What control surfaces are people using?

[housepig13]

I just tried that out - when I dig into the menu to assign a parameter to the midi controller, it still limits me to selecting a parameter from tracks 1 through 8.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Ahahahaha - I tried hacking the trkctrlr file directly and that didn't work.
But just above where you would click the button to edit, there's a bargraph/number that says "how many channels"; that defaults to 8. Just set to 16.

Now there may be some weird stuff happening - by default, controller 9 is volume, so don't know if they are offset by one after 8...

[housepig13]

But just above where you would click the button to edit, there's a bargraph/number that says "how many channels"; that defaults to 8. Just set to 16.

brilliant. worked a treat. thanks!
now I just have to figure out how to assign controls to plugin parameters....

[Jason_ZA]

Thanks @Peter Widdicombe for pointing out the channels. This works great. Now to be able to change the bottom 8x buttons to MUTE if the MUTE button is selected, SOLO if the SOLO button is selected and RECORD ARM if RECORD ARM is selected but also be able to then click Track Select, to select the next 8x tracks to MUTE, SOLO or RECORD ARM, based on the selection.

[Peter Widdicombe]

The MPK doesn't have that many buttons, but I did have issues with that, just trying to arm/disarm tracks for recording. You can select the operation you want as a toggle, for Mute, Solo, or Arm, and it will then toggle the setting. I did find, however, that the status of the lights on the MPK didn't actually work, and I had to rely on the Waveform screen to determine ARM status. Could be I didn't have full 2-way setup with the control surface as an OUTPUT device as well.

The other thing that probably depends on the controller itself is what is sent or not sent on "bank select". For the MPK, it does actually send out different codes if I use button/fader on bank1 or bank2, so Waveform will "know" that.

Track SELECTION was sketchy. If I happened to be IN THE RIGHT STATE, then the up/down arrows would actually change track for me, but if I hit play/stop on the keyboard and THEN hit up/down arrows then "focus" had changed and that no longer worked. Probably need to do some scripting to do that - but I don't have enough buttons (unless maybe I can use a bank of the drumpads to function as selector functions, which I really don't want to do).

[beta male]

Tascam FW1884. I'd love to have support for its EQ controls, or at least an easy way to customise Waveform to respond to them. I've tried tweaking the MIDI controller assignments, but that just resulted in the Tascam controlling every instance of whatever plugin I was trying to control

[musirafael]

Just grabbed a cheap nanokontrol v2. Don't really need anything fancy for my needs.

[musirafael]

I have connected nanokontrol v2 using the Mackie protocol as described in .
It works fine.

Howerver, I have noticed that in in W12 there is a separate Nanocontrol Controller file. I would expect it to be used without booting the nanokontrol in Mackie emulation mode. I have tried it but it doesn't seem to work in neither modes. I wonder why it has been included.

[Sir Hannes]

Hi,

also general noob question using an external controller for plugins/ synths, e.g. some Arturia keyboard stuff or so.

Do all Synth-Instruments use the same CC's? So when I control with a surface the cutoff and resonance of one synth and then open another synth from another company, how does the controller knows, what to do?

Or is a surface I programmed saved for every single synth-plugin?

Same question for plugins like EQs, Comps: using a FabFilter Pro Q3, programming any surface knobs to that. Now opening an TubeTech EQ: Can I now program my surface to this again. And when switching between Q3 and TubeTech, the surface follows?

Thanks

[SuddenShock]

Well on many other DAW's I am able to use quite easily my KORG NanoKey Kontrol and Studio control surfaces. Waveforms however I am still trying to figure out what the mystery is that I need to solve in order to use what I have purchased. So far, Waveforms only seems capable of seeing my NanoKey Kontrol but not the NanoKey Studio surfaces. But I connect to the other DAW's I have no problem. What do I have to do to get these two very common control surfaces to connect to this DAW?!.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Does Waveform actually SEE the Nanokey Studio surface? If it does and is assigned to a controller, it should do whatever functions have been tied to that custom controller. Remember a controller has an input/output device you link to for it to do anything, and a set of functions tied to the specific MIDI controls seen on THAT physical controller.

[fde101]

Do all Synth-Instruments use the same CC's? So when I control with a surface the cutoff and resonance of one synth and then

No.

open another synth from another company, how does the controller knows, what to do?

Normally it does not until you explicitly tell it.

Or is a surface I programmed saved for every single synth-plugin?
...
And when switching between Q3 and TubeTech, the surface follows?

For the Nektar controllers, they have their own plugin host called Nektarine, which you need to configure for a given plugin, and Nektarine then supposedly keeps track of things after that, so in theory you load Nektarine as a plugin onto your track, then load the actual plugin you want into Nektarine, and the controls get mapped for you. I say "supposedly" because every time I have tried to load a plugin through Nektarine it has caused my DAW to crash (tried with several) so I don't actually use Nektarine and thus just ignore that functionality.


In practice, I make my adjustments with the mouse (actually a graphics tablet acting like a big trackpad) anyway. I use controllers mostly for keys and pads, sometimes for transport control, so my own solution to this problem is not to waste time trying to find one. If the pads and keys work along with things like velocity, damper pedal (when relevant), etc., I am usually content.

The controller I have from Nektar is the Aura (pads), and it is a nice pad controller even without the knobs.

The most important time I would want the physical knobs on the controller would be for performing live. In that case I would probably be hosting any relevant plugins in MainStage rather than in a traditional DAW, and MainStage has its own way of dealing with these issues.

[Sir Hannes]

I see your point and agree, fde101. That's why I am not into that topic.

Being a cellist I dislike creating music with the mouse. for repetitive tasks like EQing after hours my hands are hurting. working with synthesizer plugins, for me it feels way more musically to use knobs/ potis. also to get much faster to ideas.

Till now, it seems, most people are fine with using the mouse. because the industry is not really developing sth simple.

for anyone who works massive tons of time with EQing, I purchased PEQ 3000 from tc electronics, a plugin from MIDAS but with a 3-potis and 4 knobs plus a color FFA in a small box via USB. Can highly recommend it.

[fde101]

What you need to be careful of when using those "hardware plugin" solutions is that as technology advances and newer operating systems and software versions are released the companies eventually get bored with them and stop updating the drivers. They can certainly be nice while they last, but they tend to have a limited lifespan.

[musirafael]

Very true. I experienced this with my Nord Modular. Evemntually, I had to sell it.