start to flesh out the SSL Nucleus documentation

_manual/22_using-control-surfaces/02_devices-using-mackielogic-control-protocol/02_ssl-nucleus.html

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 title: SSL Nucleus
----                        
+---
+
+<p>
+  The Nucleus, from Solid State Logic, is a 16 fader Mackie Control
+  device that includes many buttons, separate meters, two LCD displays
+  and other features. The device is not cheap (around US$5000 at the
+  time of writing), and has some <a href="#design">design features</a>
+  (or lack thereof) which some Ardour developers find
+  questionable. Nevertheless, it is a very flexible device, and makes
+  a nice 16 fader surface without the need to somehow attach an
+  extender to your main surface.
+</p>
+
+<h2>Pre-configuring the Nucleus</h2>
+
+<p>
+  Your Nucleus comes complete with a number of "profiles" for a few
+  well-known DAWs. At the time of writing it does not include one for
+  Ardour (or related products such as Harrison Mixbus). This is
+  unfortunate because although Ardour could easily be used with any of
+  the existing profiles, one thing they all have in common is a
+  remarkably large of buttons not assigned to Mackie Control
+  functions. This means that using one of them will "waste" the
+  buttons, a resource that the Nucleus is not particularly rich in
+  (compared with some other Mackie Control devices).
+</p>
 
 
-Mmmmmh.  
-    
+
+<h2>Connecting the Nucleus</h2>
+
+<p>
+  Unlike most Mackie Control devices, the Nucleus uses an ethernet
+  connection to send and receive the MIDI messages that make up the
+  Mackie Control protocol. Specifically, it uses a technology called
+  "ipMIDI" which essentially "broadcasts" MIDI messages on a local
+  area network, so that any connected devices (computers, control
+  surfaces, tablets etc.) can participate.
+</p>
+<p>
+  All other DAWs so far that support the Nucleus have chosen to do so
+  by using a 3rd party MIDI driver called "ipMIDI", which creates a
+  number of "virtual" MIDI ports on your computer. You, the user,
+  tells the DAW which ports to connect to, and ipMIDI takes care of
+  the rest.
+</p>
+<p>
+  Ardour has builtin ipMIDI support, with no need of any 3rd party
+  packages, and no need to identify the "ports" to connect to in order
+  to communicate with the Nucleus. This makes setting it up a bit
+  easier than most other systems.
+</p>
+<p>
+  Unless ... you already installed the ipMIDI driver in order to use
+  some other DAW with your Nucleus. If ipMIDI is configured to create
+  any "ports", it is not possible for Ardour's own ipMIDI support to
+  function. We decided to offer both methods of communicating with
+  your Nucleus. If you regularly use other DAWs, and appreciate having
+  ipMIDI permanently set up to communication with the Nucleus - that's
+  OK, you can tell Ardour to use the ipMIDI driver you already
+  have. But if you're not using other DAWs with the Nucleus (and thus
+  have not installed the ipMIDI driver), then you can ignore the
+  ipMIDI driver entirely, and let Ardour connect directly with no
+  configuration.
+</p>
+
+<h3>Connecting via Ardour's own ipMIDI support</h3>
+
+<p class="alert alert-info">
+  This is usable only on computers with no 3rd party ipMIDI
+  driver software installed and configured. If you have the OS X or
+  Windows ipMIDI driver from nerds.de, it <strong>MUST</strong> be
+  configured to offer <strong>ZERO</strong> ports before using this
+  method.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+  Open <code>Preferences > Control Surfaces</code>. Ensure that the
+  Mackie protocol is enabled, then double-click on it to open the
+  Mackie Control setup dialog.
+</p>
+<p>
+  Ensure that the device selected is "SSL Nucleus". The dialog should
+  show a single numerical selector control below it, defining the
+  ipMIDI port number to use (it should almost always be left at the
+  default value of 21928).
+</p>
+<p>
+  Communication is automatically established with the Nucleus and you
+  need do nothing more.
+</p>
+<p>
+  If this does not work, then make sure your network cables are
+  properly connected, and that you are <strong>not</strong> running
+  other ipMIDI software on the computer.
+</p>
+
+<h2><a name="design">Nucleus Design Discussion</a></h2>
+
+<p>
+  You might be reading this part of the manual seeking some guidance
+  on whether the Nucleus would make a suitable control surface for
+  your workflows. We don't want to try to answer that question
+  definitively, since the real answer depends on the very specific
+  details of your workflow and situation, but we would like to point
+  out a number of design features of the Nucleus that might change
+  your opinion.
+</p>
+
+<h3>Cons</h3>
+<dl>
+  <dt>No Master Faster</dt>
+  <dd></dd>
+  <dt>No dedicated rec-enable buttons</dt>
+  <dd>You have to press the "Rec" button and convert the per-strip
+    "Select" buttons into rec-enables</dd>
+  <dt>No dedicated automation buttons</dt>
+  <dd>You have to press the "Auto" button and convert the first 4
+  vpots into 4 automation-related buttons, losing your current view
+    of the session.</dd>
+  <dt>No buttons with Mackie-defined "Marker" functionality</dt>
+  <dd>Mackie's design intentions for the interoperation of the
+    Marker, rewind and ffwd buttons requires profile editing in order
+    to function properly.
+  </dd>
+  <dt>No "Dyn" button</dt>
+  <dd>This is hard to assign in an edited profile. To be fair, other
+    Mackie Control devices also lack this button.
+  </dd>
+</dl>
+
+<h3>Pros</h3>
+<dl>
+  <dt>Single cable connectivity</dt>
+  <dd>No need for multiple MIDI cables to get 16 faders</dd>
+  <dt>Broadcast connectivity</dt>
+  <dd>Connecting to multiple computers does not require recabling</dd>
+  <dt>15 faders from a single box</dt>
+  <dd>No need to figure out how to keep extenders together</dd>
+  <dt>Meters separated from displays</dt>
+  <dd>Contrast with the Mackie Control Universal Pro, where meters
+    interfere with the display
+  </dd>
+  <dt>DAW profiles</dt>
+  <dd>Easy to flip profiles for use by different DAWs.</dd>
+</dl>
+
+
+<h3>Ambiguous</h3>
+<dl>
+  <dt>Ability to make buttons generate USB keyboard events</dt>
+  <dd>The extent to which this is useful reflects the target DAWs
+    inability to manage all of its functionality via Mackie Control
+  </dd>
+  <dt>Sophisticated "profile" editing</dt>
+  <dd>It is nice to be able to reassign the functionality of most
+    buttons, but this is only necessary because of the relatively few
+    global buttons on the surface.
+  </dd>
+</dl>