Hello
After many years of playing with another and less-sophisticated DJ software & MIDI controller, I decided to switch to Serato DJ. As I like to be as self-sufficient as possible, and I often play in “stand-alone mode” (with no classical dj mixer, using only MIDI controller + sound card, with software-mixing only) I decided to buy Serato DJ compatible / dedicated Akai AMX controller + Akai LPD8 for additional functions.
Now, I'm getting to know both the controllers and the Serato DJ software - and I stumbled upon some problems/questions, answers to which I couldn't find in manuals or at general forums. I really hope you’ll be able to help me with solving these problems as soon as possible - as at the moment these matters make both the controllers and the Serato DJ software less-than-fully-functional for me, and I really hope to get over them ASAP, as I will play many gigs in following weeks and I'd really like to sort these things out before I play in front of the people.
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1) I stumbled upon serious, inexplicable issue with MIDI re-mapping of Akai AMX in Serato DJ. As I wrote you before, I'm using AMX + LPD8 as controllers, which allows me to MIDI re-map some of AMX buttons & knobs for more practical use (I didn't touch any fader settings though).
After re-assigning, when I got my MIDI setup right, I saved it as MIDI profile in Serato DJ, and everything worked perfectly. After an hour or two of mixing, I quit Serato DJ and turned the computer off (I'm using MacBook Pro, mid-2010, i5, 8 GB RAM, OS X El Capitan). Then, after few hours I turned computer back on, started Serato DJ and.. AMX left deck volume fader was not working, either delivering sound on equally loud level even when fader was brought down to bottom position, or not delivering sound at all even when fader was brought up to the top position. 'Stuck position' of this AMX left deck volume fader was adequate to its 'starting position' when loading Serato DJ or re-loading MIDI profile. In both cases the AMX led lights related to given left deck were showing that the track is being played though (headphone cue was also available, and the sound was ok), so it looked like an issue with MIDI-mapping of the left deck AMX volume fader.
In course of looking for solution, I restored Serato DJ MIDI settings to default. As soon as I did it - everything worked perfectly with given AMX left deck volume fader. So, I MIDI re-mapped all the buttons & knobs AGAIN in the same way as before. Everything worked perfectly again, so I saved MIDI profile again, and practiced my AMX+Serato dj'ing for an hour or two afterwards. Then, I closed the Serato DJ and turned my Mac off. When I turned it back on and re-opened Serato - AMX left deck volume fader was stuck again. Again, it worked perfectly after returning to default MIDI settings, and again it worked perfectly after MIDI re-mapping. And again, when I closed Serato DJ app and re-opened it - left deck volume fader was stuck again..
The question is simple here:
- what can I do to prevent this from happening?
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2) There are 'gain' knobs (I will refer to them as 'gain/trim' later on) for each deck in AKAI AMX, but I can't really understand how they work. Of course I get the 'general idea', but they are clearly not changing the 'track gain' meter visible on screen in Serato DJ (which works differently as I understand, and its value is saved with track data, so it's not good for 'temporary volume adjustment for mixing purposes').
So, although the impact of AMX gain/trim knobs movement can be heard as track goes more loud or more quiet when they move, there's absolutely no visual indication of it in Serato DJ. Combined with the fact that they are 'limitless movement knobs' and as far as I see they do not reset to 0 after next track is loaded into given deck, it makes them practically unusable, as 'blind-rotating' them to find a proper volume level is hardly the sensible thing to do while DJ'ing. Meanwhile, in case of stand-alone dj'ing with Serato DJ using only Akai AMX and sending out “already mixed output”, having a working gain/trim knob for each deck is quite crucial. What’s more, as 'gain/trim' indicator is “invisible” in Serato DJ, I can’t MIDI-re-assign another “limited” AMX knob (eg. “filter”) to work as gain/trim - which would partly solve this problem.
My questions to you in this regard go as follows:
- is it possible to somehow make the on-screen gain/trim level indicators appear for each deck in Serato DJ software?
- if not, can you PLEASE think of including such option in next Serato DJ update?
- for now, how can I re-assign gain/trim MIDI control to another knob of AMX if gain/trim level indicators for each deck are invisible in Serato DJ software? Is it possible at all?
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3) While DJ'ing in 'stand-alone mode' (with only MIDI controllers & sound card, with no 'hardware DJ mixed') using my AMX + LPD8 setup, I assigned 'pitch change slider' to two of AMX 'filter' knobs (one for each deck). This works perfectly for me. However, due to some inexplicable reasons, on-screen visual representation of 'pitch sliders' and accompanying buttons appears on screen in in Serato DJ ONLY when I'm in 'assign MIDI' mode. And this is a problem for me, as I have no way to change 'pitch adjust range' (+8 / +10 / +20 / etc.) while DJ'ing, unless I assign it to specific buttons in my MIDI controllers (which I can't do, as there's not enough of them + it's a function I use rarely, so no point in doing this as long as I can change it by clicking on-screen button).
So, my questions to you in this regard go as follows:
- is it possible to somehow make the on-screen 'pitch slider' indicator and accompanying buttons appear for each deck in Serato DJ software outside 'MIDI-assign mode'?
- if not, can you PLEASE think of including such option in next Serato DJ update?
- for now, how can I change 'pitch adjust range' during DJ'ing if 'pitch adjust' indicators for each deck and accompanying buttons are invisible in Serato DJ software outside 'assign MIDI' mode? Any keyboard shortcut allowing me to do it?
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Can you help me solve these problems? I would really appreciate it, as for now I feel like I splashed ~400 Euro for DJ equipment & software that gives me no chance to sensibly adjust gain while mixing, wouldn't let me change pitch range unless I spare 4 MIDI-assignable buttons for it and makes me re-map all MIDI buttons and knobs to my liking EVERY TIME FROM SCRATCH when I open Serato DJ app, otherwise one deck/channel wouldn't work. As you can imagine, I'm not really happy with that, as however limited my previous setup might be, I had all these functions in it and none of these problems..
Hope to hear from you soon
Best Regards
Marcin 'Duże Pe' Matuszewski
Warsaw, Poland