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
behaviour with the device. This issue might get fixed by Presonus in
the future.
</p>
+<p>
+ Ardour uses the Faderport in what Presonus calls "native" mode. You
+ do not need to do anything to enable this - 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 - 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>
+<img alt="the Faderport configuration dialog" src="foo">
+<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>
+ 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:
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>
</p>
<h3>Other Global Controls</h3>
+<p>
+ The Mix, Proj, Trns buttons have no "obvious" functionality
+ that they correspond to 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
+ > 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>
<dl>
<dt>Mix</dt>
- <dd></dd>
+ <dd>
+ <p>
+ Possible actions include:
+ <ul>
+ <li></li>
+ </ul>
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Proj</dt>
+ <dd>
+ <p>
+ Possible actions include:
+ <ul>
+ <li></li>
+ </ul>
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Trns</dt>
+ <dd>
+ <p>
+ Possible actions include:
+ <ul>
+ <li></li>
+ </ul>
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Undo/Redo</dt>
+ <dd>
+ Undo Causes the last operation carried out in the editor to be
+ undone. When pressed in conjuction with the Shift button, it
+ causes the most recent undone operation to be re-done.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Punch</dt>
+ <dd>
+ Toggles punch recording. If there is no punch range set for the
+ session, this will do nothing.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>User</dt>
+ <dd>
+ See above. Any and all GUI-initiated actions can be driven with
+ this button.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Loop</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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.
+ </dd>
</dl>
</p>
-
+<h3>Per-track Controls</h3>
+<p>
+ <dl>
+ <dt>Mute</dt>
+ <dd>
+ This toggles the mute setting of the currently controlled
+ track/bus. The button will be lit if the track/bus is muted.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Solo</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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).
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Rec</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Fader</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Knob/Dial/Encoder</dt>
+ <dd>
+ <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>
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Read</dt>
+ <dd>
+ Enables playback/use of fader automation data by the controlled track/bus.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Write</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Touch</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Off</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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.
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+</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>
+ <dl>
+ <dt>Left (arrow)</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Right (arrow)</dt>
+ <dd>
+ 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.
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Output</dt>
+ <dd>
+ <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 - 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>
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Bank</dt>
+ <dd>
+ The "Bank" button is currently not used by Ardour
+ </dd>
+ </dl>
+</p>
projects / ardour-manual-diverged / blobdiff