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ZynewavePodium 3.1.0 beta1 is available in the VIP lounge download topic.
Changelog:
• Added a new “Control Surfaces” page to the Audio/MIDI setup dialog. The page replaces the old “Detect Mackie compatible control surface” option on the MIDI page.
• Up to eight Mackie Control compatible devices can be configured. Surfaces can be combined by specifying increasing channel offsets for the following surfaces in the list. Each surface chain that is configured with a starting channel offset of zero will act as a separate surface with its own channel navigation, allowing multiple users to work simultaneously and independently on the same arrangement.
• Added support for Mackie and Logic Control XT (extender) control surfaces.
• Added support for devices that partially or fully emulate the Mackie Control.
• Fix: Exiting Podium while a Mackie MCU was connected could cause a crash.
I had purchased the AC-7CoreMini app for my iPod Touch, which is a full MCU emulator working wirelessly. After I updated my iPod Touch to iOS5, the app has ceased to work, so unfortunately I haven’t been able to test my latest code changes with this app.
Please report success/failure of any MCU emulating devices you test with.
4micaHi- I don’t have any MCU related equipment, but a friend of mine has an iPhone…could I test it with this?: http://itouchmidi.com/?q=node/32
If so, I’ll wait until he shows up again to test it, assuming my desktop has wireless control…
Either way, thanks for the preview!
John
Zynewave@4mica wrote:
Hi- I don’t have any MCU related equipment, but a friend of mine has an iPhone…could I test it with this?: http://itouchmidi.com/?q=node/32
If so, I’ll wait until he shows up again to test it, assuming my desktop has wireless control…
Maybe, although it seems the app hasn’t been updated since 2009, and it isn’t a full MCU emulation. It also requires that you install software on your PC. I would be surprised if it works with the latest iOS version.
The app I tried, which in its current version 1.0 fails under iOS5, is:
http://www.saitarasoftware.com/Site/AC-7_Core_Mini.html
rwelterothHi all,
just received my korg nanokontrol2 and tried with the 3.10 beta. Played a bit around with the settings of the nanokontrol2 and now it works, using the “Live” setting (set marker/stop).
Only thing that I don’t like so far ist that the pan pots just work in an area quite close to the central position. I get to the left-/rightmost pan setting by just turning about a quarter to the left or right.
Maybe there is a way to scale the mapping of the pot.
I keep on testing and provide more info as far as I find out anything new.
Greetings
Richard
Zynewave@rwelteroth wrote:
Hi all,
just received my korg nanokontrol2 and tried with the 3.10 beta. Played a bit around with the settings of the nanokontrol2 and now it works, using the “Live” setting (set marker/stop).
Only thing that I don’t like so far ist that the pan pots just work in an area quite close to the central position. I get to the left-/rightmost pan setting by just turning about a quarter to the left or right.
Maybe there is a way to scale the mapping of the pot.I keep on testing and provide more info as far as I find out anything new.
Many thanks for testing.
1/ Are the nanokontrol2 pan knobs endless encoders, or do they have a fixed min/max position?
2/ Does the knobs adjust the pan positions differently if you turn the knobs fast or slow?
3/ Does the range of the knobs differ if you select the other DAW modes?
Some technical info on how the MCU pan works:
On the Mackie MCU the “V-Pots” are endless encoders with no “notch” in the dial, and they use a LED light ring around the knob to indicate what the actual value is. The V-Pots transmit standard MIDI control change values to the DAW, but the values are delta-ticks, and not absolute values. Podium collects the delta-values and calculates how much pan should be adjusted. It then transmits the resulting pan position back to the MCU V-Pot light ring. The Mackie MCU furthermore adjusts the transmitted V-Pot delta-ticks according to how fast the user turns the V-Pot. Turn it fast, and you can pan from left to right with a single hand movement. Turn it slow, and you need to turn the V-Pot 360 degrees several times.
rwelterothHi Frits,
sorry for the slight delay with my answer.
Regarding your questions:
1. The knobs are regular pots with fixed min/max position (I think endless encoders are not realizable on a 60€ device)
2. No, turning speed does not affect the effect of turning. If you think about a scale from -10 to 10 on the pan pots, effective values only come in a range from -3 to 3, the rest of the range has no effect on pan position in podium since maximum position has already been reached at -3/3.
3. No, the other DAW-modes have no effect on this behaviour. Either the pan pots work as described or they don’t work at all.
I’ve had a look at the midi values sent from the nanokontrol using midiox and I can confirm that the pan pots transmit something different from a regular continuous controller. I didn’t know that the MCU protocol is realized by counting ticks in this regard. Maybe there is a way to count the effective ticks that are created when I fully sweep a pot from left to right since I think that the nanokontrol would work like this. Would you have an idea how to achieve this? Hopefully, tonight I will have the chance to experiment any further.
Greetings
Richard
rwelterothHi Frits,
I sent you kind of a midi event log of a full left to right and back sweep of a pan pot on my nanokontrol2 via email.
Maybe you can use it for further optimization of the control surface support in podium.
Greetings
Richard
Zynewave@rwelteroth wrote:
Hi Frits,
I sent you kind of a midi event log of a full left to right and back sweep of a pan pot on my nanokontrol2 via email.
Maybe you can use it for further optimization of the control surface support in podium.Greetings
Richard
Thanks for the MIDI log. It seems that NanoKontrol pan knobs uses a value-range of 252. I don’t know why Korg chose this range instead of the more logical 128. Perhaps it is because other DAWs expect pan values in this range. Each delta-value message from the NanoKontrol changes the value with 2, so the knob resolution is in reality only 128.
I’ve uploaded beta2. Podium will now use the pan range of 252, when the device is not a genuine MCU. The NanoKontrol is probably the most populer MCU emulation device, and with a bit of luck, other MCU emulating devices also implement pan this way. I’d appreciate if you could test beta2 and let me know if pan on NanoKontrol now works ok.
rwelterothHi Frits,
gonna try tonight, when I’m back home (and the kids are in bed…) and report as soon as I’ve got news.
Bye
Richard
rwelterothHey Frits,
Pan pots feel great with beta 2!
They work just as I would expect. They use the full range from left to right and back. Turning quickly: values change quick, turning slowly: values change slowly and smooth. If I change a pan position with the mouse and turn a pan pot afterwards, position switches back to the knob’s absolute position.
Would leave it as it is.
Now, I’m going to try and use the nanokontrol2 in a real application and report back.
Greetings,
Richard
rwelterothHi all, me again.
Still trying with the beta2. Now, I’ve come across an issue that seems to be caused by the minimalistic design of the nanokontrol2.
Selecting tracks puzzles me. I have an arrangement with group tracks, audio tracks and automation tracks (track levels). Since they are quite many in total (41 audio tracks, a couple of groups, many automation tracks), I ordered the tracks logically and I select several track views via the track tags.
When the nanokontrol is active, the 8 tracks that are controlled by the controller are marked with the numbers respectively. The nanokontrol has buttons to select previous or next track group (8 tracks each). The tracks are selected for control no matter if the groups are expanded or not (so that unexpanded group members are controlled though they are not visible).
Some tracks have the corresponding number of the control channel but cannot be controlled using the fader and pan pot.
I understand that the sophisticated Mackie control offers the possibility to select several different operation modes, defining how group tracks and automation tracks are handled.
To my opinion, using some simple control like the nanokontrol should either be able to control just the visible tracks (i.e. the expanded groups and the tracks selected by the track tags) or each track no matter if selected and displayed or not. I have no right idea how to define a better control setup for simple hardware controllers right now but am willing to share my ideas in further development to improve Podium any further.
Discussion very welcome.
Greetings,
Richard
michi_makgave beta2 a go : some tracks do not respond to the faders of my NanoKontrol2 despite being labeled ( 2 / 3 and 6 ) – does not matter which mode of the NanoKontrol2 i try – does not matter which type of track it is…
USELESS
rwelteroth @michi_mak: sounds pretty negative. Frits did a quick adjustment concerning the feel of the pan pots from beta1 to beta2. So probably there is a way for Frits to make this work, too.
Right now, I don’t have the time to investigate, but in a couple of days, I will do. If Frits needs any further midi logs, please let me know.
Greetings,
Richard
michi_makwell it’s hard to be happy about a feature not working properly ( and there are more than this particular one ) – i would not call it negative – i would call it realistic : a feature that does not work is useless imo…
rwelterothhey, it’s a beta, not a release. I wouldn’t expect a new feature to work correctly in a beta version.
I appreciate Frits’ efforts in trying to get nanokontrol to work. As we have to admit, a nanokontrol is no Mackie control – and as far as I can tell, the Mackie control implementation seems to work well.
Frits does not own a nanokontrol so he depends on our support while developing new features.
I am still ready to help improving Podium.
Frits needs to have our constructive feedback on new features and missing functions.