195 lines
7.2 KiB
HTML
195 lines
7.2 KiB
HTML
---
|
|
layout: default
|
|
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>
|
|
|
|
<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>
|
|
|
|
<h3>Connecting via 3rd party ipMIDI support</h3>
|
|
|
|
<p class="alert alert-info">
|
|
This is usable only on computers with 3rd party ipMIDI
|
|
driver software installed and configured for (at least) 2 ports.
|
|
</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 (via platform MIDI)". The dialog should
|
|
show four combo/dropdown selectors, labelled (respectively):
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Main Surface receives via</li>
|
|
<li>Main Surface sends via</li>
|
|
<li>1st extender receives via</li>
|
|
<li>1st extender sends via</li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
You should choose "ipMIDI port 1", "ipMIDI port 1", "ipMIDI port 2"
|
|
and "ipMIDI port 2" for each of the 4 combo/dropdown selectors.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>
|
|
Communication should be automatically established with the Nucleus.
|
|
</p>
|
|
<p>
|
|
If this does not work, then make sure your network cables are
|
|
properly connected, and that you are running the approprate ipMIDI
|
|
driver and have configured it for 2 (or more) ports.
|
|
</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>
|