Support multiple layers for the performence pads

[Lykos153]

The state of the Pad section is hardcoded in the device. Serato Intro only supports the basic modes: Hot Cue, Loop, Sampler where the lower 4 keys are always for manual loops. Serator DJ supports 4 layers: normal press, double press, shift+press, shift+double press. Those are hardcoded as well and I haven't yet found a way to access them. As I don't own a copy of Serato DJ, I also can't sniff them.

We could implement this manually, but that would require a lot of additional work. I thought about using the PARAM buttons to switch layers, as they don't seem to be used outside the sequencer mode.

https://www.mixxx.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=11664&p=37897#p37897

[eigengrau]

I’ve made the following tweaks to the pad section and will try them out this week:

• Hot cue state
  • Shift + ParamUp/Down – set the beat-jump size
  • ParamUp/Down – beat-jump forward/backward
  • Hot-cue button (while pad section already in hot-cue state) – activate beat-loop (not sure what «cue loop» would do in Serato); exit beat-loop if loop already running.
• Loop state
  • Shift + ParamUp/Down – set the beat-loop size
  • ParamUp/Down – move loop forward-backward by beat-jump-size
  • Loop-button (while pad section already in loop-state) – activate a rolling beat-loop; exit beat-loop if loop already running.

[eigengrau]

Did you get a chance to intercept some MIDI traffic between Serato and the controller? It might be nice to have cue-loop and roll modes, with the button LED blinking to indicate the mode. Only the LED doesn’t respond to the obvious MIDI messages. I wonder if this is something that requires the proprietary Roland driver (though I couldn’t see why it should). On the other hand, the Virtual DJ folks seem to have pad state LEDs under control.

[Lykos153]

I couldn't do this, because the starter version of Serato doesn't support multiple layers. However, I'll try to do it with Virtual DJ next Monday.

[eigengrau]

Sounds good. As per the website, it also looks like it’s possible to install Serato Pro in trial mode.

From Googling around, it looks like it’s not possible to capture MIDI traffic sent by applications though. So the miditrace tool will probably only show MIDI sent by the controller; but that’s a start I guess.

You also mentioned capturing USB frames from the VM? This is probably a bit of work, but if you have a VM setup anyway, it looks like Wireshark has a display filter for MIDI events sent over USB audio. Though, Serato requires the proprietary Roland driver, so not sure if this will even be shown as USB audio.

[eigengrau]

Oh, btw, I remembered that there used to be the program MIDIOX, which would install a virtual MIDI output for applications to use. Data sent there could then be processed or logged before being sent on. If Serato can be convinced to use that MIDI output, maybe that would be an easier solution. It also looks like there’s LoopBe now, which looks similar.

[Lykos153]

Got it!! A successful day resulting in two lines of code =D

Now there are 4 layers of the performance pads. The buttons now send:

• Single press (default mode): 9x 00 y2
• Double press (button flashes): 9x 00 y0
• Shift+Single press (flashes slowly): 9x 00 y1
• Shift+Double press (flashes fast): 9x 00 y3

The pads send the same messages in all 4 layers, so we have to rewire them.

[eigengrau]

Awesome! Is it christmas already? Did you need to resort to using Wireshark?

[Lykos153]

Yeah, Virtual DJ didn't like the virtual midi output^^

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This issue is marked as stale because it has been open 90 days with no activity.