- The FaderPort™ 8 is a production control surface with 8 touch-sensitive, motorized faders,
- monochromatic digital scribble strips and more than 60 buttons with fixed labels.
+ The FaderPort™ 8 is a production control surface with 8 touch-sensitive,
+ motorized faders, monochromatic digital scribble strips and more than 60 buttons
+ with fixed labels.
Connecting the FaderPort 8
@@ -48,16 +50,20 @@
saved, the connections will be made automatically in this and other
future sessions.
The FaderPort's controls can be divided into five groups:
-
+
+
Transport buttons
Session Navigation controls
Fader modes
@@ -72,15 +78,20 @@
- All buttons act on release (not press), exceptions are mentioned below.
+ Buttons generally act on release (not press), with exception
+ of transport-control (since 6.0pre) and individual exceptions mentioned below.
Transport Buttons
+
-
+
+
+ FaderPort8 Transport Buttons
+
-
+
+
Stop: Stops the transport. Press twice to return to
session start.
Loop: Toggles loop playback. A loop-range needs to
@@ -97,20 +108,23 @@
Record: Toggles the global record enable
setting.
-
-
Session Navigation
+
Session Navigation
Session Navigation allows quick navigation and provides access to
session-wide controls. Each of the eight buttons alters the function
of the push-button encoder and the Prev, Next buttons.
With exception of Click the seven modes are exclusive (radio buttons).
+
-
+
+
+ FaderPort8 Navigation Buttons
+
-
+
+
Channel: The Prev / Next
buttons select the previous/next mixer-strip. If no strip is selected,
Next selects the first, Prev the last mixer-strip in
@@ -166,12 +180,13 @@
Marker
Move to prev/next marker
Scroll the timeline (move playhead)
Drop a new marker
Press and hold Click
(mode dependent)
Adjust metronome Level
Reset metronome level to 0dBFS
-
-
Shift Button
+
Shift Button
-
+
+
+ The FaderPort8 Shift Button
+
The two Shift buttons are identical, they're copied to provide
@@ -186,20 +201,23 @@
The Shift button engages directly on press. Activating an action
while the button is held will void the shift-lock mode.
-
-
Fader Modes
+
Fader Modes
The eight faders on the FP8 can be assigned to various automatable
controls present in the current session. The four fader-mode buttons
change the behavior of the mixer-strip and scribble strip displays.
(Note: with the 1.01 firmware these buttons always act on press.)
+
-
+
+
+ FaderPort8 Fader Mode Buttons
+
-
+
+
Track: In Track-mode, the motorized faders display
and control a mixer-strip's signal level. The Pan/Param encoder modifies the
azimuth of the panner (hold Shift to control the width, if the
@@ -224,18 +242,18 @@
it stays in edit mode regardless of track selection). If there are more than
eight parameters, the Pan/Param encoder allows to scroll through available
control-parameters (hold Shift to bank by 8).
- Pressing the Pan/Param encoder switches to the plugin-preset
- display: Plugin preset names are displayed on the
- scribble-displays, the Select button below each loads the preset.
- The "Pan/Param" encoder can be used to scroll through presets if there are
- more than seven (right-most, 8th, slot is reserved to unload/clear a loaded
- preset, hold Shift to bank by 8). The Select button
- color is used to indicate the currently loaded preset (if any) and blinks if
- a parameter has been modified since loading the preset. Loading a preset or
- pressing the Pan/Param encoder again switches back to the Plugin Parameter
- Edit Mode.
- In Edit Mode, the "Open" (Shift + Macro) allows to
- toggle the Plugin GUI visibility.
+ If the plugin has any presets, pressing the Pan/Param encoder switches to
+ the plugin-preset display: Plugin preset names are
+ displayed on the scribble-displays, the Select button below each
+ loads the preset. The "Pan/Param" encoder can be used to scroll through
+ presets if there are more than seven (right-most, 8th, slot is reserved to
+ unload/clear a loaded preset, hold Shift to bank by 7). The
+ Select button color is used to indicate the currently loaded
+ preset (if any) and blinks if a parameter has been modified since loading
+ the preset. Loading a preset or pressing the Pan/Param encoder again
+ switches back to the Plugin Parameter Edit Mode.
+ In Parameter Edit Mode, the "Open" (Shift + Macro)
+ allows to toggle the Plugin GUI visibility.
Press the Edit Plugins button again to return to the Select
Plugin Mode.
@@ -248,25 +266,31 @@
will display and control the panner's azimuth. The Pan/Param controls the
pan-width of the selected mixer-strip.
+
Shift + Track toggles timecode display on/off (middle
row of the scribble-strip). The timecode format can be configured in the
Control Surface Preference Dialog (Timecode, musical-time: bar/beat/tick).
-
-
Channel Strip
+
+
Channel Strip
+
-
+
+
+ The FaderPort8 Channel Strip
+
-
+
+
Touch-Sensitive Fader: The fader can be used to control
volume levels, aux send levels, panning, or plugin parameters, depending on
the fader-mode (see above).
Pan/Param: The encoder controls panning in Track and Pan
mode. In Plugin and Send fader-modes, the encoder banks parameters. See
- Fader modes above for details.
+ Fader modes above for details. When "Link" is engaged, the encoder can
+ control any automatable parameter (see Miscellaneous below).
Mute: Toggle the mute-control of the corresponding
mixer-strip. Mute engages on press, and disengages on release. Press and
hold the button for at least 0.5sec for momentary.
@@ -278,18 +302,18 @@
Since selection is not limited to a single mixer-strip, the button acts in
tri-state. A mixer-strip light indicates selection:
-
+
Any Selected Track: The select button is lit with the
track's color.
Any Not Selected Track: The select button is off
(dimly showing the track's color).
Most Recently Selected Track: Only one track at a
- time. The select button is blinks width the track's color.
+ time. The select button blinks with the track's color.
Operations such as Edit Plugins or Sends use the
most-recently-selected (focused) track. To modify the selection, the
button's action depends on the current selection:
-
+
Select: The track is exclusively selected
and also becomes the most-recently selected.
Shift + Select any selected
@@ -300,6 +324,11 @@
+
+ In Track-mode, pressing the Select button of the most recently
+ selected track (blinking Select button) will reset the fader-gain
+ to unity (0dB). (since Ardour 5.11-207, Mixbus 4.2-66)
+
While holding the ARM button the Select button lights
change to red and the Select buttons controls the record-arm of
@@ -309,18 +338,21 @@
Shift + ARM record-arms all tracks in the session.
-
-
Mix Management
+
Mix Management
These buttons allows to select which mixer-strips are spilled on the FP8
channel-strips.
@@ -333,7 +365,7 @@
In combination with the Shift modifier ten total
filters are available:
-
+
Shift + AudioInputs:
shows all record-armed tracks (Audio and MIDI).
Shift + VIMIDI: View
@@ -345,9 +377,9 @@
Shift + AllUser:
Display all currently selected mixer-strips only.
-
-
Automation Controls
+
+
Automation Controls
The Automation Controls provide access to the currently selected mixer-strips.
The automation enable lights indicates the mode of the most recently selected
@@ -356,11 +388,15 @@
Track and Pan fader modes where they affect the fader
and pan automation modes respectively.
+
-
+
+
+ FaderPort8 Automation Buttons
+
-
+
+
Latch: Currently not available in Ardour.
Trim: Currently not available in Ardour.
Off: Select "Manual" automation mode.
@@ -370,12 +406,12 @@
mode.
Touch Select "Touch" automation mode.
-
+
The Automation Controls also double as session state controls
when combined with Shift.
-
+
Shift + LatchSave:
Save the session. The button lights up red if the session is modified.
Shift + TrimRedo: Redo
@@ -389,20 +425,27 @@
With Shift, the bottom row allows to bind three custom user
actions.
-
-
Miscellaneous
+
Miscellaneous
+
-
+
+
+ FaderPort8 Misc Buttons
+
-
+
+
Solo Clear: Reset all solo controls in the
- session.
+ session. If the FP8 was used to clear solo-state, pressing the button again
+ will restore the previous state (unless solo state was modified manually
+ since).
Mute Clear: Unmute all mixer-strips in the
- session.
+ session. If the FP8 was used to clear mute-state, pressing the button again
+ will restore the previous mute state (unless mute-state was changed manually
+ since).
Bypass: The behavior depends on the edit-mode:
-
+
Track + Pan Mode: A/B bypass toggle any plugins on
all selected mixer-strips.
Edit Plugin Parameter: Toggle bypass of of the plugin
@@ -413,33 +456,34 @@
Shift + BypassBypass
All: A/B bypass toggle any plugins on all selected mixer-strips.
-
- The labels of the following buttons have no direct corresponding action in
- Ardour and are currently mapped to convenient functions:
-
-
-
Macro: Toggle Editor and Mixer Tabs.
-
Shift + MacroOpen:
- Show the Import Audio Dialog or toggle the currently edited Plugin GUI.
+
+
Macro: Toggle Editor and Mixer Windows/Tabs.
+
Shift + MacroOpen: The
+ behavior depends on the edit-mode:
+
+
Edit Plugin Parameter: Toggle Plugin GUI visibility
+ (if it has a GUI) of the plugin that is currently being edited.
+
all other modes: Show the Import Audio Dialog.
+
Link: Activate Control-Link Mode (only available in
- Track and Pan Fader modes).
+ Track and Pan modes).
The Pan/Param encoder controls the element over which the mouse-cursor
hovers in the GUI. One can access any parameter which can be automated.
Pressing the Pan/Param encoder resets the control-parameter to the default
value.
The buttons color is used to indicate the link-state:
-
+
orange: Link is enabled, but the mouse-cursor is not
- over an element which can be controlled
+ over an element which can be controlled.
yellow: Link is enabled, and the cursor is hovering
- over a controllable element
+ over a controllable element.
green: Link is locked to a given element (see
- below)
+ below).
turquoise: Link lock is possible (when pressing
- Shift while link-mode is enabled)
+ Shift while link-mode is enabled).
red: Link-lock is not possible (only when pressing
Shift while link-mode is enabled without a valid element to
- control
-Link and Link-Lock mode will automatically terminate when entering
+Link and Link-Lock mode will automatically disengage when entering
Sends or Edit Plugins mode.
-
+
+
Harrison Mixbus
+
+The above also applies to Ardour-derivatives Harrison-Mixbus and Mixbus 32C with a few subtle differences:
+
+
+
+ Mix Management Bus shows Mixbusses only, while FX spills Aux-busses.
+
+
+ The Mixbus built-in EQ and Compressor are present on every track and bus and always available. They are displayed as special plugins on right-side in Select Plugin Mode.
+ When editing those processors, the parameters follows track selection (for other plugins this is not possible since they may not be present).
+
+
+ Fader mode Sends shows mixbus-assigns first (before any optional aux-sends). The master-bus-assign is available on the "S"olo button of the right-most strip.
+
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+ 
+