The MIDI translator allows us to remap any MIDI signal to any other MIDI signal we want to get around this strangeness and then the Virtual MIDI Port allows us to connect the output of the MIDI Translator to Traktor as if it was any other MIDI input.

Then it's just a matter of writing the necessary translations to make the buttons on the EFX send appropriate signals which you can then configure Traktor to understand and do things with... which is no mean feat in itself! But I'm not going to go into the details of the issues you might hit there - just bear in mind that most things you might want to do are possible, it's just about working out what signal is being sent by the EFX1000 and what kind of signal Traktor would like to receive to control what you want.

I've now got it in a fairly controllable state, with the yellow beat effect select buttons picking my favourite 7 effects, the DEPTH/CHARACTER/MIX knobs on the beat effects side controlling the knobs for that effect and the MIX knob on the jog effects side controlling the wet/dry mix. Nice!

Hopefully this helps anyone else who's looked at it to make a start - if anyone's really interested I could try and put together a full tutorial.

And if anyone knows an easier way round this, please let me know!

I also learnt in the process that you can have multiple MIDI maps in Traktor for a given controller, which means you can partition controls to make it more manageable - e.g. have separate maps for each deck's controls and another one for FX, or however you want to separate it. Each map has it's own set of modifiers too, so that gives you loads more flexibility and you can duplicate them and save them separately. Can't believe I missed this before!

Posted by Ted Promo on Aug-21-2010 13:46:

I'm just interested in the write-up/video, honestly, haha.

Posted by n3lly on Aug-23-2010 00:21:

Nice use of the EFX..
how do you switch over from using the efx's effects to using it as a midi controller? Is it just a case of switching a switch? OR would you have to unplug/disable in traktor first?

Posted by Teezdalien on Aug-23-2010 00:51:

I doubt you would be able to just switch its functionality from FX unit to midi controller, maybe but I think would only be one or the other in one instance. I remember I had to go through a similar midi set-up process just to get the jog-wheels on my BCD2000 to run properly with traktor 3.

Posted by Stu Cox on Aug-23-2010 06:43:

quote:
Originally posted by n3lly
Nice use of the EFX..
how do you switch over from using the efx's effects to using it as a midi controller? Is it just a case of switching a switch? OR would you have to unplug/disable in traktor first?

There's a switch at the top which turns on either MIDI transmit or receive - obviously in this case I was using transmit. The EFX still processes signals normally when MIDI's turned on though, so all the movements you make to send MIDI signals will also apply the normal effects to any sound coming in.

Obviously you don't want this, so it's down to a bit of mixer control to select what you want. I use an external mixer with all 4 decks feeding in on separate channels, which makes life a bit easier:

If I want to use Traktor's effects, I assign the deck I want to affect to the right FX bank (at the moment I've just got the EFX set up to control FX4) and make sure my FX send loop on my mixer is disabled
If I want to use the EFX's effects, I make sure none of the decks are assigned to FX4 and then select that deck for the FX send loop on my mixer.

So it basically just takes pressing 2 buttons to switch between. I just leave the MIDI transmit on the whole time. There's a 'bypass' button on the EFX as well which is a quick way of turning off the audio path, leaving the MIDI (and hence the Traktor FX) running.

I also have to make sure that the parameters on the EFX won't make a horrible noise when the other effects kick in... e.g. if I'd been using an effect in Traktor which I'd assigned to the Echo button on the EFX, if after ragging that effect I just turned on the FX send loop I could end up with a load of ear-splitting echo being thrown straight on the track. Turning the dry/wet mix down in between and quickly reassessing the parameters is the way to avoid this

I even could potentially chain the FX in Traktor with an effect on the EFX... although not how I've got it set up at the moment.

Posted by n3lly on Aug-23-2010 11:15:

Thanks for clearing that up, that's pretty handy.

As you said it seems a little complex and not sure it's totally worth the hassle. But it's cool to know you can.

Posted by Stu Cox on Aug-23-2010 18:50:

quote:
Originally posted by n3lly
As you said it seems a little complex and not sure it's totally worth the hassle.

Yeah probably not, although it means I can have my EFX effects and Traktor FX with me with only one box to add on...

I've been considering getting a FaderFox to do Traktor FX though and that'd be much smaller haha

Posted by chewy dragee on Aug-24-2010 15:59:

Posted by n3lly on Aug-24-2010 18:35:

quote:
Originally posted by Stu Cox
Yeah probably not, although it means I can have my EFX effects and Traktor FX with me with only one box to add on...

I've been considering getting a FaderFox to do Traktor FX though and that'd be much smaller haha

I've considered selling mine recently (DX2). But, i think the X1 is a little on the large side.

I love how small the DX2 is. and the fact that it uses batteries. Which last AGES!

Posted by djdk on Sep-05-2010 16:15:

quote:
Originally posted by chewy dragee
Kontrol X1

It changed my life.

this, although i have a feeling that using something thats desgined so perfectly to work with traktor is too simple for stu, he does like to overcomplicate things