Here is the long awaited video explaining my Midi-Fighter mapping for Traktor pro. There is some seriously cool stuff in there, so even if you dont have a MF- check out the video and borrow the concepts. For the month of February we are running a special video contest in which the winner will get a brand new Midi-Fighter DIY kit. To enter just download the songs bellow and record your own personalized performance using the same songs, ANY controller and your personal style of djing. Add your video as a response to the tutorial above and whoever has the most You-Tube views at the end of February will win a free midi-fighter!

• Download the Traktor pro mapping used in the video
• Download- Boys 8 Bit- The Cricket Scores
• Download- Disco Villains “Renegade Master”

Step 1: Choose your weapons

The Midifighter comes with expansion slots for 4 analog and 4 digital controls. Possible analogue examples include potentiometers, faders and even a modern game-console joystick. Knobs that have a physical start and end point are called potentiometers or  ”pots” while endless knobs are called encoders. Digital controls examples include switches, rotary encoders or touch strips. For this mod, I choose to add four panel mounting pots for expression. The panel mounting style of pots mean that you can secure them to the top sheet which is easier for entry level modders.

The best part about making your own mod is that you can choose exactly what kind of components fit your personal style. At the end of this article we list various online locations where you can purchase components and the more adventurous may choose to take components from old appliances and boards.

Step 2: The MIDI silo

Now that you know what you want in your mod, its time to consider how to house it. A good enclosure will secure your new parts, minimize broken connections and maximize its visual appeal. There are many choices in enclosures but here are a few important factors to take into consideration:

• Will the Midifighter board and components all fit? The PCB is about 5.75″ (14.5cm) square
• Will the material be safe or interefere with the components? Metal, wood and plastic are all good choices but one should be aware of the operating temperature of the circuit (5volts) and any chance of flammability.
• Will it attract the adoration of the opposite sex (optional and unlikely)?

Step 3: Plotting trajectory

Before you start soldering- its a good idea to test out your components and get familiar with the wiring concepts. I recommend you use a breadboard (shown above) to do a mock-up before assembling the controls in the final box.

• Cut about 20, 4″ pieces of your wire and strip both ends of the wires by 1/4″.

• On the underside of the PCB (Midi-Fighter Board), you will see a printed list of inputs on the right side: GRD, D4-D1, A4-A1 and 5v.

• Pull out your breadboard and you will see a negative (-) and positive (+) column on at least one side of the breadboard.

• Connect a wire from the GRD port of the PCB to the 1st row of the negative column on the breadboard.

• Now, connect a wire from 5v on the PCB to the positive column of the breadboard.

Step 4: Arming the warhead

The image left shows the connection points of the pots. Some pots are different so check the specs to confirm.

1. Insert the pots into the breadboard as shown in the photo above.
2. Bridge the negative column on the breadboard to the “ground” peg of your pot.
3. Bridge the positive column to the “5v” peg of the same pot.
4. Insert a wire from the output peg  row to one of the analog inputs
5. Repeat 1-4 for all pots

Existing Midifighter owners will have to upgrade their firmware to the latest version (see the forum post ) to use the analog controls. With the new firmware installed,  hold down the top-left button (nearest the USB connector) while plugging in the USB cable to drop the MF into “Menu Mode”. You can then enable MIDI events from the Analog inputs using option 7. Remember to exit through the top-level menu to save the settings permanently. Check out the readme to get a more detailed explanation on menu mode and turning analogue control on.

If all is well, your new controls should be MIDI mappable. The analog controls appear as MIDI cc 16-19 and can be assigned through your program of choice using MIDI learn, just hit learn and twist the pot. If they are not, check the polarity and current on the breadboard and pots using a multimeter (see below). If everything is working properly you are ready to begin installing the components.

Step 5: Dig the Missile sites

• Download the top plate template of the Midifighter.
• Print this document out on paper  and use it as a guide to cut the holes for your arcade buttons.
• Carefully mark the center point of each hole with a sharp object and then use a 1″ spade bit to drill out the arcade holes and a smaller bit for the light pipes.
• For potentiometers, I used a 3/8″ bit to cut holes for the pots push through.

Step 5: Installing the payload

Time to roll up the sleeves and turn up the heat with a soldering iron.  If that sounds daunting, dont worry- there are many good online soldering tutorials.

• mount all of the pots to the box and snap the arcade buttons into the PCB
• Run one single GRD and one + 5V wire to your first pot. Now bridge two wires from that pot to the next pot’s GRND and +5. In this way all of the pots can share both power and ground plus your wiring stays nice and organized.
• Solder each pots output wires to one of the analog inputs to the PCB.

Insiders Tip: If you see yourself modding your Midifighter more than once, think about getting a set of male and female “headers” , and solder the female ones to your Midifighter PCB expansion port. This will give you the ability to plug and unplug wires instead of soldering directly to the PCB.”

The Blueprint

A Midifighter DIY Kit
4 10k pc mount potentiometers — “pots” come in many flavors of resistance or Ohms (from 5k to Mega Ohms), to get a feel for the difference look here
A breadboard –breadboards are typically used for prototyping, but since they do not require soldering and distribute power they can be a good choice for a beginner mod.
At least 4 feet of 24′-28′ gauge wire – gauge determines how much current a wire can carry
A 15-30 watt soldering iron/gun – the modder’s prime weapon. You may find it useful to buy or (make with a coathanger, AYOR!)
Rosin core solder – soldering used to be a two part process, heating solder with flux then applying. Rosin core has flux built-in.
An electric drill, 1″ and 1/3″ drill bits
A cigar box — found on ebay or local tobacconist
4 wooden drawer handles – undrilled is best for this project
Wire strippers (optional, recommended)
Jumper wire (optional)
Multimeter (optional) – digital multimeters are cheap and useful for checking continuity in your wiring and parts. Make sure they measure voltage, resistance and current and are Class 1, component class.

This is by no means a definitive list, but should get you started in the right direction. In particular, using a breadboard is optional. Ordering parts online is the most cost effective way to go as retail stores inflate prices by as much as 300%. A good source for our European customers can be found here.

Over the years we have managed to crank out a surprising number of Traktor FX tutorials, many of which teach fundamental FX tricks that can be used with any controller or software. NI recently asked me to film a few of my favorites for the release of the new X1 controller. We were happy to oblige, and all 4 FX tutorials, along with a comprehensive list of our other FX video tutorials, can be viewed after the break.

PART 1- UPGRADE YOUR BEAT MASHER

PART 2- FREEZE TRANSITION

PART 3- LOOP SYNTH

PART 4- JUGGLE SAMPLE

ADDITIONAL WATCHING

Here are a few of the other Traktor FX tutorials we have posted over the past few years:

Dynamic Build Ups

Using White Noise as an Instrument

The Original Freeze Video

Crazy Drum Fills

Full Performance Tutorial

Scratch and Pitch

Going wayyy back to a time when I look young and Traktor looks old:

Playing with Filters and Phase

Rocking Digital Doubles

Filter Basics

Full legal section disclosure thingy

As some of you may know, online writers are required to disclose if companies in their articles provided any free equipment or money to them. NI paid me (Ean) as an artist to create some cool FX videos that show off Traktor Pro and the X1. DJ Tech Tools did not get paid in any way to post them on this site – and never takes any money from manufacturers to post articles. We are not promoting or endorsing the products used in these videos, but feel the information contained within might be helpful to all of our readers. Our main interest is in creating a community of really talented DJs; the equipment that you use to get there is totally up you!

With a rapidly expanding market for MIDI controllers, the options DJs now have before them can seem overwhelming at times. Even though some popular controllers on the market can run you up to $2,000, fortunately, you don’t have to plunk down a huge amount of cash to experiment with digital DJing, as there are plenty of controllers for under $200. Unfortunately, its tough to tell which of these entry-level controllers offer the best value,  so we did the leg work for you and compiled a comprehensive list of all the popular options and their features. Whether you’re an established controllerist looking to add new components to your setup or a beginner mulling over that first purchase, our side-by-side comparison is guaranteed to save you countless hours of browsing time and a possible trip to the optometrist.
MIXERS WITH JOGWHEELS

Our Pick – Vestax Spin/Typhoon

Despite being the newest entrant into the entry-level market, Vestax has consistently proven that its controllers have lasting power. Touting a built-in audio interface and touch-sensitive jog wheels the Spin packs a good bang for the buck. A relatively large surface and intuitive layout creates a great work flow for beginners, especially considering the tight integration with the included djay software. Even intermediate DJs should take a look into the Spin as a backup controller, but beware of its plastic construction and less-than-pro components.

Above all, the Spin seems to be holding at a steady price point and high demand for the controller will undoubtedly translate into decent resale value for those ready to move on. Given its recent release, mappings for software other than djay are still limited, but its popularity will likely give rise to community support for new mappings. Check out our first look at the Spin.

Note: Typhoon was announced at NAMM as the Spin’s equivalent for PC users.

MIXERS WITHOUT JOGWHEELS

Our Picks – The APC20 or the X1

It’s tough to pick a single winner in this category, as both the APC20 and the X1 offer really good values. The APC20 has the lowest price per control out of all the controllers ($2), and the X1 has the best build quality of the bunch. Both controllers offer plug-and-play integration with their respective software. Even though you will have to map it yourself, the APC20’s row of faders look promising for controllerists. We didn’t get to try the buttons yet — so no word on how they feel — but we will have an in-depth review up soon. The X1’s buttons are on the smaller side, but the knobs and encoders are double injected rubber molded and feel great.

PAD CONTROLLERS

Our Pick – The Midi-Fighter

If you’re looking for the best all-around value, the MPD-24 is hard to beat with 16 pads, 6 faders and 8 endless encoders for only $170. If you’re into the most unique offering under $200, you cant go wrong with 16 high-performance arcade buttons.

Even before its release, our own Midi-Fighter generated more community discussion than nearly any other controller. Out of the box, it has fewer controls than Akai and M-Audio’s offerings and  has the highest cost per button, but the one-of-a-kind expansion ports allow for an amazing opportunity to create your own setup in virtually any way you desire. As an open-source system, expect great minds to tinker endlessly with the Midi-Fighter’s flexible platform for years to come.

KEYBOARD CONTROLLERS

Our Pick: The Oxygen 8 V2

The Oxygen 8 V2 is our first choice, mainly because of the highly popular mapping by Ean Golden but also because of its portable size and durability. If you don’t mind the keys, they offer a unique layout of 25 responsive buttons in close ergonomic proximity. This is extremely useful for performance mappings where quick intuitive actions are required. It’s also small enough to carry in almost any backpack (the Axiom is much larger) but has enough controls for many digital DJ applications.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Depending on what you’re looking for in a digital setup, my picks may not necessarily be the best suited for your personal needs. The cool thing about digital DJing is that each person’s needs are unique, and so your controller probably should be too. Start off by brainstorming what kinds of things you plan on doing with your software and how much time you can invest in developing your own interface. Use this list as a starting point for your research and then visit the forum to see what others who own that gear have to say.  Not only will it save you valuable time and money, it’ll also give you a much clearer idea of what to expect out of your gear. In the meantime, check out Ean’s piece comparing the Korg Nano Series with the Akai LPD controllers. Otherwise, I encourage all of our readers to comment on both the equipment we have compiled and any experiences with those that aren’t listed in this article.

The internet is heating up with news about the Ipad, Apple’s new touch screen interface. Between rave reviews from some and boo’s from others that are calling it a giant iphone- you are probably wondering, but can I dj with it?  Lets take a look at what might actually be possible with the new ipad, and if it cant replace your dj laptop- perhaps it might be the low cost touch controller you have been waiting for?

THE GOOD

Here are a few of the key features that are dj friendly:

• 10 hour battery life means you can play without being plugged in at all.
• Multi touch screen means lemur qualities without the lemur price
• one model boasts a 64 GB hard drive which can hold a fairly large dj set.
• some models will cost as little as $500 (WI-Fi model with 16gb)
• 1GHZ processor is not blazing but might be enough to play a few dj tracks (but nothing too complex like keylock)
• Light and very portable, 1.5 pounds, 9.56 x 7.47 x 0.5 inches.
• Third party hardware developers will be able to create sound card breakouts that improve the audio quality. Comes with a 1/8th” standard headphone out.

THE BAD

No Standard Ports

third party hardware developers will need to pay apple high royaltys to develop products for the platform. This will drive up costs and limit development. A USB port would have solved most of this.
No SDK access to iTunes library

The ipad has the same closed audio architecture as the ipod and only apple programs can access the Itunes generated playlists and songs. This means a dj program on the ipad must access songs loaded onto the hard-drive and wont be able to read your playlists. Gizmodo reports:

“Unlike the iPhone, the iPad does seem to have some shared storage aside from the photo roll. The newly released SDK reveals that when you connect an iPad to a PC or Mac, part of it—a partition, maybe?—mounts as a shared documents folder.”

not ideal, but it is a potential work around.

There is no RAM

Audio will be written and read from the flash drives directly. While solid state drives are blazing fast, can they deal with highly demanding audio process like djing on their own? We really have no idea- but suspect it might be a stretch. These are designed to stream one song at a time, not four with keylock and effects.

THE VERDICT

Its highly unlikely the Ipad offering will come close to replacing your laptop anytime soon. It is however very realistic that third party developers will port over in-expensive touch apps that will transform this low cost device into a very handy touch screen controller. The trouble remains getting that control data to the computer over bluetooth or wifi without dropouts or latency. This certainly is an exciting announcement for the computer world but not quite the groundbreaking news for djs that some might have hoped.

Looking for more information? Here are few interesting articles on the I-Pad subject.

GIZMODO  “8 Things that Suck About the iPad”

Create Digital Music How A Great Product Can Be Bad News: Apple, iPad, and the Closed Mac

Wolfire Blog “Web applications on the iPad”

Wired   “Apple iPad’s Display Is More Like a TV Than a Laptop”

Whether you’re looking for the latest tracks and acapellas or searching for new avenues to expose your own productions, digital record pools are a great dj tool. Record pools, now more commonly known as music or dj pools, are symbiotic arrangements between professional djs and record companies. Djs get access to a large pool of new music for minimum or no cost and the record companies get feedback and exposure. This concept has been in effect since the mid 70’s and, more specifically, since disco club pioneer David Mancuso and others created The New York Record Pool.  Over the past 5 years, digital music pools have become more popular and with all the new options it can be a bit confusing which ones are worth your time or money. Read on for our thoughts and breakdowns of some the top options available today.

IDJPOOL

The people at IDJpool did away with the frills and get to the straight dope by offering their services through an ftp client. A large selection of top 40 hip hop and RnB are available as well as an extensive dance collection. Price ranges from 30/ mo for hiphop, 30/mo electro or 50/mo for both. This service suits best the DJ who wants to download an entire directory of high quality files over night and review them the next day. Picking and choosing through the collection is hindered by slow download speeds and no previewing. That said, the selection is very good and in particular they have access to some great remixes and edits of old and new pop.

PROS

• Good mainstream and independent selection
• High quality files

CONS

• Very slow downloads
• Can only download one directory per session/login
• No preview

8th Wonder

8th wonder has easily the largest and most varied selection of tracks of all the pools we have reviewed. Their hip-hop and dance sections are updated daily and total over 5 thousand which makes the price tag of $10/mo almost unbelievable. The site is well-organized and easily searched. Files from 8th wonder can be previewed and downloaded singly or in a queue, all very fast. This is in part due to the fact that the majority of the collection is stored in 192 kbps (”near CD quality”) as opposed to the standard 320 kbps mp3s. There is also an extensive video section, that like the rest of the site, is relevant and useful.

PROS

• Large indepedent/dance selection
• Video selection
• Queued downloads
• DJ remix uploading

CONS

• Most of the collection is 192 bitrate

DJ City

This record pool is a subscription service for $90/3mo for a large top40 and dance collection. The site is easy to navigate through genres but here the search function is lacking. File quality is the highest possible; however, those looking for indie/dance music other than top40 remixes will be left wanting for more. DJcity is one of the few record pools that offer a small latin music selection and also have a store that seems designed for the controllerist in mind.

PROS

• High quality files
• Extensive DJ tools in the store
• Latin music section

CONS

• Small dance section
• Must rate before download

Whitelabel.net

Serato’s promotion arm casts a wide-net and with arguably well rounded selection of tracks. For a free service, the access is to top 40 hits and underground genres is extensive. This, however, is no free lunch. The files have to be played with Serato hardware connected or else your tracks will sound like they are being played out of a tin can. Tracks can be previewed in full quality on the website, but because the files are encoded in a proprietary format, they also cannot be edited or used with at least one harmonic mixing program. In conclusion, whitelabel is a banquet for the choosy beggar who is enslaved to their Serato set-up.

PROS

• Free
• Good selection from wide variety of genres

CONS

• No mixing in key
• Proprietary, can only be used with Serato software

My 12 inch

This provocatively named record pool offers a fairly standard slew of top 40 and dance tracks for $50 a month. Unique features include video downloads and a small salsa and bachata section. The files are high-quality (320 kbps mp3 and H.264 mp4 files) but unfortunately this quality is sparingly shared across underground/remix tracks. The interface on this website is fairly small and provides a challenging search. My12inch has some of the most features of any record pool we have reviewed, but users may feel differently about substance.

PROS

• Video service
• Latin music section

CONS

• Small indy/dance section
• Must rate before download
• Can’t queue downloads

Digiwaxx

This free promotional service takes no shorts in narrowing down its audience. The top 40 hip hop and mixtape crowd should be more than pleased with the selection, should you get through it, and even the odd throw-backs make an appearance. The interface is unintuitive; users have to go into “my tracks”, a list of the entire catalog that is pending your reviews, looking more like a grocery list than the hottest new tracks. Unfortunately, the search feature is also very limited, so browsing this collection is a pain.

PROS

• Free
• Extensive Top 40 selection

CONS

• No indie/dance section
• Extensive reviewing process

CONCLUSION

Joining a digital record pool can provide you with a lot of new pop tracks or a small pool of specialty tracks depending on what you are into. Whatever the case, choose wisely and you could end up saving quite a bit of cash in the long run. All levels of djs can benefit from this type of service: a beginning dj gets to acquire tons of tracks quickly and an expert can acquire all the newest tracks, acapellas, and instrumentals from major and indie labels alike.

Chances are you have more digital dj gear than you have available USB ports. Between controllers, sound cards, USB lights and ipods- every controllerist needs a lot more usb power than the typical laptop can offer. The logical solution to this common problem is to add a USB hub to your setup but this seemingly straightforward device can introduce a lot of variables and problems.  Should the port be powered? Will it cause latency? Which hubs are good for djing? Will it cause audio drop outs? In this article we will attempt to clear up some of these questions and help you pick the right USB hub for djing.

POWER OR NO POWER?

The first thing you will notice about USB hubs is that they come in 2 main types: Powered or non-powered. Powered hubs require an external power supply so they can send a full amount of USB power evenly to all ports. Non-powered hubs simply split the power available on one laptop port between all the devices which means much less juice for everyone on the train.

If you are using basic input devices like mice, keyboards or basic controllers (without any LEDS) then its safe to split a USB port between several items without a power supply. The trouble starts when you introduce large midi controllers like the VCI-100 or sound cards, which demand nearly all of the power available on single port. In these cases, you absolutely need to use a powered USB hub to guarantee that each device has all the juice it needs.

SHARING RECOURCES

In addition to making sure each device has enough power, you should also consider the balance of data so 2 devices are not overwhelming a single usb port with too much information.
The typical digital dj set up is probably going to look like this:

• 1 main controller (hi power draw- medium data transfer)
• 1 secondary controller (hi power draw- low data transfer)
• 1 sound card (medium power draw- hi data transfer)

Lets assume you only have 2 USB ports available. The following configuration would be a good place to start. If you experience drop outs, try changing things around. In this case the sound card gets it own USB port to maximize data transfer. The controllers are sharing a powered USB hub because power, not data, is the main concern there. You could possibly make this configuration work with a non-powered hub but it really depends on how much power each device requires. The average laptop USB port supplies about 500 milliamps of power so find out the specs on your devices and do the math.

Keep it 2.0

There are 2 USB speeds, USB 1.0 and 2.0. To keep things simple, you just need to keep in mind that USB 2.0 is much faster. Its usually a bad idea to combine USB 1.0 devices (most controllers) and USb 2.0 devices (hard-drives and some sound cards) on the same USB hub because then all the devices transfer at 1.0 speeds.

A FEW RECOMMENDATIONS

For a simple, non-powered space saving hub we like the Belkin swivel hub which has a built in cable.

Ultra makes a sleek hi-speed powered hub that looks good and takes up minimal space

If your looking for a big brand option- the D-link dub h4 appears to be a good option

Want to combine 2.0 and 1.0 devices on one hub? There are a few rare hubs that can do this called “multi TT” hubs. The Belkin Tetra hub is one of them.

DONT DROP OUT

Occasionally USB has its problems. When a device gets confused and sends an audio glitch or disconnects on its own its called a “drop out”. This can happen for any number of reasons. Common causes of drop outs are interference, power issues, lack of bandwidth or CPU capacity.

To Avoid Drop Outs

• Keep your USB cables away from cell phones, power cables, florescent lighting, cordless mics and speaker wires
• Make sure you are using a high quality cable that’s as short as possible with proper shielding and ferrite cores (the little cylinders on the ends of some cables). Dj TechTools actually manufactured a USB cable specifically for djs that meets all of these criteria.
• raise your audio card buffer sizes. If your experiencing audio dropouts, pops and crackles chances are the audio buffer is too low.
• Turn off the airport (it can cause problems)
• try a different USB port- apparently not all of them are equal.
• try a powered USB hub. The actual power supplied by a USB port can vary wildy from laptop to laptop, meaning that you may be under-powering your audio device. Try a powered hub and see if the problem is eliminated.

Looking Forward

The future of USB is looking even better with the introduction of USB 3.0. The speed has been increased to a ballistic 4 Gbit/s and the power rating has been stepped up to 80 percent more than 2.0. Translation- it’s capable of running up to six devices and lighting up even more LEDS on a controller without requiring power supplies.

additional research provided by: Dj Nisus

In the “amazingly rad videos that will inspire you” department comes todays post, in which controllerism and guitars come together in the perfect way. Ironically, we are currently experimenting with adding a similar screen to the left side of the midi-fighter, (prototype and how-to video coming soon). Speaking of the midi-fighter- have you seen the amazing color combos people have been creating? They are sick!