Topic: Some input controller suggestions.

Hi,

Just a couple of things that would help a lot, shamelessly inspired by other products 😆 although I think they’d fit in quite easily and seamlessly.

1) Per-plugin parameter control mapping.

Okay, so think along the lines of Sonar ACT or Novation Nocturn, but not quite the same.

Already in Podium, we can inspect the properties for a VST parameter. I would like to see an addition to the properties that allows a MIDI input & output source specified (bi-directional is important) and a MIDI control/RPN/NRPN.

This would mean that whenever this VST, or a track containing this VST had focus, if I turn the specified control knob on the specified input controller, the parameter would change accordingly. Also, if the parameter was changed by podium (or by the mouse in the VST editor) the value would be sent out to the same controller.

An example – Say I have a knob controller hooked up to MIDI port 3. I could set the first knob to be controlling the cutoff on one VST and the LFO speed on another. When I turn the knob, if either of those VSTs (or tracks containing them) had focus/record then the values would update. If I opened one of the VSTs and changed the value with the mouse, the knob readout on the controller would be updated.

This would provide a lot more controller interaction, and I think it would fit in very neatly with the Podium interface. You could even go a step further and display dials for any ‘controller defined’ parameters on the track header (optional) similar to the way Sonar does in its synth rack.

Edit: see here for another example – it’s a seperate app that I’m thinking of buying anyway, that does what I’m talking about.

Also, it would be extra useful if the parameter value could be filtered – so when I increase the knob, it might decrease the value, or multiply it by 2, etc…

1a) Allow a paremeter value to be set based on another parameter value changing. Assign the Resonance automatically be 127-cutoff. Assign the LFO speed to be twice the volume. etc.

2) Mouse wheel support for VST controls.

It would be very cool if (as an option) the mouse wheel could control any VST knob/fader etc. that the cursor was currently over. I put my cursor on the LFO knob, and by just scrolling the mouse wheel I could move it.

This would be very similar (I think) to the Nocturn speed control, and is really just a case of intercepting the mouse wheel and turning it into a left-click with up&right or down&left motion.

It would mean that parameter changing would be just a bit quicker for any parameters not controller mapped.

Additionally, through an option, it could be made to apply to any input – mixer faders, track volume, etc.

Ideally it could be linked to a meta key so, for example, it would only act like this if I held the control key down, or the shift key.

In fact, now that I think about it, it should be not only the mouse wheel, but any midi controller that could perform this task, and a midi note on/off that could also be used as the meta key…

… so I could toggle, or keep pressed, a pad on my Korg PadKontrol while I scroll the mouse wheel, or I could hold shift and turn a knob on a BCR2000, or I could press C3 and turn the volume control…. any of these could be defined to alter the current value of the VST control under the cursor.

3) Last one – If a note in the midi editor is very small, the resize action should be to extend the length of the note and not to reposition the start.

Sometimes (quite often), I end up making a note really small in length. When I come to resize it, it’s actually dragging the start of the note, so I can only drag left, and most often I’m already at the start of the clip.

It should be configurable such that this would actually, by default, extend the length of the note instead, and drag to the right, as that’s what I usually want to do.

….

I hope these suggestions make sense – they would really help.

Michael.[/url]