Okay - Do not ruin a perfectly good MIDI controller. You can accomplish these things with a slick set up. The central software for controllerism is Ableton Live 7. There is no other. Programs like Traktor, Serato, Torq, all try to emulate vinyl and are generally limited to only two stereo tracks of music to cross fade between. With Ableton, your number of songs to mix between at any given time is up to the power of your hard drive. We have eight stereo tracks right now. These are controlled by a Novation X Station 25. there are 9 faders on it (the last is the master volume). You can "program" any MIDI capable device to Ableton by simply pressing the on screen "MIDI" tab in Ableton, and then clicking on the controller on screen you want to run externally. THEN you simply wiggle, push , or turn the controller slider, knob, or button you want to assign that particular task to. It's easy. I have set up a great system three months ago and I have studied the hell out of this subject. Now we have the ultimate digital system as far as I'm concerned. The best, most thorough controllers for Ableton are: The CME Bitstream $400.00. Any of the Faderfox controllers $300.00 a piece- You'll want two at least. There is also a very simple controller by Kenton called the Killamix. It has nine knobs rather than faders, but they have just recently added a tiny joystick to it. You will need a joystick or some kind of X-Y controller. The CME Bitstream, Faderfox,kenton, and the X Station all have these. It is necessary to operate Ableton's on board effects that are controlled by a yellow circle that you move around in a little field. Now - You will want to be able to cherry-pick through the 144 some odd clips in any given Ableton project. I managed this with a $30.00 Logitech PC gamers' joystick and substituting motions on the thing for keystroke commands in Ableton. That was hairy - programming the joystick, but that is how you do it. You have to assign the motions on a map the Logitech joystick gives you on screen. Then you enter the keystroke you want the joystick to perform. Any keystroke can be assigned to any action. the arrow keys allow you to "travel" or "drive" around on the Ableton screen. So I programmed the "up" arrow to associate with the forward motion of the joystick - the "down" arrow to pulling it back, and left/right - so on. It ain't simple, but it isn't impossible either. The other controllers will allow you to activate rows of clips but not cherry-pick them. Abletom e-mailed me and told me this couldn't be done, but after I showed them they believed. It was THEIR software too! Anyway - The joystick is a must. Ableton is a customizable instrument in a way. No other software does what it can do. Now - If you have the cash, you can also get weird devices like Percussa Audio Cubes to activate clips in Ableton. I bought a set of four from Belgium and they cost me $1,200.00! I'm an older dude, so I have a little cash now. This doesn't mean you can't run Ableton though. You can see the system at myspace.com/runninthingsrecords.
Hope this helps'
Kipp
