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Who knew Traktor Remix mapping was so controvesial?
My my… it seems that Native Instruments have ruffled a few feathers within the controllerist community with a single forum post that essentially said that to get the fullest Remix Deck experience, you’ll have to buy the new Kontrol F1 hardware, and that it wasn’t possible on any other MIDI controller – not even Maschine. Spitting feathers was an understatement.
This got my inbox twitching, so being the diligent hack that I am, and wanting the full picture, last week I fired off a deliberately provocative email to NI, designed to illicit a response about this obviously contentious matter. Here’s what I sent:
“Does this mean that to use the remix decks to their fullest capability, you’re forcing people to buy at least one Kontrol F1? You won’t be able to map other NI products, let alone 3rd party controllers to Remix Deck functions?
For argument’s sake, let’s say I own a MIDI Fighter Pro, APC40 or A&H K2 and want to map them to the Remix Deck functionality – you’re saying that you simply won’t allow this to happen? Or is it a limitation of the current controller manager? Or can current open protocols simply not handle the complexity of messaging so you need to do some fancy proprietary messaging?”
Oh I got a response alright. Sorry if I annoyed you NI, but this needed an answer. And essentially, the original forum post is correct, but doesn’t give the complete picture, something that we now have, thanks to a couple of detailed skype calls with the NI mothership.
Firstly the good news, there will be limited mapping ability for Remix Decks in Traktor v2.5 NI have also told me that more (rather than the expected less) functionality will be added in future versions of Traktor.
But right now in the upcoming v2.5, the interaction between Traktor and the F1 is currently hardcoded in a deliberately closed loop. This will allow NI to hone and perfect the workflow without impacting on anything else. Things are getting so complex now that a small change in one place can have a house of cards effect and break much more than it fixed. Thus the full Remix Deck functionality remains closed off to everything else except the F1.
For now that is.
Once NI are happy that the workflow functions as they want it to in the closed loop, they’ll open it up to mapping in the controller manager. This is no easy task, as it’ll require quite a bit of deconstruction of Traktor and the controller manager to reengineer relevant parts to work in an open manner.
But, and here’s the big but – the complexity of interaction needed for full Remix Decks use simply isn’t achievable with current open protocols. For example I’m told that there is no standardisation for third-party controllers in terms of LED control. So it seems that there are wider issues that just making a button work. Things are getting complex in there.
So can you or can’t you?
So you’ll probably be able to maps parts of the Remix Decks, but not the whole lot. Well… that’s what they tell me, but some round these parts are ready to rise to the challenge. I may offer a prize for the first to be able to achieve successful Traxtor remix mapping.
NI tell me that the addition of Remix decks is not just a new feature – it’s like having a whole new application grafted into the heart of Traktor. I guess what they are hinting at here is that they have basically shoehorned the cooler performance elements of Ableton Live inside Traktor. They’d never say that, but to me, that’s largely what this looks like.
So this move is to ensure that Remix Decks actually works without breaking anything else. But bear in mind that the complexities of the F1’s hardcoding may mean that even after the options are coded into Controller Manager, it would be hard for anyone to provide a user experience as tight as the F1 manages. And if you do rise to the challenge and really can make 3rd party controllers work with Remix Decks, they joked that a job could be waiting for you at NI.
So just to recap – yes, the full Remix Deck functionality is closed for the moment, but it is purely a quality control thing. Mapping will open up, but NI don’t believe that full functionality is currently possible via mapping alone. Time will tell on that one of course. An official statement is coming, and will be added in here.
But how does this bode for the future of Traktor Remix mapping?
It must be borne in mind that closed systems are nothing new. Maschine’s software doesn’t work without the hardware. Want to use Traktor Scratch? You’ll need an NI interface for that. And Serato’s loop has been partially closed (SSL) or fully closed (ITCH) since day one. There’s also the issue of how much Remix Deck functionality will be found on 3rd party controllers, if at all. NI really do seem to be transforming into the Apple of the DJ industry – hardware and software tightly knitted together for a much better user experience. Perhaps they’ll license these features out for a fee. Or perhaps they’ll keep the loop closed and sell more controllers.
There’s something to be said for this – proprietary performance from NI and Serato controllers is as good as you can expect from jogwheels. But when you try to get conflicting packages to work with software that they weren’t designed for… well it’s not exactly awe inspiring. Closed loops traditionally work so much better – making software work with a very limited range of hardware means massively reduced lead times, tighter controls and ultimately a better product with less support issues. Ever thrown a VST at Ableton and had it grind to a halt? Exactly.
To be honest, I wouldn’t blame NI, or anyone for that matter if they did close the loop. I have no idea if making an ITCH controller mappable to Traktor helps sell more controllers or copies of Traktor. In my experience, people are fiercely loyal to a brand (usually software) and would most likely want a controller that bears that name too. And while the DJWORX team is full of MIDI geeks (myself NOT included in that), I wonder how many users just want to use the product out of the box and never hanker for anything but a plug and play experience. While I applaud the open mentality, I just want my gear to work first time, every time. And work without compromise.
Logical extension of this does lead to a rather interesting place. If open messaging just can’t deliver the levels of complexity that users are demanding, is the end nigh for user mapping? Do the big boys need the niche community to come up with cool new things? The NIs and Seratos of this world certainly have the resources and connections to deliver scoops of nextlevelness without recourse to the niche communities. And being able to deliver them in a tightly engineered closed way, especially when things are likely to get way more complex, is the way to go.
That’s just my opinion of Traxtor remix mapping. But what do you think? Open or closed? Flexibility or a tighter user experience? Would you still use Traktor if it was closed? Would you use ITCH if it was open? It’s quite a broad topic, but one that demands your feedback.