+++ /dev/null
----
-layout: default
-title: SSL Nucleus
----
-
-<p>
- The Nucleus, from Solid State Logic, is a 16 fader Mackie Control
- device that includes many buttons, separate meters, two LCD displays
- and other features. The device is not cheap (around US$5000 at the
- time of writing), and has some <a href="#design">design features</a>
- (or lack thereof) which some Ardour developers find
- questionable. Nevertheless, it is a very flexible device, and makes
- a nice 16 fader surface without the need to somehow attach an
- extender to your main surface.
-</p>
-
-<h2>Pre-configuring the Nucleus</h2>
-
-<p>
- Your Nucleus comes complete with a number of "profiles" for a few
- well-known DAWs. At the time of writing it does not include one for
- Ardour (or related products such as Harrison Mixbus).
-</p>
-<p>
- We have prepared a profile in which as many buttons as possible send
- Mackie Control messages, which makes the device maximally useful
- with Ardour (and Mixbus). You can
- download <a href="https://community.ardour.org/files/ArdourNucleusProfile.zip">the
- profile</a>
- and load it to your Nucleus using the <code>Edit Profiles</code>
- button in SSL's Nucleus Remote application. Be sure to select it for
- the active DAW layer in order to make Ardour work as well as
- possible. <em>Note: unfortunately, the Nucleus Remote application
- only runs on OS X or Windows, so Linux users will need access to
- another system to load the profile. We will provide notes on the
- profile settings at a future time.</em>
-</p>
-
-<h2>Connecting the Nucleus</h2>
-
-<p>
- Unlike most Mackie Control devices, the Nucleus uses an ethernet
- connection to send and receive the MIDI messages that make up the
- Mackie Control protocol. Specifically, it uses a technology called
- "ipMIDI" which essentially "broadcasts" MIDI messages on a local
- area network, so that any connected devices (computers, control
- surfaces, tablets etc.) can participate.
-</p>
-<p>
- All other DAWs so far that support the Nucleus have chosen to do so
- by using a 3rd party MIDI driver called "ipMIDI", which creates a
- number of "virtual" MIDI ports on your computer. You, the user,
- tells the DAW which ports to connect to, and ipMIDI takes care of
- the rest.
-</p>
-<p>
- Ardour has builtin ipMIDI support, with no need of any 3rd party
- packages, and no need to identify the "ports" to connect to in order
- to communicate with the Nucleus. This makes setting it up a bit
- easier than most other systems.
-</p>
-<p>
- Unless ... you already installed the ipMIDI driver in order to use
- some other DAW with your Nucleus. If ipMIDI is configured to create
- any "ports", it is not possible for Ardour's own ipMIDI support to
- function. We decided to offer both methods of communicating with
- your Nucleus. If you regularly use other DAWs, and appreciate having
- ipMIDI permanently set up to communication with the Nucleus - that's
- OK, you can tell Ardour to use the ipMIDI driver you already
- have. But if you're not using other DAWs with the Nucleus (and thus
- have not installed the ipMIDI driver), then you can ignore the
- ipMIDI driver entirely, and let Ardour connect directly with no
- configuration.
-</p>
-
-<h3>Connecting via Ardour's own ipMIDI support</h3>
-
-<p class="alert alert-info">
- This is usable only on computers with no 3rd party ipMIDI
- driver software installed and configured. If you have the OS X or
- Windows ipMIDI driver from nerds.de, it <strong>MUST</strong> be
- configured to offer <strong>ZERO</strong> ports before using this
- method.
-</p>
-
-<p>
- Open <code>Preferences > Control Surfaces</code>. Ensure that the
- Mackie protocol is enabled, then double-click on it to open the
- Mackie Control setup dialog.
-</p>
-<p>
- Ensure that the device selected is "SSL Nucleus". The dialog should
- show a single numerical selector control below it, defining the
- ipMIDI port number to use (it should almost always be left at the
- default value of 21928).
-</p>
-<p>
- Communication is automatically established with the Nucleus and you
- need do nothing more.
-</p>
-<p>
- If this does not work, then make sure your network cables are
- properly connected, and that you are <strong>not</strong> running
- other ipMIDI software on the computer.
-</p>
-
-<h3>Connecting via 3rd party ipMIDI support</h3>
-
-<p class="alert alert-info">
- This is usable only on computers with 3rd party ipMIDI
- driver software installed and configured for (at least) 2 ports.
-</p>
-
-<p>
- Open <code>Preferences > Control Surfaces</code>. Ensure that the
- Mackie protocol is enabled, then double-click on it to open the
- Mackie Control setup dialog.
-</p>
-<p>
- Ensure that the device selected is "SSL Nucleus (via platform MIDI)". The dialog should
- show four combo/dropdown selectors, labelled (respectively):
-</p>
- <ul>
- <li><code>Main Surface receives via</code></li>
- <li><code>Main Surface sends via</code></li>
- <li><code>1st extender receives via</code></li>
- <li><code>1st extender sends via</code></li>
- </ul>
-<p>
- You should choose "ipMIDI port 1", "ipMIDI port 1", "ipMIDI port 2"
- and "ipMIDI port 2" for each of the 4 combo/dropdown selectors.
-</p>
-<p>
- Communication should be automatically established with the Nucleus.
-</p>
-<p>
- If this does not work, then make sure your network cables are
- properly connected, and that you are running the approprate ipMIDI
- driver and have configured it for 2 (or more) ports.
-</p>
-
-<h2><a name="design">Nucleus Design Discussion</a></h2>
-
-<p>
- You might be reading this part of the manual seeking some guidance
- on whether the Nucleus would make a suitable control surface for
- your workflows. We don't want to try to answer that question
- definitively, since the real answer depends on the very specific
- details of your workflow and situation, but we would like to point
- out a number of design features of the Nucleus that might change
- your opinion.
-</p>
-
-<h3>Cons</h3>
-<dl>
- <dt>No Master Faster</dt>
- <dd>It is not possible to control the level of the Master bus or
- Monitor section. Really don't know what SSL was thinking here.</dd>
- <dt>No dedicated rec-enable buttons</dt>
- <dd>You have to press the "Rec" button and convert the per-strip
- "Select" buttons into rec-enables</dd>
- <dt>No dedicated automation buttons</dt>
- <dd>You have to press the "Auto" button and convert the first 4
- vpots into 4 automation-related buttons, losing your current view
- of the session.</dd>
- <dt>No buttons with Mackie-defined "Marker" functionality</dt>
- <dd>Mackie's design intentions for the interoperation of the
- Marker, rewind and ffwd buttons requires profile editing in order
- to function properly.
- </dd>
- <dt>No "Dyn" button</dt>
- <dd>This is hard to assign in an edited profile. To be fair, other
- Mackie Control devices also lack this button.
- </dd>
-</dl>
-
-<h3>Pros</h3>
-<dl>
- <dt>Single cable connectivity</dt>
- <dd>No need for multiple MIDI cables to get 16 faders</dd>
- <dt>Broadcast connectivity</dt>
- <dd>Connecting to multiple computers does not require recabling</dd>
- <dt>16 faders from a single box</dt>
- <dd>No need to figure out how to keep extenders together</dd>
- <dt>Meters separated from displays</dt>
- <dd>Contrast with the Mackie Control Universal Pro, where meters
- interfere with the display
- </dd>
- <dt>DAW profiles</dt>
- <dd>Easy to flip profiles for use by different DAWs.</dd>
-</dl>
-
-
-<h3>Ambiguous</h3>
-<dl>
- <dt>Ability to make buttons generate USB keyboard events</dt>
- <dd>The extent to which this is useful reflects the target DAWs
- inability to manage all of its functionality via Mackie Control
- </dd>
- <dt>Sophisticated "profile" editing</dt>
- <dd>It is nice to be able to reassign the functionality of most
- buttons, but this is only necessary because of the relatively few
- global buttons on the surface.
- </dd>
- <dt>Builtin analog signal path</dt>
- <dd>SSL clearly expects users to route audio back from their
- computer via the Nucleus' own 2 channel output path, and maybe even
- use the input path as well. They take up a significant amount of
- surface space with the controls for this signal path, space that
- could have been used for a master fader or more Mackie Control
- buttons. The USB audio device requires a proprietary driver, so
- Linux users can't use this, and OS X/Windows users will have to
- install a device driver (very odd for a USB audio device these
- days). The analog path also no doubt adds notable cost to the
- Nucleus. There's nothing wrong with this feature for users that
- don't already have a working analog/digital signal path for their
- computers. But who is going to spend $5000 on a Nucleus that
- doesn't have this already?</dd>
-</dl>
projects / ardour-manual-diverged / blobdiff