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.
+ 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>
behaviour with the device. This issue might get fixed by Presonus in
the future.
</p>
-<p>
+<p class="well">
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
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>
+<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
</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>Toggle Editor & Mixer visibility</li>
+ <li>Show/Hide the Editor mixer strip</li>
+ </ul>
+ </p>
+ </dd>
<dt>Proj</dt>
- <dd></dd>
+ <dd>
+ <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>
+ </dd>
<dt>Trns</dt>
- <dd></dd>
+ <dd>
+ <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>
+ </dd>
<dt>Undo/Redo</dt>
- <dd></dd>
+ <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></dd>
+ <dd>
+ Toggles punch recording. If there is no punch range set for the
+ session, this will do nothing.
+ </dd>
<dt>User</dt>
- <dd></dd>
+ <dd>
+ See above. Any and all GUI-initiated actions can be driven with
+ this button.
+ </dd>
<dt>Loop</dt>
- <dd></dd>
+ <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>
<p>
<dl>
<dt>Mute</dt>
- <dd></dd>
+ <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></dd>
+ <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></dd>
+ <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></dd>
+ <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></dd>
+ <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></dd>
+ <dd>
+ Enables playback/use of fader automation data by the controlled track/bus.
+ </dd>
<dt>Write</dt>
- <dd></dd>
+ <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></dd>
+ <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></dd>
+ <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>
projects / ardour-manual-diverged / blobdiff