The introduction of the Dicer may have heralded a new marriage of turntables and controllers, but as with all new marriages, there is a lot to be fully explored. The current rash of YouTube videos featuring the Dicer have only begun to skim the surface of the technical and creative possibilities. While mapping my own Dicers in Traktor Pro, I discovered a whole slew of LED color options, as well as the possibility to control the LED intensity. In this article we have a short video and matching color table that will demonstrate how to map your DJ software to various color outputs on the dicer or other multi-LED controllers.
A RAINBOW OF POSSIBILITIES
Mapping different LED colors is straight-forward. After following our LED programming article, you should be familiar with the process. The only little twist at the end here is that the MIDI range needs to be tweaked to allow the color of your choosing to be displayed. The below table explains the range and the color.
Red: 0-15
Pink: 16-31
Rose: 32-47
Dark Orange: 48-63
Light Orange: 64-79
Yellow: 80-95
Lime: 96-111
Green: 112-127
How does the Dicer display different colors? It has two LED under each button, and changing the MIDI range tells it how much of each color to ‘turn on’. Mixing the two LED intensities changes the color.
A side note here is that, as BradCee mentions in the LED programming article, when mapping Hotcue State, the behavior is not as predictable with the Controller Range of MIN=0 and MAX=1. Depending on what type of cue is set (Load, Grid, Cue, Fade In/Out or Loop), the behavior is different, with some requiring the blend to be checked and others no blend.
NOT THE BRIGHTEST CANDLE…
Changing the intensity of the LED is as easy as lowering the MAX number from the above list. Another possibility is to increase the MIN number so that the button is visible even with the output control ‘off’. Apart from the latter, I don’t really see the benefit of this, but I mention it as it exists.
Support this blog and purchase your dicers here.
hello…dicer’s work with traktor pro 2?thank’s
Hey guys,
I have coded a small tool which enables one of the “hidden” Dicer features. You can read further details over at the SL forums
http://www.serato.com/forum/discussion/331711
[quote comment=”36508″]@ RubixDigitales: +1, I totally agree! I really like Serato but in the last month frustration about MIDI support is dominating![/quote]
?? Why – map what you want !
[quote comment=”36520″][quote comment=”36518″]Hello, it is possible to use 3 dicer ( one pair + 1) with serato scratch live for 3 turntables ?
/quote]
i don’t think so since the sent midi notes are fix, i.e. you can’t decide which one is sending informations.
BUT maybe with third party software as an intermediate step which alters the midi information from one of your dicer pairs,
“maybe” meaning of course only if they first pair and the second single one (or pair) are recognized as two different midi devices, which i assume.
in that case i think a workaround is possible. just use midi pipe or something similar
i don’t know about the latency though.
but i think what you want definitely will not work like that out of the box.[/quote]
Okay thank you for your answer !
Of course if anybody has a workaround, I’d give it a try.
And the fb link in my first post is wrong 😉
You all should be lucky with your LEDs. I fully mapped Torq to Dicer and there is nothing lighting up instead of the three small page buttons. Novation should have a free version of Automap for the Dicer. So everyone can have LEDs show up.
[quote comment=”36529″]lol @ the cat meow[/quote]
Im glad someone else heard the cat meow as this was the highlight of the video for me.
Im running out of USB ports, so the Im either going to get a second midi fighter or dicer…. thats the big question is which one can do more?
To experiment with the Dicer it’s really funny! Yesterday I’ve made a Vu-meter for Traktor using the different colors!
[quote post=”7761″]A side note here is that, as BradCee mentions in the LED programming article, when mapping Hotcue State, the behavior is not as predictable with the Controller Range of MIN=0 and MAX=1. Depending on what type of cue is set (Load, Grid, Cue, Fade In/Out or Loop), the behavior is different, with some requiring the blend to be checked and others no blend.[/quote]
off the back of this, with my dicers i’ve set controller min and max at -1 and 4 and midi range min 0 and max 127, and checked blend. my cues are red (but a bit dim), loops are green and no cue is off. if you’re not totally fussed about which colour is used for what cue type this is handy.
this works as traktor is breaking down the 128 steps of led midi (including 0) across the 6 states for cues.
it’s not perfect, but it does the job.
also props to phil for putting this up, found your led list in the forum a little while ago and it was a big help 😀
I got sum dez, on my mk5 Gs, color map shud b like spase ballin, but novation, in my opinion shud make a dicer that matches the 1200’s style, i mean plastic, no matter what color lights u put on it is still plastic and kinda cheap looking, otherwise nice product
lol @ the cat meow
Nice little gadget, me likes, looks fairly simple, thanks for the info.
Nice article. I’ve been mapping my Dicers to DJ Decks using user scripts. Works amazingly well. One thing I have with my DJ Decks setup (not sure if it can be done in Traktor) is to have a button lit at 0% intensity when a cue point is not stored, 50% when a cue point is stored, and lit at 100% (or even a different colour altogether) when the button is pressed to trigger a stored cuepoint.
Can this kind of custom mapping be achieved in Traktor?
Very nice article phil. I’ve been debating purchasing the dicer for some time, and this doesn’t quite have me sold, but it’s a push in the right direction.
I like the mirrored Dicer placement in the video “|_O::O_|” and like to know if the buttons can also mirrored. it may be required to open them.
Can Someone post how to disect them and do the button reshuffle?
I just got dicers this week and I love them!
So I was super curious about this article when I saw it on the main page. But I can tell you how hude my disappointment was, when I recognize its for Traktor only. Thats really awesome since Dicers are – as we all know – official Serato accessory. So wouldnt it be nice to get it fixed (at Novation or Serato) to get these rainbow colors too? I would love them the most!
Greetings from Czech republic (Europe :))), I love DJ Tech Tools (thats how I got to know Dicers anyway), keep on doing your thing!
Heavy
[quote comment=”36518″]Hello, it is possible to use 3 dicer ( one pair + 1) with serato scratch live for 3 turntables ?
/quote]
i don’t think so since the sent midi notes are fix, i.e. you can’t decide which one is sending informations.
BUT maybe with third party software as an intermediate step which alters the midi information from one of your dicer pairs,
“maybe” meaning of course only if they first pair and the second single one (or pair) are recognized as two different midi devices, which i assume.
in that case i think a workaround is possible. just use midi pipe or something similar
i don’t know about the latency though.
but i think what you want definitely will not work like that out of the box.
Hello, it is possible to use 3 dicer ( one pair + 1) with serato scratch live for 3 turntables ?
Thx
Fred
“…plus I’d really would love it if Traktor gave the option to flash the light with the midi range output. I know I can use the output for beat phaser to falsh but depending on what the output is mapped to, there are case’s I’d like a blinking light when a track is not playing too…”
+12,000
Ah… Just noticed that it wasn’t Ean’s post. 🙂 Hmm.. Deduct the cred from Ean and transfer it to pilmat. Great post.
Still stand by the Chuck Norris comparisson though.
[quote comment=”36513″]I wonder, will we ever get official DJTT Dicer mapping for TP?? ;)[/quote]
Ean = Official mapping to any controller.
He’s to MIDI controllers, like Chuck Norris is to everything else.
Super info Ean! Thanks. This makes the product alot more interresting. Why don’t the hardware producers make this kind of videos?
I wonder, will we ever get official DJTT Dicer mapping for TP?? 😉
Dam I could of done with this post 5 weeks back! This article will help many tho, great post!
I found the numbers/colours numbers much easyer to suss out on a Dicer than my Launchpad. why can’t company’s simply tell us the midi range for each of the colour’s in the manual!?
+++++
I pray for the day when the guy’s at NI could work out a way to apply midi learn to the output, out put mapping is soooooooo painful and slow with current system, plus I’d really would love it if Traktor gave the option to flash the light with the midi range output. I know I can use the output for beat phaser to falsh but depending on what the output is mapped to, there are case’s I’d like a blinking light when a track is not playing too.
+++
@RubixDigitales – dude I think your missing the point of these two very different software’s. Traktors biggest and I mean biggest strength is it’s midi mapping capabilities, it’s pretty much the case that your own imagination is the limit of what is possible with Traktors mapping. Serato is a whole different beast, it was never set out to be user definable in the first place and it was only rival software like Traktor that pushed Serato towards the midi arena which it didn’t even use to support. Serato’s always been about plug and play, but thanks to the continued rising success of personal midi mapping, Serato are slowly giving there user’s more definable option’s. At first it may seem a bit ironic, but the native support thing is more about plug and play / reliability, serato’s good old mantra. If you want more options you should get requesting at serato.com, it’s not Novations fault.
Is there any way to (consistently) map that thing (or any midi pad//button), to beat repeat/loop roll in Traktor, like it does in Serato? I have been trying to do so on an mpd24 with just about every setting you could come up with, but it’s only right about 5% of the time.
Theses can also be modded to use the blue & red leds I used in the original electronics design – looks well dope!
[quote comment=”36505″]Why is the youtube video in Mono sound? Thought my speaker got disconnected and spent 5 minutes before I tested an itunes song![/quote]
^^^ Funny I thought the same thing and immediately jiggled the wires on muh mixing board before notice there was only a left signal.
Does this kind of MIDI LED programing work in general. Is there a way to do this is in Ableton Live?
@ RubixDigitales: +1, I totally agree! I really like Serato but in the last month frustration about MIDI support is dominating!
Why is the youtube video in Mono sound? Thought my speaker got disconnected and spent 5 minutes before I tested an itunes song!
Oh the irony of being able to remap the dicer in Traktor.
The Dicer came out as an official Serato Scratch Live product produced by novation with the latest version (2.1) having native support for the dicer. Why I find it so ironic is that that with native support came the lack of customisability. The dicer has 3 scenes in addition to three ‘shift’ scenes which can be used when the specific scene button is held down. Only two ‘shift’ scenes of scene 2 and 3 can be mapped/remapped in Serato!!!! Regular scenes 1, 2 & 3 cannot be remapped, you’re stuck with using the factory out-of-the-box settings which defies belief in the midi customisable world we live in and just bizarre considering that it is an officially supported piece of Serato hardware. It seems as though the Serato staff got way to caught up in getting native support up and running that they forgot that people prefer to remap their own settings which is a ridiculous oversight. The older version of Serato (v2.0) does allow total remapping of the Dicer however the settings are not saved when you quit out of Serato making it just as frustrating.
Seeing that not only can all the buttons from all the scenes be remapped in Traktor but the colour too makes me sad especially considering that it is NOT officially supported by Traktor. I know that there is third party remapping software out there, however it should not be needed as has just been demonstrated in the above video.
Ean, I read that you assisted in the design of the Dicer, can you PLEASE get in touch with the Novation boys and get them to fix this bug ASAP! Don’make me beg!
was there a cat meowing in the very begining?
OK so since I’m a Traktor user and I already have too many toys, I was trying to NOT buy a dicer. You’re really messing up the plan here.