Switching from track to bus faders

[jboileau]

Hi, I am new to this forum and have a quick question before I dive deeper into AZ Controller. I have done the basic tutorial and can see the power of AZ Controller and, of course, the learning curve. 

But before I spend more time learning it, I wanted to make sure one of my goal is possible.

I have an M-Audio Oxygen Pro 61. It has 9 faders. I would like the faders to control either tracks or buses volume. For example, let's say I use the first 8 faders to control the first 8 tracks volume. Could I also have a way to switch to the bus section and have these same faders control the first 8 buses? If yes, would there be a way to assign a button on my controller to switch from tracks and busses?

Thanks for any help! I haven't found any way to do this with the other Controller plugins in Cakewalk.

[azslow3]

Sure that is possible...

One note. You want control not the "first 8 strips" but the "first 8 WAI strips". You can then move WAI, from controller or by mouse, and so control next 8 strips. Initially the number of indicated WAI strips is not important, making them really match what you are controlling is not basic (you will need Monitors).

There are several ways to organize multiple layouts for the same control, but in your example you still need just 2 Actions per fader: "Strip" and "Value".
But you will need a Software States Set (can be created in the Options Tab). The name of the set and names of the states play no role in this example, but it should have 2 States.
Let say Set is "StripType" and States are "Track" and "Bus". I repeat, the Set can be "MySet" and States "A" and "B".

In the "Strip" Action for a fader, instead of "Track" or "Bus" you select "StripType" (all defined Sets will appear in the list). Select "First in WAI". And then "+0", "+1", etc. for 8 faders.
When you switch "StripType" in the Overview Tab, you are switching between tracks and buses.

For switching from the controller, you will need a button with "Set state" Action, with "StripType" "Next" "loop" options.

As I have mentioned, you can organize WAI indication also switch, controller follow mouse focus, etc. But that is more complicated.

Read "ACT MIDI explained". There are many tips how to do things in that tutorial.

[jboileau]

Thanks for the quick reply and suggestions. I will do your suggested reading first. I have some learning to do, but being a software developer I feel up to the challenge.

I will give AZ Controller a try then!

[jboileau]

Hi Alexey,

I have been able to make things work pretty well and it was easier than I expected, which is great. The way you handle pan is different from all the other controller plugins in Cakewalk and you are the only one that got it right! Thanks for that. It simply behaves correctly with your plugin.

Here is a quick rundown of what I did and have so far. For now I am concentrating in making it work in DAW mode, I will explore plugin-ins later.

I selected your 'Startup preset' for my starting point after watching your startup video on YouTube. It had most of what I needed already. I assigned sliders, rotaries and buttons the standard way and it simply worked 'as is' for most of the stuff. I don't feel I need more than one bank for my DAW control, so I used the bank < and > buttons to move from 8 WAI strips to the next. I also used some available buttons, 2 of them, to switch WAI to track and busses. And my initial goal of being able to act on track faders and bus fader is satisfied. Great!

For some reason the rotaries gave me some difficulty. They where set as Mackie in my controller and would change from 2 values only: 1 and 65 in the 'Last MIDI Event'. So I changed them in my controller for CC events instead and it worked. The only drawback is that by using the bank buttons to change WAI strip groups it would also change the channel number for my rotaries, 13 to 16. I edited my controller settings to send these CC to the same channel, 13, and it fixed that. I may also try another DAW preset in my controller and see if it works better with AZ Controller.

Thanks!

[azslow3]

Original Mackie has physical encoders. That is great for DAW controls, when some physical control is switched to control something else, you don't need to "catch", encoders are always "in sync" with parameters. AZ Controller support that, instead of "Value" "Direct" you can select "Value" "Endless". But from pictures of Oxygen Pro, it has normal knobs, not encoders. It imitate encoders in Mackie mode, but that is not the same as real encodes. So you have done right move, setting knobs to what they really are.

Note that AZ Controller controller has several extra modes for normal knobs and faders (unique feature). "Instant" and "Step". Both target behavior when you can control any parameter not dependent from current physical control position. For Instant there is also curve selection. You can try both. May be you find them useful, especially when you often switch parameter you control. These extra modes need some learning to use in practice.