Control Surface Settings


Control Surface Settings window

The Control Surface Settings window defines the functionality of the control surface being used. The Preset button can be used to load predefined presets, or to create new presets. The Info button shows information on the current settings if available.

The Clear button clears the highlighted Action. The Empty preset can be loaded to clear all actions. If the Learn button is green any incoming midi messages will be mapped to the highlighted Action. Custom mappings can be created easily this way.

Control Surfaces which are not plain MIDI are translated to plain MIDI. Several Controller Types can be selected:

  • MIDI Controller: plain MIDI messages
  • TranzPort
  • Mackie Control
  • HUI

The Mixer Sections settings will typically equal the number of channels the control surface provides. The highest possible value is eight. The Effect Sends settings determines the number of Effect Send knobs that can be controlled using the control surface.

There can be multiple Views. This is typically used to control multiple Actions using a single rotary knob (View 1 = Pan, View 2 = Effect Send 1 etc.). The All Views button makes the highlighted Action appear in all views. You'll probably want volume faders, transport buttons etc. to be in all views.

The Effect Knobs settings determines the number of rotary knobs available for controlling effect knobs. An effect can only be controlled when its user interface is visible on the screen. The knobs used to control effects can also be used to control mixer sections (pan knobs etc.), MultitrackStudio takes care of this automatically (there's no need to use views for this).

Actions

The following actions can be controlled by the control surface. Actions marked (cc) should be controlled by a continuous controller (rotating knob or fader), all other actions are supposed to be controlled by a button.
  • What Is: Keep this button down while using another button or knob. A description of the associated Action will be shown in the bottom left corner of the screen.

The following actions control the Transport:

  • Start
  • Start Cycling
  • Stop
  • Start/Stop: equivalent to hitting the space bar.
  • Rewind
  • Fast Forward
  • Home
  • To End
  • To Last Start Position
  • To Next Start Position
  • Transport Wheel (cc)
  • To Previous Marker
  • To Next Marker
  • Add Marker
  • Delete Marker
  • VariSpeed (cc) (Pro Plus edition only)
  • Cycle: toggle cycle on/off. If it's on Start will do Start Cycling instead.
  • Counter: turn on/off control surface's counter display.
  • Counter Format: toggle bars/seconds
  • Zoom In
  • Zoom Out
  • Zoom In/Out (cc)

These actions control a couple of items from the Recording menu:

  • New Wav Track
  • New Gjm Track
  • New Gjs Track
  • New Mid Track
  • Alternate Take: click the Recording menu's Alternate Take item.
  • Punch: click the Recording menu's Punch In/Out item.

These actions control mixer sections:

  • Section Play: toggle a track's Play button.
  • Section Rec: toggle a track's Rec button.
  • Section PlayRec: toggle between playback and recording mode.
  • Section Fader (cc)
  • Section Mute
  • Section Solo
  • Section Pan (cc)
  • Section Effect Send (cc)
  • Section Slot: open an Effect Slot (show the effect's user interface).
  • Section Select Slot (cc): pop up effect selector window
  • Section Output Selector (cc)
  • Section Editor: open/close a track's editor.
  • Section Set Punch In: make start of the editor's selected part equal to the Transport position.
  • Section Set Punch Out: make end of the editor's selected part equal to the Transport position.
  • Section Set Punch In/Out: select the editor's selected part while the Transport is running. This should be done before recording.
  • Section Goto Punch In: make Transport position equal to the start of the editor's selected part.
  • Section Goto Punch Out: make Transport position equal to the end of the editor's selected part.
  • Section Undo Punch: click track editor's Undo button
  • Section Redo Punch: click track editor's Redo button
  • Section Clone: add track with new file and similar settings.
  • Section Map: pop up window to map a mixer section to control surface channel.
  • Master Fader: controls the Master section's volume fader.
  • Clear Solo: turn off any active Solo buttons.
  • Level Meters: turn on/off the control surface's level meters
  • Faders Silent: suspend/resume motor fader control. Can be used to keep the (automated) faders from making noise while recording in the same room.
  • Slot Select Button: press this button before pressing the Section Slot button. Now a Section Select Slot action will be sent instead of a Section Slot action.
  • Mouse Control (cc): controls the knob the mouse points to.
  • Send Snapshot: send all values to the control surface (probably never needed).

These actions control views and banks:

  • View Button
  • View Down
  • View Up
  • View Up/Down (cc)
  • Bank Down: move (typically) 8 sections down
  • Bank Up: move (typically) 8 sections up
  • To First Bank
  • To Last Bank
  • Section Down
  • Section Up

The following actions are used to control Effects and Synths. These actions can share knobs with non-effect actions (eg. Effect Knob and Section Pan can be on the same knob, Effect Row Up and View Up can be on the same button etc.).

  • Effect Knob: control an effect's knob.
  • Effect Mouse Control (cc): controls the effect knob the mouse points to.
  • Effect Row Down
  • Effect Row Up
  • Effect Row Up/Down (cc)
  • Effect To First Row
  • Effect To Last Row
  • Effect Control Down
  • Effect Control Up
  • Effect Close: close the effect window.
  • Effect Bypass

The following actions are used to select effects, sampler patches etc. These actions can share knobs with actions which are not in this group (eq. Selector Accept can be on the same button as Effect Close).

  • Selector Down
  • Selector Up
  • Selector Up/Down (cc)
  • Category Selector Down
  • Category Selector Up
  • Category Selector Up/Down (cc)
  • Selector Accept: also used to invoke message dialog 'OK' or 'Yes' buttons.
  • Selector Cancel: also used to invoke message dialog 'Cancel' or 'No' buttons.