Roland Dj 202

Roland DJ-202

• Manufacturer's product page
• Forum thread

The Roland DJ-202 is an all-in-one USB MIDI controller with a built in sound card. It has controls for 2 decks that can be toggled between decks to play with 4 decks. As a special feature it's got an in-built sequencer with 8 sounds from the TR-808 and the TR-909 drum machines (TR-606 and TR-707 are available via firmware update).

Drivers

Windows & MacOS

You can download the latest drivers and firmware from https://www.roland.com/global/products/dj-202/downloads/.

Linux

The DJ-202 is a USB class compliant MIDI and audio device, so it's plug-and-play on Linux.

Enabling generic mode

If the device is not properly detected as a MIDI device, you need to enable generic mode in the system settings:

1. Hold [LOAD] Button when plugging in the USB cable until the sequencer start/stop button blinks
2. Press [R channel performance pad 1]
3. Turn the rotary selector left, so only the upper left corner of the master level indicator is lit
4. Press the blinking start/stop button
5. Wait until all pads light up, then disconnect USB cable

Mapping

A mapping is currently being developed, see Github

Pitch control

• Shift + Tempo Fader – adjust pitch continuously

Jog wheel

• Shift + jog – strip search

FX

• FX1-3 (long) – focus FX1-3
• FX1-3 (short) – toggle effect 1-3 on/off
• (Shift) + FX tap – Cycle focused effect forward/backward
• FX level – set FX meta depth
• Shift + FX-level – set effects rack dry/wet
• Shift + FX1-3 – Routing mode - toggle sending respective deck output to fx1 on/off, fx2 on/off, headphones on/off

General

• Shift + Sync – Toggle quantize on/off
• Slip (double tap) – Latch slip mode
• Deck 3/4 (hold) – Toggle other deck temporarily, return to previous deck on release
• Deck 3/4 (press) – Toggle other deck
• Key lock + Param+/- – Shift pitch up/down
• Key lock + Param+-Param – Reset pitch
• Shift + cue (long) – align beatgrid to other deck’s grid
• Shift + cue (once) – align beatgrid to current play position
• Shift + cue (tap multiple) – tap BPM
• Sync (double tap) – Reset BPM

Performance pad groups

Hot cue mode

• Param+/- – beat jump forward/backward
• Shift + Param+/- – increment/decrement beat jump distance
• Pad 1-8 – Save/jump to hot-cue
• Shift + Pad 1-8 (while playing) – Save hot-cue (overwrite existing)
• Shift + Pad 1-8 (while stopped) – Delete hot-cue

Loop mode

• Param+/- – move beatloop forward/backward
• Shift + Param+/- – Double/halve beatloop size
• Pad 1-4 – toggle beatloop of length 1,2,4,8
• Pad 5-8 – Manual loop controls (in, out, exit, on/off)