[ardour-users] Control surface... what is planned ?

[Lukas Erni]

Am Montag, 2. Januar 2006 18.13 schrieb Jesse Chappell:
> The scope of ardour's future control surface support is still open
> to discussion.  But for small surfaces I can see that a notion of
> controls that affect the "selected channel" would be quite useful.

my ex-flatmate got a 01x from yahama. with this console he is able to 
control SX for mixing more or less without mouse and keyboard. 
something like this in ardour with a midi-controller would be super 
cool :-)

correct me if I'm wrong but since the java based software for the 
behringer-interfaces is not properly running (or talking to midi) on 
linux, a interface based preset-concept isn't so nice and also do 
older interfaces not have the ability of presets.

to achieve a more complete control from a midi-interface for home 
users with probable just one controller-interface a  layered 
grid-concept would make sense because hardly anybody will have enough 
buttons, knobs or faders for ardour.

what do I mean with a "grid-concept":
the ardour-controllers would be on a infinite grid in contrast to the 
finite amount of knobs one has on a controller-interface. ardour 
should then provide a midi-controllable function to navigate 
(windowing) the limited amount of controllers of the interface over 
the infinite grid of controllers ardour offers. on the lower layer 
(infinite) each channel would be represented vertically and 
horizontally you would just have the same function but for a 
different channel. vertical order could be volume, pan1, pan2, mute, 
solo, ladspa0_0, ladspa0_1... . horizontal order ch01, 
ch02, ch03... basically a two layered concept you are able to 
navigating/windowing ardours parameters with your controller 
interface.

with this concept, the two layers makes it necessary to rethink the 
assigning process because UI-elements could not be "hardwired" to a 
controller anymore. a more complex dialog then the "operate a MIDI 
controller now" would be needed.

midi-interfaces do not have displays. some kind of UI-integration in 
ardour's mixer would improve the situation. for example, provide a 
mechanism to scroll the mixer accordingly to the current focus, the 
controller-window sits on.

there are probable things, more needed in ardour than this 
grid-concept but to be honest, my bcr2000 feels much like a toy 
because it's hard to keep a working assignment-concept over different 
sessions.

what do you think about? sounds something like this reasonable or is 
it complete out of focus?

regards
lukas