djsherz
I've only been a VDJ user for a few days now, and I have to say I'm very impressed with the versatility of this software. Last night I crossed my fingers and used vdj at a gig, half expecting it to crash leaving me hastily putting on CDs while trying to reboot the ol' faithful PCDJ Red. But no, it worked brilliantly, I've never been able to do fancy mixing and looping on the fly like that before!
I use a DAC-2 controller for the basic functions, while using the mouse/keyboard for sampling and FX etc, and it's this which has given me an idea. We all prefer panels with proper buttons to keyboard shortcuts don't we? You can set up a keyboard shortcut to do pretty much anything in vdj i believe? Midi button boxes can be a little expensive, and not necessarily exactly what you want, so why not built your own 2u rackmount controller that could sit underneath the DAC-2 and control the sampling, FX etc...
The idea is for a project box or rack mounted unit, fitted with push switches laid out in a logical order, ie grouped together as sample pads, fx controls, rather like the on-screen skin buttons. These buttons could be wired onto the control board from any old computer keyboard to mimick keystrokes. The cost? Maplins do a USB keyboard for £10 that could be cannibalised for the control board. Add to that the cost of some push buttons and a box to put it in (again available from maplins). It would take some time to do, but you'd have a completely customised controller with all the buttons that you need, all layed out in whatever arrangement works for you.
I'm wondering if Windows would let you plug in two keyboards at once? You'd obviously still need a regular keyboard for typing in searches etc. If they both worked at the same time, that would be fine, but it would be better still if you could set windows up to use a foreign language set on the "project" keyboard, while maintaining your default language settings on the normal keyboard. Presumably then you could map these foreign language symbols in the "keyboard shortcuts" section in vdj config, giving you hardware buttons that effectively work independently of the pc keyboard. Electronics I know about, Windows I don't. Anybody know if what I'm talking about is possible from a windows configuration point of view?
Or plan B - get a cheap MIDI keyboard from a car boot sale, and wire push buttons up to the original keys.....
Just a few ideas anyway, I'd be interested to know if anybody else out there has tried doing a bit of customised hardware.... apologies for rambling on!
I use a DAC-2 controller for the basic functions, while using the mouse/keyboard for sampling and FX etc, and it's this which has given me an idea. We all prefer panels with proper buttons to keyboard shortcuts don't we? You can set up a keyboard shortcut to do pretty much anything in vdj i believe? Midi button boxes can be a little expensive, and not necessarily exactly what you want, so why not built your own 2u rackmount controller that could sit underneath the DAC-2 and control the sampling, FX etc...
The idea is for a project box or rack mounted unit, fitted with push switches laid out in a logical order, ie grouped together as sample pads, fx controls, rather like the on-screen skin buttons. These buttons could be wired onto the control board from any old computer keyboard to mimick keystrokes. The cost? Maplins do a USB keyboard for £10 that could be cannibalised for the control board. Add to that the cost of some push buttons and a box to put it in (again available from maplins). It would take some time to do, but you'd have a completely customised controller with all the buttons that you need, all layed out in whatever arrangement works for you.
I'm wondering if Windows would let you plug in two keyboards at once? You'd obviously still need a regular keyboard for typing in searches etc. If they both worked at the same time, that would be fine, but it would be better still if you could set windows up to use a foreign language set on the "project" keyboard, while maintaining your default language settings on the normal keyboard. Presumably then you could map these foreign language symbols in the "keyboard shortcuts" section in vdj config, giving you hardware buttons that effectively work independently of the pc keyboard. Electronics I know about, Windows I don't. Anybody know if what I'm talking about is possible from a windows configuration point of view?
Or plan B - get a cheap MIDI keyboard from a car boot sale, and wire push buttons up to the original keys.....
Just a few ideas anyway, I'd be interested to know if anybody else out there has tried doing a bit of customised hardware.... apologies for rambling on!
Posted Sun 19 Mar 06 @ 7:05 pm
acw_dj
djshers,
Welcome as a FULL Member to the Forum.
Try the vdjmap to the DAC-2 controler also you can try DAC-2 Skin for VDJ. And we already have prgramable shortcuts for your current keyboard, if you place your mouse (or your hot key) to enter or search a song the keyword works as always. If you are not in a editing section, then you have your keyboard as a shortcut keyboard...
Good Luck!
Welcome as a FULL Member to the Forum.
Try the vdjmap to the DAC-2 controler also you can try DAC-2 Skin for VDJ. And we already have prgramable shortcuts for your current keyboard, if you place your mouse (or your hot key) to enter or search a song the keyword works as always. If you are not in a editing section, then you have your keyboard as a shortcut keyboard...
Good Luck!
Posted Sun 19 Mar 06 @ 7:51 pm