Does Anyone knows how to map?

Out of curiosity, is there something wrong with the official mapping from Gemini?

More importantly, do you actually NEED to use Traktor. Is it the best software for you?

In my opinion I do ask that, but I’ll admit that my experience with both Traktor and Cross has led me to a point where I feel Traktor is the most complicated of the two, both in settings and in mapping. I know you CAN map anything to Traktor as long as it is midi, not a Traktor feature as you can do this in other software as well, but I have to say that mapping in Traktor is a lot nastier to do (and I did it myself) than it is, for example, in Cross.

Another point is that Traktor is – imho – a narrower platform when it comes to DJ-ing. It has some exclusive features that will work wonders for a specific genre of DJs. It also lacks some features, which make it unsuitable for another large group of DJs.

My point with the remark I made earlier was not to move him away from Traktor, but to make sure that he is putting effort into making something work to his liking with the software that is best for him. As his question was about Traktor, that is what ended up in my question.

In his OP he mentions that he tried many different software platforms but that his controller is just not working to his liking with Traktor. Others already asked what is wrong with the native mapping for Traktor. So, perhaps I should rephrase my question to read:

“A more important question to ask, before investing a lot of time in a potentially difficult or lenghty mapping process, is am I sure that the software I am doing this for is the right one for me”.

As far as I am concerned, the choice of software is (and I have written this in many replies) a) highly personal and b) perhaps one of the most important ones to ask before even going out and looking at hardware.
And if Traktor is your flavor, then by all means, use Traktor. Many people using Serato now (since it is so much widely supported). But just because it comes with your controller, doesn’t mean it’s the right platform for you.

I wholeheartedly agree with what you say about Traktor’s mapping once you understand it – it is super powerful. I have done some pretty sweet tricks to tweak the way my cheap controller operates to give it more functionality than what it ships with, phsyically – like making shift+volume act as the pitch slider since the Instinct only has a rocker switch for pitch adjustment.

Yeah, that was why I said “once you understand it.”

I’m a pretty serious geek, so tech to me is very easy to work with. Probably why Traktor fits my personal workflow best.

Honestly, VDJ was a bad enough fit for my workflow that, while VDJScript was indeed cool, it was not enough to make me stick with it.

That said, when mapping controllers in VDJ, it felt like there was this extra level of disconnect that I really didn’t care for. Maybe it’s something I would’ve sorted out eventually, but I can do much more powerful mappings in Traktor than I was able to in VDJ, after spending about the same amount of time learning how mapping worked.