---
layout: default
title: Using the Presonus Faderport
menu_title: Presonus Faderport
---                        

<img align="left" alt="A picture of a Presonus Faderport device" src="/images/faderport-ssmall.png">
<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.
</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 - these cause erratic
  behaviour with the device. This issue might get fixed by Presonus in
  the future.
</p>
<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>
  
<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>

<h3>Transport Buttons</h3>
<p>
  The transport buttons all work as you would expect.
  <dl>
    <dt>Rewind</dt>
    <dd>Starts the transport moving backwards. Successive presses
      speed up the "rewind" behaviour.
      <br>
      If pressed while also holding the Stop button, the playhead will
      return to the zero position on the timeline.
    </dd>
    <dt>Fast Forward</dt>
    <dd>Starts the transport moving faster than normal. Successive presses
      speed up the "fast forward" behaviour.
    </dd>
    <dt>Stop</dt>
    <dd>
      Stops the transport. Also used in combination with the Rewind
      button to "return to zero".
    </dd>
    <dt>Play</dt>
    <dd>
      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").
    </dd>
    <dt>Record Enable</dt>
    <dd>Toggles the global record enable setting
    </dd>
  </dl>
</p>

<h3>Other Global Controls</h3>
<p>
  <dl>
    <dt>Mix</dt>
    <dd></dd>
  </dl>
</p>