Native Instruments’ Traktor Pro is one of the most popular digital DJ software available on the market. But unless you want to control Traktor Pro with just your mouse and keyboards, you are going to need a specialised DJ MIDI controller with the necessary MIDI mapable knobs and sliders to enhance your DJ experience. One of those controllers is the Numark Omni Control.
A cut-down version of Traktor LE software is included with the controller. Once the software is installed, a configuration file can be imported that will map all necessary Traktor LE controls to the Omni Control. Traktor Pro can also be used with the controller but support from Numark or Native Instruments is a bit sketchy at the moment in a sense that a proper official map hasn’t been officially released from both software companies. There is a map included in Traktor Pro but according to my own experience, it didn’t work very well at all. In this tutorial I am going to show you how to create custom MIDI mappings in Traktor Pro version 1.2.7.
Setting Up
First of all, I have attached two images that show both the controller input values and LED notes. The input values are the ones that are assigned when you MIDI learn a particular control and are also visible during control assignment. The LED values are useful when assigning values for controls that also have a LED indication(for instance, the PLAY/PAUSE button). LED indicators act as an indication that a certain button or control has been activated, a useful functionality especially when we perform our set in low-level light conditions. It will all become apparent in a bit.
Omni Controller input notes
Omni Controller LED notes
MIDI Assignment
Please check the Numark website to install the necessary drivers for your operating system. Once everything is set up and connected, load up Traktor Pro and go to the Preferences by clicking on the necessary icon at the top right of the Traktor Pro window.
Click the Controller Manager tab, and at the Device Setup click Add->Generic MIDI. Optionally, you can select Numark Omni Control as both In-Port and Out-Port unless you want to have other controllers plugged into different ports interacting with your set. In our case, we will leave it at the default All Ports. Let’s assign the PLAY button of Traktor Pro to the PLAY button on our controller(bottom left side, last button from the left). From the Assignment Table, select Add In…->Transport->Play/Pause. Click Learn on the Device Mapping area and hit the PLAY button on the controller. The value of the G4 note appears on the Mapped To column and also next to the Learn button. Click the Learn button to exit mapping mode. Further down in Mapping Details, select Deck A on the Assignment drop-down box. We would want our PLAY button to stay activated once we press it once, then, deactivate it on second press. So, select Toggle as interaction mode. keep the Preferences window open.
Pressing the PLAY button would start the playback in Traktor Pro, another press would pause it and so on. The functionality is there but the LED is not yet lighting up when the button is pressed. Select Add Out…->Transport->Play/Pause. Now, take a look at the LED notes above and find the note that corresponds to the left deck’s PLAY button(D4). Select Deck A from the Assignment drop-down box in the Mapping Details section then select D4 from the Device Mapping section between the Learn and the Reset button.
Now, the PLAY LED lights up when we press PLAY and is turned off when we hit PLAY again to pause playback.
PLAY LED light up when pressed.
Let’s try another one now. Let’s assign the jog wheel to the Jog Scratch and Tempo Bend functionality in Traktor Pro. As before, select Add In…->Transport->Jog Scratch + Tempo Bend. Click Learn then touch and move the left jog wheel slightly. The CC value of 024 is assigned to our controller. Hit Learn again to exit mapping mode. In the Mapping Details section select Encoder as Type of Controller and set Interaction Mode to Relative. Select 7Fh/01h as Encoder Mode and select Deck A on the Assignment drop-down box. Finally, on the Rotary Encoder section, dial in a Rotary Sensitivity of around 50%.
Now, when a track is played on Deck A, the controller’s jog wheel will act as a tempo bend while it will act as a scratch control when the deck is paused.
Select Add In…->Mixer->EQ->EQ Low to assign the BASS rotary knob for the left deck. Click Learn then rotate the knob. Click Learn again to exit map mode. Select Deck A on the Assignment drop-down box in the Mapping Details section. Now, select, Add In…->Mixer->EQ-> EQ Low Kill. Click Learn and push the same knob down. Click Learn again to exit mapping mode. Select Deck A on the Assignment drop-down box in the Mapping Details section, also select Toggle for Interaction Mode. Finally, select Add Out…->Mixer->EQ-> EQ Low Kill, select Deck A on the Assignment drop-down box in the Mapping Details section and finally select the A#5 note in the Device Mappings section. The BASS knob controls the EQ Low in Traktor Pro. Pushing the same knob downwards acts as a kill switch for that frequency. Pushing down again the kill switch gets deactivated.
BASS knob pressed.
Adding Modifier Conditions
Let’s try a final more advanced one. We are going to use a modifier condition to declare a button that will act as our modifier. We will map the TRACK button of the controller to the List Select Up/Down in Traktor Pro to scroll though our Browser playlist up and down. When the TRACK knob is clicked the selected track will be loaded into the Traktor Pro Preview Player. Then, when the modifier key is pressed down, the TRACK knob will scrub through the track currently previewing on the Preview Player. Letting go of the modifier key will allow us to scroll through our playlist as normal and pushing the TRACK knob again will stop the selected track from previewing. We will use the DIRECTORY button on the controller as our modifier key. If you don’t see the Preview Player, bring up the Preferences, go to Browser Details and check Show Preview Player.
TRACK and DIRECTORY knobs.
How to show the Preview Player.
To set up our modifier key, select Add In…->Modifier->Modifier #1. Click Learn and hit the DIRECTORY key on the controller. Click Learn again to exit mapping mode. In the Mapping Details section set Button as Type of Controller and Hold as Interaction Mode. In the Button Options section, set the value to 1. Now, we need to set the output LED value for our modifier. Select, Add Out…->Modifier->Modifier #1. Have a look at the controller LED notes and select the appropriate note from the list in the Device Mapping section. Click the DIRECTORY button to test if the LED lights up. It should turn off once you let go of the button.
Now, select Add In…->Browser->List->List Select Up/Down. Click Learn and move the TRACK knob. Click Learn again to exit mapping mode. In Mapping Details set Modifier Conditions. Set M1 as Modifier with the value of 0. Select Encoder as Type of Controller, Relative as Interaction Mode, 7Fh/01h as Enc.-Mode and set Rotary Sensitivity to 11% in the Rotary Encoder section. Now, the TRACK knob scrolls through tracks in our playlist.
Select Add In…-> Preview->Preview Load Selected. Click Learn and push the TRACK knob down. Click Learn again to exit mapping mode. This will load a selected track from the playlist to the Preview Player and start playing it. Pushing once again, it will stop playback on the Preview Player. Now, select Add In…-> Preview->Preview Seek Position. Click Learn and move the TRACK knob. Click Learn again to exit mapping mode. In Mapping Details set Modifier Conditions. Set M1 as Modifier with the value of 1. So, whenever we push and hold the modifier key and turn the TRACK knob, we will be able to scrub through the track which is loaded in the Preview window. Select Encoder as Type of Controller, Relative as Interaction Mode, 3Fh/41h as Enc.-Mode, set Rotary Sensitivity to 11% and check the Invert option in the Rotary Encoder section.
Now try the functionality. Turn the TRACK knob left or right to scroll through tracks from your playlist. Once you have one highlighted, push down the button to load the track in the Preview Player and start playing it in there right away. Hit the DIRECTORY button, keep it pressed and turn the TRACK knob to the right to scrub the preview track forward(turn to the left to scrub backwards). You can let go of the DIRECTORY key and use the TRACK button to scroll through your playlist collection as normal. Then, push and hold the DIRECTORY key again so that you can once again control the playback of the track currently being previewed.
And that’s it! I will leave you experiment with the other controls but if you followed what I’ve described you will have no problem whatsoever mapping the rest of the controls accordingly. As a last tip, you can go to the Numark Omni Control website in the Documents & Downloads section and download the Omni Control One-Touch-scratching using Traktor Pro MIDI mapping TSI file. You can import the TSI file into Traktor Pro through the Preferences. Go to Controller Manager and in the Device Setup select Add…->Import and navigate to the file. Once you have imported the file you will be able to use the jog wheels to scratch tracks which are playing. Holding down the DIRECTORY button in the center of the controller will allow you to use the wheels to pitch-bend (while playing) or quick-search (while stopped).
I have also attached the TSI file with the mappings we’ve worked with in this tutorial. Feel free to import it, use it and modify it to your needs. To export your final maps for backup just go to Preferences->Controller Manager and click Edit->Export.
