User Patterns

The creation of User Patterns is one of the things which first attracted me to the DJXII, and also one of the things which gave me the biggest headache.

Before you can begin creating User Patterns there are a few things you must take into account.

• Much to the disappointment of many DJXII owners, User Patterns cannot be created in Cubase. This is because Cubase doesn't support Meta Markers, so you must use a alternative package such as Cakewalk.
• Patterns must only use MIDI channels 9 through to 16.
• User Patterns are lost after powering down unless a set of batteries is fitted. My advice would be to have a set fitted for backup purposes, but still run the DJX off of the mains.

In basic terms, a djx pattern can be thought of as a MIDI file that it is split up into ten parts by the use of Meta Markers (See icon on the left).

Each of these parts then correspond to a button on the Pattern player of the DJXII.

Using Cakewalk as an example, the Meta Markers are dragged from the tool bar onto the sequence time-line at the point where you want the part to begin.

Notice that the first of the Meta Markers is positioned at measure 2. The reason for this is that the first measure of a sequence must be left free for patch change information.

Once your sequence has been divided up into separate parts, its simply a case of saving it as a MIDI type 0 file. This is very important otherwise the pattern launcher will reject the file.