330 lines
11 KiB
HTML
330 lines
11 KiB
HTML
---
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layout: default
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title: Using the Presonus Faderport
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menu_title: Presonus Faderport
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---
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<img align="left" alt="A picture of a Presonus Faderport device" src="/images/faderport-ssmall.png">
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<p>
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Since version 4.5, Ardour has had full support for the Presonus
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Faderport. This is a compact control surface featuring a single
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motorized fader, a single knob (encoder) and 24 buttons with fixed
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labels.
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</p>
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<h2>Connecting the Faderport</h2>
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<p>
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The Faderport comes with a single USB socket on the back. Connect a
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suitable USB cable from there to a USB port on your computer. As of
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the end of 2015, you should avoid USB3 ports - these cause erratic
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behaviour with the device. This issue might get fixed by Presonus in
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the future.
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</p>
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<p>
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Ardour uses the Faderport in what Presonus calls "native" mode. You
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do not need to do anything to enable this - Ardour will set the
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device to be in the correct mode. In native mode, the Faderport
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sends and receives ordinary MIDI messages to/from the host, and the
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host understands the intended meaning of these messages. We note
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this detail to avoid speculation about whether Ardour supports the
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device via the HUI protocol - it does not.
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<p>
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The Faderport will be automatically recognized by your operating
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system, and will appear in any of the lists of possible MIDI ports
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in both Ardour and other similar software.
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</p>
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<p>
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To connect the Faderport to Ardour, open the Preferences dialog, and
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then click on "Control Surfaces". Click on the "Enable" button
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in the line that says "Faderport" in order to activate Ardour's
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Faderport support. Then double click on the line that says
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"Faderport". A new dialog will open, containing (among other things)
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two dropdown selectors that will allow you to identify the MIDI
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ports where your Faderport is connected.
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</p>
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<img alt="the Faderport configuration dialog" src="foo">
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<p>
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Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
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the Faderport and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
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once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
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saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
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future sessions.
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<p>
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You do not need to use the power supply that comes with the
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Faderport but without it, the fader will not be motorized. This
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makes the overall experience of using the Faderport much less
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satisfactory, since the fader will not move when Ardour tells it
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to, leading to very out-of-sync conditions between the physical
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fader position and the "fader position" inside the program.
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</p>
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<h2>Using the Faderport</h2>
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<p>
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The Faderport's controls can be divided into three groups:
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<ol>
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<li>Global controls such as the transport buttons</li>
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<li>Controls which change the settings for particular track or
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bus</li>
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<li>Controls which alter which track or bus is modified by the
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per-track/bus controls.</li>
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</ol>
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</p>
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<p>
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Because the Faderport has only a single set of per-track controls,
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by default those controls operate on the first selected track or
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bus. If there is no selected track or bus, the controls will do
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nothing.
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</p>
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<h3>Transport Buttons</h3>
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<p>
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The transport buttons all work as you would expect.
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<dl>
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<dt>Rewind</dt>
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<dd>Starts the transport moving backwards. Successive presses
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speed up the "rewind" behaviour.
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<br>
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If pressed while also holding the Stop button, the playhead will
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return to the zero position on the timeline.
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</dd>
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<dt>Fast Forward</dt>
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<dd>Starts the transport moving faster than normal. Successive presses
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speed up the "fast forward" behaviour.
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</dd>
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<dt>Stop</dt>
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<dd>
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Stops the transport. Also used in combination with the Rewind
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button to "return to zero".
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</dd>
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<dt>Play</dt>
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<dd>
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Starts the transport. If pressed while the transport is
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already rolling at normal speed, causes the playhead to jump to
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the start of the last "roll" and continue rolling ("Poor man's
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looping").
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</dd>
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<dt>Record Enable</dt>
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<dd>Toggles the global record enable setting
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</dd>
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</dl>
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</p>
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<h3>Other Global Controls</h3>
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<p>
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The Mix, Proj, Trns buttons have no "obvious" functionality
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that they correspond to in Ardour. We have therefore allowed users
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to choose from a carefully curated set of possible actions that seem
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related to the button labels in some clear way. This can be done via
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the Faderport configuration dialog accessed via <code>Preferences
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> Control Surfaces</code>. Each button has 3 possible actions
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associated with it:
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<ul>
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<li>Plain Press: action to be taken when the button is pressed on
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its own.</li>
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<li>Shift-Press: action to be taken when the button is pressed in
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conjunction with the Shift button.</li>
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<li>Long Press: action to be taken when the button is pressed on
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its own and held down for more than 0.5 seconds.</li>
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</ul>
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Click on the relevant drop-down selector to pick an action as you
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prefer.
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</p>
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<p>
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The User button also has no obvious mapping to specific Ardour
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functionality, so we allow users to choose from <em>any</em>
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possible GUI action. The menu for selecting the action is somewhat
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confusing and it can be hard to find what you're looking
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for. However, all possible actions are there, so keep looking!
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<p>
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<dl>
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<dt>Mix</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>
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Possible actions include:
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<ul>
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<li></li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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</dd>
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<dt>Proj</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>
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Possible actions include:
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<ul>
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<li></li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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</dd>
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<dt>Trns</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>
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Possible actions include:
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<ul>
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<li></li>
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</ul>
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</p>
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</dd>
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<dt>Undo/Redo</dt>
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<dd>
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Undo Causes the last operation carried out in the editor to be
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undone. When pressed in conjuction with the Shift button, it
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causes the most recent undone operation to be re-done.
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</dd>
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<dt>Punch</dt>
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<dd>
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Toggles punch recording. If there is no punch range set for the
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session, this will do nothing.
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</dd>
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<dt>User</dt>
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<dd>
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See above. Any and all GUI-initiated actions can be driven with
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this button.
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</dd>
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<dt>Loop</dt>
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<dd>
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Toggles loop playback. If the Ardour preference "Loop-is-mode" is
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enabled, this does nothing to the current transport state. If
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that preference is disabled, then engaging loop playback will
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also start the transport.
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</dd>
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</dl>
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</p>
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<h3>Per-track Controls</h3>
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<p>
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<dl>
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<dt>Mute</dt>
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<dd>
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This toggles the mute setting of the currently controlled
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track/bus. The button will be lit if the track/bus is muted.
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</dd>
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<dt>Solo</dt>
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<dd>
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This toggles the solo (or listen) setting of the currently
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controlled track/bus. The button will be lit if the track/bus is
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soloed (or set to listen mode).
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</dd>
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<dt>Rec</dt>
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<dd>
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This toggles the record-enabled setting of the currently
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controlled track/bus. The button will be lit if the track is
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record-enabled. This button will do nothing if the Faderport is
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controlling a bus.
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</dd>
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<dt>Fader</dt>
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<dd>
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The fader controls the gain applied to the currently controlled
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track/bus. If the Faderport is powered, changing the gain in
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Ardour's GUI or via another control surface, or via automation,
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will result in the fader moving under its own control.
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</dd>
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<dt>Knob/Dial/Encoder</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>
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The knob controls 1 or 2 pan settings for the current
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controlled track/bus. When used alone, turning the knob controls
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the "azimuth" or "direction" (between left and right) for the
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panner in the track/bus (if any). This is all you need when
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controlling tracks/busses with 1 input and 2 outputs.
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</p>
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<p>
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If controlling a 2 input/2 output track/bus, Ardour's panner
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has two controls: azimuth (direction) and width. The width
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must be reduced to less than 100% before the azimuth can be
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changed. Pressing the "Shift" button while turning the knob
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will alter the width setting.
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</p>
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<p>
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The knob can also be turned while the "User" button is held,
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in order to modify the input gain for the currently controlled
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track.
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</p>
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</dd>
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<dt>Read</dt>
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<dd>
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Enables playback/use of fader automation data by the controlled track/bus.
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</dd>
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<dt>Write</dt>
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<dd>
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Puts the fader for the controlled track/bus into automation
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write mode. While the transport is rolling, all fader changes
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will be recorded to the fader automation lane for the relevant track/bus.
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</dd>
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<dt>Touch</dt>
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<dd>
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Puts the fader for the controlled track/bus into automation
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touch mode. While the transport is rolling, touching the fader
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will initiate recording all fader changes until the fader is
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released. When the fader is not being touched, existing
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automation data will be played/used to control the gain level.
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</dd>
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<dt>Off</dt>
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<dd>
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This disables all automation modes for the currently controlled
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track/bus. Existing automation data will be left unmodified by
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any fader changes, and will not be used for controlling gain.
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</dd>
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</dl>
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</p>
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<h3>Track Selection Controls</h3>
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<p>
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You can manually change the track/bus controlled by the Faderport by
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changing the selected track in Ardour's editor window. If you select
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more than 1 track, the Faderport will control the first selected
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track and <em>only</em> that track/bus.
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</p>
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<p>
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<dl>
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<dt>Left (arrow)</dt>
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<dd>
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This causes the Ardour GUI to select the previous track/bus
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(using the current visual order in the editor window), which
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will in turn cause the Faderport to control that track. If there
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is no previous track/bus, the selected track/bus is left
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unchanged, and the Faderport continues to control it.
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</dd>
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<dt>Right (arrow)</dt>
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<dd>
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This causes the Ardour GUI to select the next track/bus
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(using the current visual order in the editor window), which
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will in turn cause the Faderport to control that track. If there
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is no next track/bus, the selected track/bus is left
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unchanged, and the Faderport continues to control it.
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</dd>
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<dt>Output</dt>
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<dd>
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<p>
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Pressing the Output button causes the Faderport to control
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the fader, pan, mute and solo settings of the Master bus. If
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your session does not contain a Master bus, it does nothing.
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This is a toggle button - pressing it again returns Faderport
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to controlling whichever track/bus was selected before the
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first press of the Output button.
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</p>
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<p>
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If your session uses Ardour's monitor section, you can use
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Shift-Output to assign it to the Faderport in the same way
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that Output assigns the Master bus. This is also a toggle
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setting, so the second Shift-Output will return the Faderport
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to controlling whichever track/bus was selected before.
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</p>
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<p>
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If you press Shift-Output after a single press to Output
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(i.e. control the Monitor Section while currently controlling
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the Master bus) or vice versa (i.e. control the Master bus
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while currently controlling the Monitor Section), the press
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will be ignored. This avoids getting into a tricky situation
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where it is no longer apparent what is being controlled and
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what will happen if you try to change it.
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</p>
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</dd>
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<dt>Bank</dt>
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<dd>
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The "Bank" button is currently not used by Ardour
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</dd>
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</dl>
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</p>
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