After much study and consideration, I’ve made a MIDI Mapping for Native Instruments Traktor DJ software. Comprehensive control over all four decks. All the tweaky goodness that Traktor offers is now at your fingertips. Here’s a complete tutorial on getting it working and how to use it:

This is a “beta” release, so if there’s anything that doesn’t work right or there is an essential control I missed, drop me a line (comment here or in forum) and I’ll either tell you how to change it or roll it into the official release.
Download the files here for Mac and PC.

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As a build up to something we are announcing next week, we’re going to be revisiting a bunch of our custom controller work that we’ve done over the years. Since we have close contact with our customers, we very often get into conversations about “what would be cool,” and sometimes we’ll get people asking us to do finishes or layouts that we never would release on our own.
Case in point: the “Poison” controller that we did for Poison’s 08 tour for their lighting and video guy. He wanted to put the poison logo and toxic green color on the Ohm Classic and call it “his.” Since the inspiration for our wood bodies is the electric guitar, it only made sense that a classic metal band would be one of the first customers to jump on making his MIDI controller “more rocking.” We have been working for years trying to forge our own style, and it’s great when we find out that we are as appealing to long-time rockers as we are to the latest DJs!
Travis did a post-op article about the challenges and approach he took to this job, which involved making the logo durable for the road, and getting the shocking color just right.
Jay managed to score an interview with Mark “Fifi” Taylor, who shared his history as a VJ, lighting designer, and career rock and roll touring maniac.
Check out these articles and pictures to get some insight in what it takes to make our controllers!

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Real-time analysis of clips and project. Trigger: 8 tracks, unlimited scenes,unlimited clips, no midi map, no instant mapping, visual feedback of clip position….just drag n play

This post was submitted by Alexandr Vanek.

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projects by Alexandr Vanek

I know after I post this I am going to get each person asking to retake their picture, but it’s not gonna happen. Here we are in the raw, at work, making your controllers. Looks fun right? Well it is. It’s rare that you get to see the people that make the products you use, so here are some of the people that are responsible for turning the piles of wood and components, into beautifully handcrafted controllers.

Travis is in charge of manufacturing and does everything from electrical engineering to industrial design. Travis also builds all the robots that turn our raw materials into usable parts. When not at the shop (which is rare) he can be found discussing conspiracy theories and having tea parties (not the political kind, he has two young daughters).

Gabe is the utility player at Livid and has been making controllers since the introduction of the original Ohm (ohm classic). He does everything from spraying bodies to final assembly.  Gabe is also an accomplished DJ and Producer, and can be seen performing with his custom controllers all over Austin.

Del is the Machinist at Livid and turns all of our raw materials into working parts. Del usually has ear, nose, and mouth protection on so we don’t have to hear him ramble (we tell him it’s for his “safety” shh…). Del can also likes sugar instead of salt on the rim of his Margaritas (gross).

Ryan is in charge of electronic assembly and spends most of his time between operating the pick-and-place machine and tedious hand soldering. Ryan also plays guitar, ride BMX, and owns a recording studio. I am also pretty sure he also believes in Bigfoot.

Justin is responsible for assembly, circuit design, and testing. Justin also has a knack for picking replacement parts and looking over spec sheets (sounds like fun right?). Justin also collects rare German language recordings of David Hasselhoff.

Peter is the software programmer, product designer, and co-founder of Livid. Peter is in charge of everything software and anything else that the rest of us can’t do. Peter is also a Stunt Rock the movie enthusiast.

Kelly is in charge of shipping and receiving at Livid. Kelly can also be found soldering and desoldering components, and finding goodies for the grave yard. Kelly also claims to have never seen Jersey Shore or know what a Guido is, but I am pretty sure I saw him fist pumping in his car one day when leaving work.

And this is me. I started Livid and do everything from product design to creating tutorials. You can read my updates on this blog, in the forums, and on our twitterbookspace sites. I also perform in the band Sinch and Ocular Noise Machine.

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I have just finished a beta of a comprehensive Remote mapping for Propellerhead’s Reason. “Remote” is Reason (and Record’s) method of integrating controllers into their software, and I have to say, it’s pretty cool once you have all the mappings done.
To be honest, I’ve always shied away from Reason in the past, since the interface seemed too closely tied to the analogy of “rack of hardware gear.” This seems to result in interfaces that are bound by a legacy of old hardware, rather than interfaces that took advantage of a computer’s speed and flexibility. I’ve always like the terse control offered by Max/MSP and the simplicity of MIDI learn in Ableton Live. However, now that I’ve spent a lot of time with Reason making this map for the Ohm64, I’ve come to really like it. Mostly what I like is that I now have full control of every device in the form of a consistent hardware interface, and I feel like I can really explore the sonic possibilities of Thor and Subtractor (for example), because I have a massive number of knobs, sliders, and buttons to control it with. This really opened up the possibilities with Reason, since there are some really fantastic sounding kits in there.
I’ve also taken advantage of their Remote SDK by doing a bit of programming that lets me create a “keyboard” on the Ohm64 that is, for the non-piano player, probably a lot better for getting ideas down. The keys are mapped to major or minor scales, and can be transposed at will. Take a look at the video, and you’ll quickly get an idea of what’s possible, then download the installer here:

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