Wanting a solid control surface for DP 9.5

[Gravity Jim]

Here's the behavior I'm seeing:

The jog wheel seems to have an On and Off position: when I press down on the wheel, each time it either responds or doesn't, depending on what it was doing before the last wheel "press."

If I scrolled back to zero and kept turning the wheel, I had to turn the jog wheel back "On" by pressing down on it to make it work.

This isn't a big deal for me, as I rarely use the jog wheel. I just wanted sliders and pan knobs.

[seedylee]

Hmm, behaviour I'm getting is slightly different. Either way, it seems buggy as hell at the moment and I will probably go back to 9.5 until (if) it's fixed. It's disappointing because being able to snap the wiper to the grid is a nice feature and would benefit me greatly.

What I really want is a controller that integrates with a DAW sufficiently reliably that I can actually just use the controller as a remote for my DAW. However, the implementation is generally so half-arsed (either on the software or the hardware side) that I am stills truggling to find a good, reliable solution after a decade of searching.

#grumble

[waxman]

MOTU is a hardware company. Why they do not make an integrated custom control surface for DP 10 is puzzling. The Raven works well since DP has screen size adjustments. PT has the S3, PreSonus has the StudioLive... Please MOTU go for it!

[seedylee]

If Motu released a well-integrated control surface, and also worked on further integrating DP with the CueMix functionality in their audio interfaces to support more advanced routing functions, I think they would be in a very unique position in the market

All the components are there, they just need to bring them together.

[micihch]

I'm also thinking (again) about getting a controller. It's along time since I fiddled with this sort of stuff, but it seems that you could (if your nerdy enough and have the time) to almost setup something like the X-Touch in any way you want using something like Max. At least that's what I'm getting from this video (it's about cubase but should apply to DP, too):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esOnlGyvTs4

[seedylee]

So I'm still having problems getting a good control setup going with Digital Performer.


The jog wheel still isn't working properly on DP 10.01 with an MCU I bought. It seems there's no way to configure an external MIDI controller to control the record arm / solo / mute status of tracks. And MOTU's own DP Control iOS app seems to have long been abandoned.

So it seems to me that the principal way to use DP is to sit in front of your computer with a keyboard and mouse? Has anyone else found good options for tracking and playing instruments at the same time without constantly having to move back to the computer?

[waxman]

So I'm still having problems getting a good control setup going with Digital Performer.


The jog wheel still isn't working properly on DP 10.01 with an MCU I bought. It seems there's no way to configure an external MIDI controller to control the record arm / solo / mute status of tracks. And MOTU's own DP Control iOS app seems to have long been abandoned.

So it seems to me that the principal way to use DP is to sit in front of your computer with a keyboard and mouse? Has anyone else found good options for tracking and playing instruments at the same time without constantly having to move back to the computer?

Just get a Raven and get into the Batch Command System. It will take about a week of a learning curve but it is very easy once you have the BC's set up because everything is labeled and laid out great with now page scrolling etc...
Raven is by far the best controller out there until you jump up to a $20k Protools system. Then there is that.

[terrybritton]

I may have posted this earlier, but if you can find an old Behringer BCF2000 controller, I have mapped its Mackie emulation for DP in this article here.
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=65913&p=560116&hil ... 00#p560116

Terry

[waxman]

I may have posted this earlier, but if you can find an old Behringer BCF2000 controller, I have mapped its Mackie emulation for DP in this article here.
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=65913&p=560116&hil ... 00#p560116

Terry

I had the BCF2000. It would have been fine but the moving faders were loud and annoying. Sounded like a model train going down the tracks. That was a deal killer for me.

[waxman]

Another option is an iPad and VPro... that gives you faders and a few options. Just kind of small. There are other options. For mixing in ITB Andrew Schepps just uses a single fader pro and a laptop. I like that combo because of the trackpad on the laptop keeps everything ergonomic and the fader pro gives that tactile feel. But for tracking it's kind of clunky. For all-around performance, the Raven is the best option.

[bayswater]

I had the BCF2000. It would have been fine but the moving faders were loud and annoying. Sounded like a model train going down the tracks. That was a deal killer for me.

I agree. I have one and it’s useful to write in ramps, fades and such, but you don’t want it working all through a mix.

[dwilliams]

The Behringer X-Touch works pretty well in DP 9.5 in Mackie Control mode, with a few caveats.

Firstly, you need to remap several of the controls on the X-Touch so that the printed functions match DP 9. This is because Digital Performer itself had different mappings on the original Mackie Control for which they had no overlay, and also because the X-Touch doesn't have the complete set of MCU buttons. This is pretty easy to do, but requires having a copy of the original Mackie Control layout and a copy of the DP overlay for cross-reference.

May I ask exactly how you did this? I've been trying for hours with no success. If I go into commands and press a button on the X-Touch One, DP doesn't seem to recognize it. If I manually input a value (such as Eb0 to assign cycle), the X-Touch One still doesn't execute the command. There are other buttons sending useless commands, such as a button that isn't the transport playback button causing playback to start. What mode do you have your X-Touch on? How did you reprogram the buttons? Thanks.

[seedylee]

It's a bit of a pain, but essentially the issue is that Digital Performer had its own overlay for the original Mackie Control Units, which means that even on the original Mackie Control, the functions printed on the control surface don't match what they do in DP.

The Behringer is sending the correct commands as printed on the fascia, but there's no overlay included for the X-Touch. Also, the subset of buttons implemented on the X-Touch isn't so useful for Digital Performer.

The trick is to use the "MC Custom" mode on the X-Touch, which you can enable by holding Stop and pressing the pan knob in. Once you do that, you can change the Mackie command sent for each button. What you'll need to do is check the DP manual to see how DP responds to each of the Mackie commands and map them accordingly.

Me? I gave up with control surfaces and just ordered myself an analogue mixer. Unless you get a specific combination, they often don't work (and I've tried many combinations).

So if anyone wants a near-new Behringer X-Touch cheap, let me know!

[Rick Cornish]

I'm using an Icon Platform-M controller, and the jog wheel works with DP10. Not as smoothly as I might like, but it does jog by one-measure increments, as described above.

The rest of the sliders and knobs work flawlessly.

Gravity Jim....
I just updated to DP10. Wondering if you're still happy with the Platform M as I've been considering going in that direction. I'm really just looking for a small-footprint controller that enables me to ride faders in a mix and my single-channel FaderPort is no longer reliable.

Thanks.

[Gravity Jim]

Yeah, I'm running DP 10 and the Icon Platform M is still cooking.