What control surfaces are people using?

[dlandis]

One of my tasks for W12 is improved controller support.

So far on my list is Icon's line of controllers and Komplete Kontrol M/S. I should have time for one or two more, anything else popular that people are using?

I've got a bunch of really ancient controllers on which I would not recommend you wasting any time. However, I hope to upgrade pretty soon probably to a Native Instruments Maschine MK3, a Studiologic SL88 Grand Hammer Action Keyboard Controller, an Arturia KeyLab 61 MkII 61-key Keyboard Controller, and a ROLI Seaboard Rise 2. Of these (and since you're already doing Komplete Kontrol), I think the Arturia series would be a great suggestion to consider for controller support.

In the spirit of FWIW.

Thanks for undertaking this!

[fde101]

an old-school guitarist and singer my whole life, how does one determine if they need or would seriously benefit by one of the work surfaces you guys are all bandying about?

If you are primarily guitar-oriented and are recording audio rather than MIDI data into the DAW, a few things to consider:

First, it was already pointed out by Watchful above that you can use the control surface to start and stop recording, playback, etc. - essentially remote transport controls that you can take with you to a different place in the room, perhaps you record at a distance from your computer to reduce the sound of the computer's fan in the recording?

That said, for the most basic transport functions, a wireless computer keyboard would do the same job, so it may not be too convincing - and for some users, the keyboard might be a better choice as you could use it for more things than just your DAW or other software that supports MIDI control surfaces (though there are programs other than DAWs which can make use of them in various different ways).

Some control surfaces provide features which are of benefit to the actual music performance - adding knobs and buttons and such which can be tied to features of the plugins you are using so you can adjust delay time, overdrive amount, effect mix, or whatever other parameter as you are playing, with a minimum of mouse/keyboard activity, so that it doesn't take you out of the groove or use so much time to get to that you need to stop playing to make the adjustment. There are a small number of control surfaces out there which can be set up as pedals to hit with your feet so that your hands stay free to play the guitar, so it basically turns your entire DAW into a big custom effects pedal for your guitar playing - or lets you start playback for backing tracks, drum accompaniment, adjust tempo, etc. - some of which may be useful both for live performance and during recording, as you might be able to record the output of the effects (or record as automation of the controls) in order to adjust some of those parameters dynamically for different parts of the recording (or live performance).

Other control surfaces are optimized more for mixing, and provide faders, mute buttons, EQ controls and the like so that you can balance your mix with a more traditional setup than using the keyboard and mouse. Other than familiarity for people who are more accustomed to working with controls like this, there is one big advantage which can save you time and frustration while mixing, depending on how you work: you can adjust several things independently, but simultaneously. Consider that with a mouse you can adjust one channel at a time, or in DAWs which support groups (or by selecting multiple channels before adjusting) you can make the same adjustment to a set of channels at once. With a control surface with a bunch of faders, you can use different fingers to turn two channels up while at the same time turning another channel down. Depending on how you work, that can be a big help - or it might be useless to you.

The better, larger, higher-quality faders also allow adjustments to be made more smoothly over time than many people are able to make them using a mouse or other pointing device.

In the end, you are the one who can make the call as to whether or not a control surface might be helpful to you, and what kind. Different people work in different ways in different situations and will see different benefits (or lack of such) with different types of control surfaces, so there is no one answer as to whether or not you would benefit from one or what kind would be most useful to you.

One other factor to consider, particularly with larger control surfaces, is the space they take up on your desk (or in the case of a pedal-type control surface, on your floor). If your desk is already crowded with other things and you don't have a lot of room, trying to take that control surface and move it around and position it conveniently every time you go to use it may be more of a hassle than it is worth. If you have the space to leave one permanently set up where it will be used, you just might find it worthwhile - again, depending on how you work with your DAW.

[skipscada]

I'm using my Arturia KeyLab Essential 61 as a control surface as well as a MIDI controller. It supports Mackie standard so anything that can be done to expand support for that would be appreciated.

+1

[Strainer]

Nektar Panorama T4 here, and would love to get a deeper integration to waveform!

[mrdave740]

Microsoft Sidewinder joystick. Hey, use what you have! 4 axes of analog control and 12 buttons can do a lot, especially when my Yamaha PSR 275 keyboard has no pitch or modulation control. I've even programmed notes on most of the buttons and used it as a musical instrument - very flexible and gets you thinking in different ways than a normal keyboard.

I also use the free version of Touch Portal on iPhone to control transport when not next to my PC keyboard (I'm mostly a guitar player).

[joshka]

AUTO-ADMIN: Non-MP3, WAV, OGG, SoundCloud, YouTube, Vimeo, Twitter and Facebook links in this post have been protected automatically. Once the member reaches 5 posts the links will function as normal.

If you want the best answer for this, go hire Jürgen Moßgraber who writes the DrivenByMoss controller scripts for Bitwig for a few days consulting. You’ll get a tonne more advice than most could possibly answer.

http://www.mossgrabers.de/index.html (http://www.mossgrabers.de/index.html)

[Tj Shredder]

But that would drive people to Reaper/Bitwig instead…

[ON BEATS]

I am looking for a small, wireless MIDI controller with the basic play, stop, record and maybe one fader for overall volume output

I cannot find anything online so if anybody has an idea please let me know! Thanks

[terrynoakes]

I am looking for a small, wireless MIDI controller with the basic play, stop, record and maybe one fader for overall volume output

I cannot find anything online so if anybody has an idea please let me know! Thanks

The only one I can think of and use is the now discontinued 'Frontier Design Tranzport'
no fader though, works perfectly with all the Tracktion & Waveform versions I have owned including W12.
Picked my up on ebay, they still show up now & again.
Okay Just found this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MqyXvrC8MyE

[ON BEATS]

Thank you Terry its appreciated! I left work early because I can't cope so I'll watch it now

[Jason_ZA]

Novation Launch Control XL and Roli Loop Block. I see that the Roli Loop Block can send MMC Commands but am not sure if Waveform Pro 12 supports MMC commands, i.e.

To control the transport of DAWs with your Loop Block:

Your Loop Block will send the following MMC messages:
Play sends MMC Play (on) and MMC Stop (off)
Record sends MMC Record Strobe (on) and MMC Record Exit (off)
When unassigned the minus (‘-’) button sends MMC Rewind
When unassigned the plus (‘+’) button sends MMC Fast-Forward
The Undo button sends MMC Stop


Would be great to control the transport of Waveform with the Roli Loop Block.

[Peter Widdicombe]

Have you tried to create a custom controller in Waveform? Basically you create a new one, set the block to be the attached device; and then add midi events to it.
One by one, press the button, and add the action to that button.
This also works for continuous controllers, like rotary knobs or sliders (volume or pan... Personally haven't tried VST controller settings yet like filter, ARP rate, modulation).

I think you can do it the reverse way as well. Lower right, there's a MIDI Learn button. Assuming you have a CustomController created and assigned, then from the resulting display, select the Waveform control you want to add, then go to the device and press the button; and the two are associated. When finished, press MIDI Learn again to turn off the learn feature!

In either case, remember to save that periodically.

If you don't like it, either delete it later, or simply unassign the device from that custom controller. I suppose technically you could have 2 or 3 custom definitions you could logically attach to while experimenting.

[Jason_ZA]

Hi @Peter Widdicombe. I did set up a basic custom controller for my Launch Control XL but it only works for the first 8 tracks. Ideally I'd like to have full functionality of the Launch Control XL, like Track Select, Send Select, etc. so I can view/control more than just the first 8 tracks. Also I'd like the Roli Loop Block to control the transport functions of Waveform but Tracktion requires MMC command input and I'm not sure if it has this or how to set this up, if it does. I've tried assigning CC's to the transport buttons but it doesn't recognise them.

[housepig13]

Hi @Peter Widdicombe. I did set up a basic custom controller for my Launch Control XL but it only works for the first 8 tracks. Ideally I'd like to have full functionality of the Launch Control XL, like Track Select, Send Select, etc. so I can view/control more than just the first 8 tracks.

running into the same issue - I'm not trying to do anything super complicated, just track levels, pan and some aux sends, but I'm working with more than 8 tracks. Is there any way to assign, for example, an unused rotary controller on channel 8 of the Launch Control to control the pan of track 9 in Waveform?

[Peter Widdicombe]

I would THINK you can assign almost any buttons that send MIDI CC or events, to control something else - but it might be a real headscratcher to work with ...

When in your custom controller definition in Waveform, click the Edit control mappings and then in the table on the left click on "choose a controller", then move/touch the control (it will tell you in that field what it was).
Then on the right box, click and follow Track -> Pan -> select which track you want.

Unfortunately you can't tweak (or copy?) the built-in ones; only on the custom ones you create.