Novation has announced that Twitch – the ‘touchstrip DJ controller’ – now has a free application that lets Twitch control parameters and build custom mappings in Ableton Live, and any other MIDI-compatible software.
The Twitch Live Translator software receives ‘raw’ MIDI messages generated by Twitch, and translates them into MIDI messages that can be ‘learned’ to parameters in Ableton Live. This allows a blank starting point to map hardware controls to parameters in Live in any way you want.
The application has been created using Cycling 74 Max/MSP. This means that anyone can run this application — regardless of whether they own Max/MSP — but users of Max/MSP will be able to open the source code to edit and tweak to their own preference. Novation is encouraging users to share and redistribute their versions to the wider community on the Novation forum.
Twitch has a built in two-in four-out audio interface and 16 backlit trigger pads, as well as conventional DJ mixer controls and plenty of rotary encoders, making it an attractive option for Live control. Twitch was designed in partnership with Serato for their ITCH software (which comes with Twitch), and a Traktor mapping and overlay have been available for Twitch since the controller was unveiled. Now, with full control through the Twitch Live Translator, Twitch has been opened up to Ableton Live DJs and performers.
Strange that it doesn’t have automatpping in Ableton? Is there are difference of opinion between Ableton and Novation – even the machine does not have automapping?
Ive been interested in this controller since they started showing it at trade shows…..Im not sure exactly how I would use it, being that Im a Numerology, Reason, and Renoise user, but I like the amount of controls it has. It seems like a cool controller for even someone like me, who is not into DJ culture at all. I just still havent figured out how I could use this thing in my workflow.