3rd Party Controllers

[Beno]

Hey all,
As you all know, T2 added direct support for MCU and C4 control surfaces. Many of you have asked for more support of 3rd party surfaces. I just want to get a feel about how important supporting 3rd party controllers is to you. So please answer this poll AND respond to the thread. Some ground rules. Please format your reply by only answering the following easy questions:

1. Do you own T2? Yes or No

2. Do you own a Control Surface (Mackie Brand or 3rd Party)? Yes or No

3. If you answer yes to question 2, please list them here.

4. Do you have any other comments you wish to share on this subject?

Please, only reply to the thread ONCE. We want to keep it manageable for the sake of being able to use the data. If you want to discuss replies, start a new thread. I will delete any posts that are not formatted correctly to keep things neat and tidy.

Disclaimer, the results of this thread will definitely be used but please don't assume that because the results point a certain direction, that the next release of Tracktion will necessarily reflect that. This is simply a way to let you guys tell us what you think.

Thanks for your help and if this goes well, expect more like it in the future.

Ben

[Beno]

1. No
2. No
3. n/a
4. This is an example of my reply

[valley]

1. No. Someone at Mackie needs to call up Guitar Center and do some begging.

2. Yes.

3. MCU, C4

$. The one major weakness of the all-software studio is tactile response. Control surfaces are a huge step forward in usability, IMV. With devices as cheap as that Behringer unit available, you could buy Tracktion *and* a control surface and potentially still have change over the price of some other sequencers. That's a compelling sales argument.

[rpc9943]

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Tascam us428, maudio radium61

4. If anything you could at least support automatable transport. it would be the easiest fix for now. Just like you assign things, you can assign a midi button to control any plugin, why not just make another folder that sets other settings, such as <Transport> "play, ff, pause, rewind, record automation, record, etc" and even have a scrub "jog shuttle left, right" assign. i think this should first be implemented, and then after that you can work on other features. But this idea I have would probably be highest priority in order for users to be able to be happy to use their controllers. Or you should hire one man whose really knowledged in controllers and have him work on extensions for it.

RonC

[pethu]

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Evolution UC-33e

4. A full implementation of MMC would solve my problems without the need for specific device support, since the UC-33e can produce MMC codes. Heck, I do fairly well even as it is just using BOME's MIDI Translator to convert any MIDI message I care to send to virtual keyboard presses, so I would be happy just to have the FF and REW functions work properly with that - for some reason, those two specific keys can't be remapped, and Tracktion does not respond to simulated arrow keys!

[IIRs]

1. No. (talk to Sound Control!)

2. Yes. (sort of)

3. UC-16, Oxygen8.

4. No specific support needed for these IMO. What I would really like to see is min & max values for each midi controller mapping assignment, so I could set up 'morphs' from a single knob like I can with my Nord Modular..

[parky]

1. Do you own T2?

Yes

2. Do you own a Control Surface (Mackie Brand or 3rd Party)?

Yes

3. If you answer yes to question 2, please list them here.

Midiman Radium 61 Keyboard-8 assignable sliders and 8 knobs.

4. Do you have any other comments you wish to share on this subject?

I assume that by control surfaces you don't just mean
dedicated control surfaces? Most of us probably have some assignable knobs/sliders on our keyboard controller and it would be great to be able to use them with maximum flexibility.

[Todd24]

1 not yet
2 yes
3 EZbus
4 Why not make the the transport, faders, etc ALL midi learnable. Then every controller (keyboard, knobs..whatever0 would work with T2. After that there would be no mpre ADDING controlers.

[scoop2]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Tascam US-428
4. The number one motivation for my purchasing T2
was the thought that I could mix with the 428. I hate using the mouse.
Not that I'm disappointed with T2, though, it's great.
And I only really want to be able to assign controllers like
I can in Reason with the 428. That would be enough for me.
Thanks for asking.

[djsubject]

1) yes (intill you sack me then i will have to buy it <so dont do that before its out over here>)

2) yes

3)Behringer BCR2000

4)

any other comments you wish to share on this subject?

well seeing as you asked me directly

using my mouse is killing my wrist!!!! & what vally said

[mikejade]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Edirol PCR-30 keyboard controler
4. Not a dedicated controler, but has transport buttons and some others that cannot be assigned via MIDI assign.
It would be much easier if you could save MIDI control assignment, and not program it again for each new project...

[cellular]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Behringer BCR2000 & M-Audio Ozone
4. To echo some previous posts, i think that the ability to midi learn (MMC or CC) for the transports, mutes etc would be very useful, as well as the ability to save a global setup, as opposed to setting this up per edit.

To add a new comment, parameter feedback would be great, especially for us BCR2000 users. I know it works for the Mackie Control, so it can't be that hard to implement as a general setting (add a setting to have all T's controls dump their assigned midi values when you load a project, move along an automation track or by clicking a button).

[gbles]

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. UC-33

I voted 'So So' as this would be a nice feature to me, but less so than some of the other items on the wanted list (automation clips etc.)

[jsavin]

1. Yes, I own T2.

2. Yes, I own a control surface.

3. Yamaha O3D. Considering buying a Tascam US2400, but wont do it unless I know it works with Tracktion. Mackie controller is too rich for my blood.

4. Other comments:

I can map some, but not all of the faders on the O3D to controllers in T2, but I can't use the O3D effectively for a real controller. Here's why:

If I tell Tracktion to send controller information to the O3D, then the faders move just fine, but even if I'm in automation record mode, I have to fight the motors on the faders to change a value.

The O3D would be usable for me if T2 could be configured with an option to stop sending controller data as soon as it receives (records) some data on a given control. Effectively then, moving a controller on my O3D would punch in to automation record on that control. Hitting Stop in the transport, or turning off automation record would punch out. Respecting punch In/Out points would be helpful as well.

I have done some, but not extensive testing, so it's possible that I'm missing something about how MIDI controllers and automation record work in T2, and that it's possible to use my O3D now, but I haven't figured it out yet.

I have MIDI specs for the O3D, and would be happy to share with you guys. I'm also a software developer and former test engineer myself, so I'm in an excellent position to help with beta testing and debugging for controller support.

Last thing: It would be AWESOME if additional controller support could be extensible, i.e. drop a controller specification file (XML?) in a folder that T2 knows about, and have the controller appear in the list on the Setup tab.

[braj]

1. Do you own T2?
- Yes

2. Do you own a Control Surface (Mackie Brand or 3rd Party)? Yes or No
- Yes

3. If you answer yes to question 2, please list them here.
- UC33e, Oxygen8. Hoping to get Trigger Finger sometime soon.

4. Do you have any other comments you wish to share on this subject?
- The more controllers the better. It would be nice to have the mapping of controllers be a <right-click when over the item to control> option as well.