[Ardour-Dev] Bad visual feedback for KORG nanoKONTROL 2

[David Kastrup]

Hi,

it's probably been half a year since I brought up this topic and the
question is how to continue here.

I have set up my KORG nanoKONTROL 2 in its default mode (as recommended)
and have switched its LEDs to "externally controlled" with the control
application.  That means that its push buttons are one-shot, not
toggles.

This conflicts with the advice in
midi_maps/Korg_nanoKONTROL2_With_Master.map which states:

<!-- This NanoKontrol2 map have some special feature. I use 7 channel for the tracks		-->
<!-- and the Nº 8 for the master fader, for that reason, the "bank-size" is set to 7.		-->
<!-- Some advice: In the Korg control editor utility (Work fine under wine):        		-->
<!-- 1 : Set the main "RECORD", "loop" and the track "Solo" "Mute" and "Record" button to toggle-->
<!-- (normally they are on momentary)            						-->

This advice (about setting controls to toggle) is bad and leads to
unfathomable behavior.  Instead one should set the LEDs to externally
controlled.

This works great for the Solo/Mute/Record channel buttons except that
the visual feedback is missing when you load a session with any of the
buttons already pressed: in that case the respective button will not be
lit until you switch the control off and on again (using mouse or the
nanoKONTROL2 itself).

When I use

aconnect 24:0 24:0

to connect the Midi output of the nanoKONTROL2 straight back to its
input, all channel buttons will get lit while pressed, and the same for
"Cycle", "<<", ">>", "Stop", "Play", "Record".  However, the only LEDs
that Ardour currently controls are the channel LEDs.  All others stay
off.  The difference is that the channel buttons are declared as

  <Binding channel="1" ctl="16" uri="/route/pandirection B1"/>  
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="32" uri="/route/solo B1"/>
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="48" uri="/route/mute B1"/>
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="64" uri="/route/recenable B1"/>
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="0" uri="/route/gain B1"/>

etc while the transport controls are declared as

  <Binding channel="1" ctl="41" function="transport-roll"/>
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="42" function="transport-stop"/>
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="43" action="Transport/Rewind"/>
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="44" action="Transport/Forward"/>
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="45" function="toggle-rec-enable"/>
  <Binding channel="1" ctl="46" function="loop-toggle"/>

So it would seem that the uri-style controls echo their state back into
the nanoKONTROL2 while the function/action style controls don't.

In a nutshell:

a) advice at the top of the midimap file(s) is bad.  The only change
that's actually warranted over the default is switching LED control to
external instead of internal
b) channel controls S/M/R are not lit initially when a session with set
controls is loaded
c) transport controls are never lit

Now for having the computer (and its rotating disk and fan) in a
different room and just taking the nanoKONTROL2 in the recording room,
not getting visual feedback for the "PLAY" and "REC" buttons is awkward.

Any chance someone will change this given suitable feedback/info, or at
least good pointers at what would need changing here?  I can submit a
patch for a) but am somewhat without a clue for the rest.

-- 
David Kastrup