Recommendations for CC for vol control

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Hello all!

I'm trying to use the knobs on my Akai MPD218 to control multiple track volumes in Waveform 12. The knobs can send all kinds of CC and even note info, but there's nothing that jumps out as the 'optimum' selection.. CCs 96/97 IIRC are inc/dec but how will Waveform know which volume to adjust?

I'm sure someone has this sorted, so I'm looking for suggestions.

The knobs are encoders with no start/stop if that matters.

Thanks in advance!

[Peter Widdicombe]

Looks like you have 3 banks of 6 rotaries on that, so you could effectively have 18 controls for Waveform - so you can set them to do 18 track volumes, or 12 and have the A-bank ones for, say, master volume and 5 other "special" functions...

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

Yeah, I'm going to have to experiment. Most of my compositions tend to be 6-8 trakcs as I use complex Kontakt and Reaktor instruments (plus Kult and ZebraHZ), so 12 tracks is more than enough.

Time to fire up the Keurig and consume lots of caffeine!

Thanks for responding, too!

[Peter Widdicombe]

Yeah, and you can go about it 2 ways. One is to go into the "control surfaces" and create or use your existing one. Select one on the left and MOVE the control on the device, and then assign it a "property" on the right. Remember to save it, or it goes away when you exit!

Better/simpler is the MIDI learn function, although it may not allow you to have custom macros.

Screen goes all colorful, and you click what you want to control, and then just tap/move the button on your controller. Not sure if that gets saved automatically, or with the project; or you still have to save it as above.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I did the control surface thing. It 'worked', as far as an ABSOLUTE position, but since the motion isn't used as a relative offset switching projects screws the mix up.

I might have to just cough up for a compatible real control surface w/ motorized faders or something.. well, at least I have the space for such a thing. Just need to see what's compatible and start saving up. Ramen for months, yaay...

Thanks again for the help!

[Peter Widdicombe]

My MPK keyboard has both sliders and knobs - and so far I have only used the sliders and buttons; but I forget which way there are setup.

Pure absolute means moving the controller will potentially cause a jump so that the position of the slider will take over when moved - even if it happens to be at the top or bottom! The other mode is "pickup" which means it would have to be moved over the current setting before it picks up (more graceful takeover).

The other thing I haven't really got great info on, is what exactly the output from Waveform TO the controller for, other than setting the indicators on/off (i.e. recording armed per track...); or whether it can determine rotary encoder settings to gracefully take over, or whether generically continuous encoders are always relative, as they don't really have a zero and max position.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

This is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night, wondering if there's a way to make all this work how I want it to.

If I could trigger a script when a MIDI control is moved, and could determine the current volume level, and the knob value, I might be able to code a routine to increment/decrement based on the difference between the values to see if it is up or down and then only adjust the volume by 1 instead of a fixed jump.. that could get comp0licated. It's the damn retired software engineer part of me, wanting to code up a solution.. heh..

Maybe a cheap Behringer motorized fader unit. I don't need 24 tracks of control, thankfully.

[Peter Widdicombe]

MPK series faders seem to be absolute. Touch them, and the setting jumps to the setting.

Harder to tell with the continuous controllers, but when DEFINING them through the MIDI LEARN feature (I used PAN as a test), they seem to go full left initially. Well behaved after that.

Of course, I just realized where this "falls down", at least for the MPK series. You have multiple (3) banks of 8. First encoder/slider could be for channel 1, 9, or 17 depending on whether your in bank A, B, or C. Now if you lower the volume of, say, A1 which is track 1 (drums), and then switch to bank B and boost the piano to max. Switch back to bank A, and then "lower" the drums just a little bit... but the fader had been at max because of the piano change you just did... so the drums will be at full volume INSTANTLY when you nudge the slider or even touch it by accident. THIS is where "pickup mode" (or relative mode) would be really nice to select. Not sure if that would be a controller, or a Waveform, or BOTH to be reconfigured to work in this manner.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

That initial jump happens here too. Touch the knob, BOOM it jumps, thyen fine.

More work needed, I guess.

[dysjoint]

If you find a solution could you post it up here. Nektar lx61 jumps too.
Also was playing around trying to save midi learn assignments into a plugin preset/per plugin, but didn't have much luck yet.
Midi learn takes a few seconds each time, but it's pretty easy and solid.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Did you try saving the controller/custom controller set within control surfaces? I find it saves settings, but haven't actually tried settings per plugin; but it does keep volume/pan and button press "actions" at the Waveform level.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

I haven't tried assigning MIDI controls to a plugin, one headache at a time for me, heh.

If I find a solution I will CERTAINLY post it here! Even if it's a "I bought a so-and-so control", just so you and others know.

A single-fader Behringer X-touch is $199US, I might cough up and see if THAT works. I just hate to throw new hardware at a problem like this, le sigh.

[SuitcaseOfLizards]

FYI Javascript in Tracktion won't work as it appears I can't cause a MIDI message to trigger a Jacascript function.

Not a surprise, I'm sure the app was never developed to be customizable at that low a level. Time to try a different controller.. sigh.