DAW Controllers

Music Production Music Tech Discussion
1

I’ve been jamming away with Ableton over the last week or so… having a great time putting in clips & arranging stuff into scenes & assigning things to buttons on my Midi keyboard. Watching the M_nus Live Pack was a real inspiration to follow up on the idea.

So easy to do in Ableton, but I was looking for ways to do something similar in Logic, so dusted off my Novation Nocturn. Its great.

In Mixer mode… the Pots are the Faders & you have all your mute buttons & sends. You can hit the crossfader left & right to flick between banks of your mixer faders - 8 at a time.

Only thing is… that its pretty limited to what you can do. You are limited to Automaps Settings when using the mixer. To control a Plug in, you must have it on. You cant just assign a parameter to a knob or a button no matter what. I havent really been using the Nocturn with my plugins as it just felt a little clunky.

DAW control is where its coming into its own I think. I’m going to make 6mins worth of loops on every track on the arrange. Then do mutes & Volume fades to build up the track in Logic… Then delete the unused afterwards & maybe iron out the automation & change it to a filter etc…

I’m just sick of staring at the screen & working in blocks. Would be really nice to record it live - like a performance.

Long winded post Guys… But a nice way of getting out of Loopitis?! :stuck_out_tongue:

Wondering if anyone else is making tracks in this way… any practical advice?

I’m yet to actually do it properly… but I’ve been messing about & I think its gonna do what I want. Much better having the LED Pots on the Nocturn than a “Dumb” Midi Keyboard that needs its controls jiggled a bit / reset to work.

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What controllers do “You Guys” use? ;) 

Although the Novation / Automap stuff looks the Sh!t… its kinda expensive for what it is I think. I’ve been doing a lot of research over the last week or so & this is pretty sweet.

Behringer BCR2000 & BCF2000

[url]http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/BCR2000.aspx[/url]

[url]http://www.behringer.com/EN/Products/BCF2000.aspx[/url]

Both are pretty cheap - but offer lots of control. Theres also a program called Opus Locus (for $40) that allows you to emulate a Mackie Control Surface with your DAW.

Few Bugs probably… but a lot cheaper than the real thing!

It works on most Midi Devices… Even bog standard Midi Keyboards. You can assign all Transport buttons & much more to it. Theres a good forum on the site too… so check it out if you are interested.

[url]http://www.opuslocus.com/[/url]

The BCR2000 has millions of LED Pots… and the BCF2000 has Motorised Faders (pretty unique at this price range). Has anyone got any experience of hooking these up with their DAW?

2

On Ebay I managed to pick up a Novation SL Zero midi controller for £80 the other week…I’d highly recommend it as the automap plugin works so well, even for most 3rd party synths like sylenth or bass station.



With this controller you also get the full version of bass station vst for free!


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2nd hand all the way Mate - So many bargains to had!

Which Zero was it? The Mk1 with 2 LED screens or the Mk2? 

They’re a pretty sexy looking controller :smiley:

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I got the mk I as its so much cheaper…



Still a very good controller though.



[url=http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/nov06/articles/remotezero.htm]SOS Past Articles now online (back to January 1994)


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I think thats a nice controller Man… You’ve got 2 LED screens!

Does it have drumpads too?

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Yes, there are 8 pressure sensitive drum pads on the mk I. They are smaller than drum pads on a lot of other controllers but I’ve had no problems them.



They main joy of it is the automap function. Whatever instrument or effect etc you click on is automatically updated on the controller, making tweaking parameters easier and a lot more fun!


7

I actually changed the side that I have it on now,  to my Left side.

It feels a lot more natural to use it as a control where it is now… had to take my had off the mouse, then touch the controller… then back to mouse etc…

Mouse on the Right.  Left for the Controller.

8

I’ve got the ZeRo Sl Mk II, great purchase, transport controls and hands on control, fantastic stuff.

9

Been thinking about getting either the MKII or BCR2000.

More leaning towards the BCR2000 at the moment - just for the amount of controls.

You can pick one up virtually brand new (2nd hand) for about €80.

Nocturn seems pretty cool though for the moment. Picked it up for €50 - Bargain. Loads up for grabs. Think as a DAW controller, it actually offers the exact same functionality as the MKII (based on reading both manuals…).

I’d love to get one - They look great… but we’ll see if Automap gets an update that allows you to fix parameters to certain controls. I think I’d prefer if the faders were Motorised or at least Pots instead.

10


Novation's 'Automap pro' can be used in two modes with a DAW.

1, In 'Automap mode' the automap server manages the auto-mapping of your instruments, fx & allows the user to make new templates or addition pages to existing templates.

2. In 'Advanced mode' here we are dealing with a pre-made template pacifically for the DAW in question (deals directly with your DAW addressing the mixer, sends etc.
In this mode you can also 'auto-map' too, e.g. directly addressing your DAW while some controllers are mapped to ... audio editing commands from the edit menu in your DAW for example .

Say you have the SL Zero MK 11 or the SL25 mk11 keyboard with Automap 'PRO' installed. Because these controllers are designed with a panel full of knobs & faders, this makes the whole controlling experience a breeze when switching from say advanced mode (DAW) to auto-map mode (instruments, fx & possibly switching pages of DAW edit menu commands or any commands from any DAW menu.

The Automap & advanced mode concept allows you to set up/configure & control a custome setup that reflects your digital studio exactly the way you wish.
Automap 'pro' allows the mapping of your DAW's key commands, so a few mappings in this mode (auto-map mode ), you could be cutting, copying, pasting, time stretching, bouncing, normalizing all from your controllers front panel.. very fast & no mouse.

I highly recommend the above hardware & software ICN ..

Lenners.






11

Hey Lenners, How’s it going Mate?

SO… what do you think:

Can you have 8 channels… and rearrange the Pots/Encoders so that they control lets say a Lo pass / Hi pass filter Frequency setting…

(These Filters are inserts on each of the 8 channels)

so that twisting the knob makes the Freq range go from 0 -> Up  -or- Top -> Down?

Totally replacing the Volume Fader on each of the 8 knobs / channels on the Novation with this Filter control?

AND… Still having the Mute buttons underneath as you would normally on the 1st Mixer Page?

EDIT: and without having the Inserts open on the arrange & selecting them with a mouse or via the Automap pages?

12

Yes, you can make custom mappings in automap mode & save this setup.



What you described can be mapped & takes only a new york minute to setup.



I dont use Logic as yet ICN, but setting all this up in Ableton or Cubase is not a bother really!



When using the SL25 Mk11 with AutomapPro, you’ll be setting up custom maps that

reflect your idea of a fast workflow…



With the press of a button, you could open a page full of Logic key commands, press another & you could be talking to the Sylenth, press another & your addressing the mixer etc… fast & fun- productive & creative.



Lenners.




13

Would it be possible for someone with Automap Pro to do a test?

New Project.

8 Audio or Midi Channels.

See if they can make a single DAW Mixer page consisting of:

8 Mute Buttons - which correspond to the 8 channels.

8 LED Pots assigned to a 8 individual Mixer channels, NOT controlling the Volume Fader, but controlling the Freq Range on a Hipass Filter on each channel as an Insert Effect?

The Automap controller will be able to control 2 functions only - Mutes & Freq Range for each channel.

LED Pots must control Insert Hipass without Hipass Plugin being open on Screen.

I dont have Pro - So If someone could test it in Cubase or Ableton - that would be Sh!t cool

14

Yes it works & on that note may I

introduce you to Rob jones ‘the great’ c/o Novation hardware & Automap software. In these few vids, he talks about setups similar to your need ICN.



below are some links to get you started.



http://www.novationmusic.com/support/tutorials/nocturn/using_nocturn_keyboard_with_logic_9





http://www.novationmusic.com/support/tutorials/automap/using_automap_to_control_logic_with_a_sl_mkii



http://www.novationmusic.com/support/tutorials/automap/automap_3_tutorials



If you are considering a Novation keyboard controller to purchase, I can only advise you to take a few mins aside & check out the above links.



Again I can highly recommend the Novation hardware & software for a super sonic controllerism experience.



Lenners.

15

Ha!

Cheers Lenners.

I’ll look into it more so… Thanks for checking Mate.

Appreciate it - I’ll throw a few 1st Issues your way! :wink: :smiley:

 :cool:

16

Oh that would be great :wink:

17

:laugh: .