3 title: Working With Encoders in Ardour
4 menu_title: Working With Encoders
8 Encoders are showing up more frequently on controllers. However, they use
9 the same MIDI events as Continuous Controllers and they have no standard
10 way of sending that information as MIDI events. Ardour 4.2 has implemented
11 4 of the more common ways of sending encoder information.
14 Encoders that send the same continuous values as a pot would are not
15 discussed here as they are already supported by <code>ctl</code>.
18 Encoders as this page talks about them send direction and offset that the
19 DAW will add to or subtract from the current value.
22 The 4 kinds of encoder supported are:
26 enc-r: On the bcr/bcf2000 this is called "Relative Signed Bit". The most
27 significant bit sets positive and the lower 6 signifcant bits are the
31 enc-l: The bcr2000 calls this "Relative Signed Bit 2". The most
32 significant bit sets negative and the lower 6 signifcant bits are the
33 offset. If you are using one of these two and the values are right but
34 reversed, use the other. This one is the one the Mackie Control Protocol
38 enc-2: The bcr2000 calls this one "Relative 2s Complement". Positive
39 offsets are sent as normal from 1 to 64 and negative offsets are sent as
40 2s complement negative numbers.
43 enc-b: The bcr2000 calls this one "Relative Binary Offset". Positive
44 offsets are sent as offset plus 64 and negative offsets are sent as 64
49 If the wrong one is chosen, either the positive or negative side will act
50 incorrectly. It is not really possible to auto detect which one the
51 controller is using. Trial and error is the only way if the specification
52 of the controller is not known.
55 Many controllers have more than one choice as well, check the manual for