Custom consoles--->DP, not session

[jloeb]

That little MIDI learn button in the bottom left since DP9, which creates custom consoles for all your synths and control surfaces, is in theory spectacular.

The downfall of this otherwise supremely powerful feature is that the consoles you generate and save in a session do not appear to be generalizable or exportable to other sessions in DP by any means I've been able to figure out.

So if I set up consoles for all my synths and VI's and want to always be able to invoke them, I'm stuck making a universal template containing all those consoles that I must always begin with, forever. God help me if it's corrupted or I get a DP file from someone else that doesn't have them. Have to start over.

Any way around this?? Very frustrating. Not sure why, when this feature was added, it wasn't made like insert presets that can be saved universally and invoked in any session you open.

Any workarounds? Thoughts?

[bayswater]

Do they show up in the list of things you can load? If so you could put the consoles across various sequences and import as needed.

[jloeb]

Maybe... Which list of things are you referring to, and where can I find it?

[bayswater]

File > Load >
Navigate to the project file that contains a console you want, and click open
Click the Console box to select it to be loaded into the current project

OK?

[jloeb]

Worked a charm! Thanks Bayswater.
In 17 years of using DP I've never, ever invoked that load menu if you can believe it. I always thought it was simply a 'legacy' way of doing things for those who preferred menu-driven loading, and never knew it had unique functionalities.
Or maybe I once knew and had just forgotten. Of how many programs could such a thing be said?
Thanks again!

[jloeb]

Ok. This still may not be capable of doing what I'd want (and what I'd think most users would want).

I don't see a way to effectively permanently assign a console to an instrument once created. Delete an instrument and reinstantiate it on another track, or move it, and controls lose their targets, with no easy way to reassign.

I think for this to be ready for primetime in any way other than session-specifically (which is really pretty burdensome), MOTU would need to add a new kind of metapreset file system like they did for Insert Settings, that would store both a given VI target and its console, and set them up to talk on whatever track the VI+console preset is instantiated on.

Am I missing another trick? Is there a way to easily get a console that I generated using MIDI Learn to be active wherever and whenever I instantiate the kind of instrument (for example: Absynth 5) to which it was assigned?

[reedster]

Did you try Set Target from Console's mini menu?

[bayswater]

I don't see a way to effectively permanently assign a console to an instrument once created. Delete an instrument and reinstantiate it on another track, or move it, and controls lose their targets, with no easy way to reassign.

Can you create the instrument along with the console and assignments in a VRack, and put that in a project that you load (as a sequence). You might have to then move the tracks from the VRack into the main sequence. Would the assignments survive those process?

I share the frustration. I spent ages setting up Drum track maps, but was never able to find a way to easily use them in a new project. Another candidate for a saveable preset file.

[jloeb]

Did you try Set Target from Console's mini menu?

Yes. If the instrument is not in exactly the same slot in the same session as when the console was created, invoking Set Target wipes out all the targets in the Consoles window, i.e. they become blank and unresponsive to the control surface.

My brain hurts.

[jloeb]

Can you create the instrument along with the console and assignments in a VRack, and put that in a project that you load (as a sequence). You might have to then move the tracks from the VRack into the main sequence. Would the assignments survive those process?

I share the frustration. I spent ages setting up Drum track maps, but was never able to find a way to easily use them in a new project. Another candidate for a saveable preset file.

Good idea, but no, same result. If the instrument is moved or instantiated anywhere but where the console was created, it can't follow the instrument.

Magic Dave? Gandalf? Are we missing something obvious here?

[reedster]

please post a screen shot of your typical console.

[jloeb]

please post a screen shot of your typical console.

Aalto was reinstantiated in its original position (from which its console was created), thus is active.
Others (generated in Absynth and Alchemy) are currently empty instrument slots.

Multiple instruments are in one console because I found that, if they were not, I could not deactivate the output of my ReMOTE to all instruments merely by checking "Only follow source when selected" in the Set Source dialog; deselecting would sometimes mute output to other instruments but usually would not. Only putting all the instruments in a single console and then shift-selecting the desired instrument would produce consistent exclusivity.

If an instrument is instantiated in any slot but the one in which the console was created, the console remains inactive. Selecting the console for that instrument and choosing "Set Target" to the new location produces a completely blank Target column and unresponsiveness.

[reedster]

thanks, I see the word "image" but no picture.

[jloeb]

thanks, I see the word "image" but no picture.

Try refreshing the page? I initially hosted from an https but then switched to Dropbox public when I realized that didn't work. Uploaded from my desktop but I can see it on my phone so it seems to have posted..?