[ardour-manual] / include / using-the-presonus-faderport.html

<p>
  Since version 4.5, Ardour has had full support for the Presonus
  Faderport. This is a compact control surface featuring a single
  motorized fader, a single knob (encoder) and 24 buttons with fixed
  labels. It is a relatively low-cost device that functions very well
  to control a single (selected) track or bus, along with a variety of
  other "global" settings and conditions.
</p>

<h2>Connecting the Faderport</h2>
<p>
  The Faderport comes with a single USB socket on the back. Connect a
  suitable USB cable from there to a USB port on your computer. As of
  the end of 2015, you should avoid USB3 ports&mdash;these cause erratic
  behaviour with the device. This issue might get fixed by Presonus in
  the future.
</p>
<p class="well">
  Ardour uses the Faderport in what Presonus calls "native" mode. You
  do not need to do anything to enable this&mdash;Ardour will set the
  device to be in the correct mode. In native mode, the Faderport
  sends and receives ordinary MIDI messages to/from the host, and the
  host understands the intended meaning of these messages. We note
  this detail to avoid speculation about whether Ardour supports the
  device via the HUI protocol&mdash;it does not.
<p>
  The Faderport will be automatically recognized by your operating
  system, and will appear in any of the lists of possible MIDI ports
  in both Ardour and other similar software.
</p>
<p>
  To connect the Faderport to Ardour, open the Preferences dialog, and
  then click on "Control Surfaces". Click on the "Enable" button
  in the line that says "Faderport" in order to activate Ardour's
  Faderport support. Then double click on the line that says
  "Faderport". A new dialog will open, containing (among other things)
  two dropdown selectors that will allow you to identify the MIDI
  ports where your Faderport is connected.
</p>
<p>
<img alt="the Faderport configuration dialog"
     src="/images/faderport_dialog.png">
</p>
<p>
  Once you select the input and output port, Ardour will initialize
  the Faderport and it will be ready to use. You only need do this
  once: once these ports are connected and your session has been
  saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
  future sessions.
</p>
<p>
  You do not need to use the power supply that comes with the
  Faderport but without it, the fader will not be motorized. This
  makes the overall experience of using the Faderport much less
  satisfactory, since the fader will not move when Ardour tells it
  to, leading to very out-of-sync conditions between the physical
  fader position and the "fader position" inside the program.
</p>

<h2>Using the Faderport</h2>
<p>
  The Faderport's controls can be divided into three groups:
  <ol>
    <li>Global controls such as the transport buttons</li>

    <li>Controls which change the settings for particular track or
      bus</li>

    <li>Controls which alter which track or bus is modified by the
      per-track/bus controls.</li>
  </ol>
</p>
<p>
  Because the Faderport has only a single set of per-track controls,
  by default those controls operate on the first selected track or
  bus. If there is no selected track or bus, the controls will do
  nothing.
</p>

<h3>Transport Buttons</h3>
<p>
  The transport buttons all work as you would expect.
  <table class="dl">
    <tr><th>Rewind</th>
    <td>
      <p>
      When pressed on its own, starts the transport moving backwards. Successive presses
      speed up the "rewind" behaviour.
      </p>
      <p>
        If pressed while also holding the Stop button, the playhead will
        return to the zero position on the timeline.
      </p>
      <p>
        If pressed while also holding the Shift button, the playhead will
        move to the session start marker.
      </p>
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Fast Forward</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        When pressed on its own, starts the transport moving faster than normal. Successive presses
        speed up the "fast forward" behaviour.
      </p>
      <p>
        If pressed while also holding the Shift button, the playhead
        will move to the session end marker.
      </p>
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Stop</th>
    <td>
      Stops the transport. Also used in combination with the Rewind
      button to "return to zero".
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Play</th>
    <td>
      Starts the transport. If pressed while the transport is
      already rolling at normal speed, causes the playhead to jump to
      the start of the last "roll" and continue rolling ("Poor man's
      looping").
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Record Enable</th>
    <td>Toggles the global record enable setting
    </td></tr>
  </table>
</p>

<h3>Other Global Controls</h3>
<p>
  The Mix, Proj, Trns buttons do not obviously correspond any
  particular functions or operations in Ardour. We have therefore
  allowed users to choose from a carefully curated set of possible
  actions that seem related to the button labels in some clear
  way. This can be done via the Faderport configuration dialog
  accessed via <code>Preferences &gt; Control Surfaces</code>. Each
  button has 3 possible actions associated with it:
  <ul>
    <li>Plain Press: action to be taken when the button is pressed on
      its own.</li>
    <li>Shift-Press: action to be taken when the button is pressed in
      conjunction with the Shift button.</li>
    <li>Long Press: action to be taken when the button is pressed on
      its own and held down for more than 0.5 seconds.</li>
  </ul>
  Click on the relevant drop-down selector to pick an action as you
  prefer.
</p>
<p>
  The User button also has no obvious mapping to specific Ardour
  functionality, so we allow users to choose from <em>any</em>
  possible GUI action. The menu for selecting the action is somewhat
  confusing and it can be hard to find what you're looking
  for. However, all possible actions are there, so keep looking!
<p>
  <table class="dl">
    <tr><th>Mix</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        Possible actions include:
        <ul>
          <li>Toggle Editor &amp; Mixer visibility</li>
          <li>Show/Hide the Editor mixer strip</li>
        </ul>
      </p>
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Proj</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        Possible actions include:
        <ul>
          <li>Toggle Meterbridge visibility</li>
          <li>Toggle Session Summary visibility</li>
          <li>Toggle Editor Lists visibility</li>
          <li>Zoom to session</li>
          <li>Zoom in</li>
          <li>Zoom out</li>
        </ul>
      </p>
   </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Trns</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        Possible actions include:
        <ul>
          <li>Toggle Locations window visibility</li>
          <li>Toggle Metronome</li>
          <li>Toggle external sync</li>
          <li>Set Playhead at current pointer position</li>
        </ul>
      </p>
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Undo/Redo</th>
    <td>
      Undo Causes the last operation carried out in the editor to be
      undone. When pressed in conjunction with the Shift button, it
      causes the most recent undone operation to be re-done.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Punch</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        When pressed on its own, toggles punch recording. If there is no
        punch range set for the session, this will do nothing.
      </p>
      <p>
        When pressed in conjunction with the Shift button, this moves
        the playhead to the previous Marker
      </p>
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>User</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        See above. Any and all GUI-initiated actions can be driven with
        by pressing this button on its own, or with a "long" press.
      </p>
      <p>
        When pressed in conjunction with the Shift button, this will move
        the playhead to the next marker.
      </p>
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Loop</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        When pressed on its own, this toggles loop playback. If the
        Ardour preference "Loop-is-mode" is enabled, this does nothing
        to the current transport state. If that preference is disabled,
        then engaging loop playback will also start the transport.
      </p>
      <p>
        When pressed in conjunction with the Shift button, this will
        create a new (unnamed) marker at the current playhead
        position.
      </p>
    </td></tr>
  </table>
</p>

<h3>Per-track Controls</h3>
<p>
  <table class="dl">
    <tr><th>Mute</th>
    <td>
      This toggles the mute setting of the currently controlled
      track/bus. The button will be lit if the track/bus is muted.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Solo</th>
    <td>
      This toggles the solo (or listen) setting of the currently
      controlled track/bus. The button will be lit if the track/bus is
      soloed (or set to listen mode).
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Rec</th>
    <td>
      This toggles the record-enabled setting of the currently
      controlled track/bus. The button will be lit if the track is
      record-enabled. This button will do nothing if the Faderport is
      controlling a bus.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Fader</th>
    <td>
      The fader controls the gain applied to the currently controlled
      track/bus. If the Faderport is powered, changing the gain in
      Ardour's GUI or via another control surface, or via automation,
      will result in the fader moving under its own control.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Knob/Dial/Encoder</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        The knob controls 1 or 2 pan settings for the current
        controlled track/bus. When used alone, turning the knob controls
        the "azimuth" or "direction" (between left and right) for the
        panner in the track/bus (if any). This is all you need when
        controlling tracks/busses with 1 input and 2 outputs.
      </p>
      <p>
        If controlling a 2 input/2 output track/bus, Ardour's panner
        has two controls: azimuth (direction) and width. The width
        must be reduced to less than 100% before the azimuth can be
        changed. Pressing the "Shift" button while turning the knob
        will alter the width setting.
      </p>
      <p>
        The knob can also be turned while the "User" button is held,
        in order to modify the input gain for the currently controlled
        track.
      </p>
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Read</th>
    <td>
      Enables playback/use of fader automation data by the controlled track/bus.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Write</th>
    <td>
      Puts the fader for the controlled track/bus into automation
      write mode. While the transport is rolling, all fader changes
      will be recorded to the fader automation lane for the relevant track/bus.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Touch</th>
    <td>
      Puts the fader for the controlled track/bus into automation
      touch mode. While the transport is rolling, touching the fader
      will initiate recording all fader changes until the fader is
      released. When the fader is not being touched, existing
      automation data will be played/used to control the gain level.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Off</th>
    <td>
      This disables all automation modes for the currently controlled
      track/bus. Existing automation data will be left unmodified by
      any fader changes, and will not be used for controlling gain.
    </td></tr>
  </table>
</p>

<h3>Track Selection Controls</h3>
<p>
  You can manually change the track/bus controlled by the Faderport by
  changing the selected track in Ardour's editor window. If you select
  more than 1 track, the Faderport will control the first selected
  track and <em>only</em> that track/bus.
</p>
<p>
  <table class="dl">
    <tr><th>Left (arrow)</th>
    <td>
      This causes the Ardour GUI to select the previous track/bus
      (using the current visual order in the editor window), which
      will in turn cause the Faderport to control that track. If there
      is no previous track/bus, the selected track/bus is left
      unchanged, and the Faderport continues to control it.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Right (arrow)</th>
    <td>
      This causes the Ardour GUI to select the next track/bus
      (using the current visual order in the editor window), which
      will in turn cause the Faderport to control that track. If there
      is no next track/bus, the selected track/bus is left
      unchanged, and the Faderport continues to control it.
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Output</th>
    <td>
      <p>
        Pressing the Output button causes the Faderport to control
        the fader, pan, mute and solo settings of the Master bus. If
        your session does not contain a Master bus, it does nothing.
        This is a toggle button&mdash;pressing it again returns Faderport
        to controlling whichever track/bus was selected before the
        first press of the Output button.
      </p>
      <p>
        If your session uses Ardour's monitor section, you can use
        Shift-Output to assign it to the Faderport in the same way
        that Output assigns the Master bus. This is also a toggle
        setting, so the second Shift-Output will return the Faderport
        to controlling whichever track/bus was selected before.
      </p>
      <p>
        If you press Shift-Output after a single press to Output
        (i.e. control the Monitor Section while currently controlling
        the Master bus) or vice versa (i.e. control the Master bus
        while currently controlling the Monitor Section), the press
        will be ignored. This avoids getting into a tricky situation
        where it is no longer apparent what is being controlled and
        what will happen if you try to change it.
      </p>
    </td></tr>
    <tr><th>Bank</th>
    <td>
      The "Bank" button is currently not used by Ardour
    </td></tr>
  </table>
</p>