--- /dev/null
+---
+layout: default
+title: Using the Presonus Faderport
+menu_title: Presonus Faderport
+---
+
+<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. 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>
+<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 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
+ 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>
+<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
+ 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:
+ <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>
+<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>
+ The transport buttons all work as you would expect.
+ <dl>
+ <dt>Rewind</dt>
+ <dd>
+ <p>
+ When pressed on its own, starts the transport moving backwards. Successive presses
+ speed up the "rewind" behaviour.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If pressed while also holding the Stop button, the playhead will
+ return to the zero position on the timeline.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If pressed while also holding the Shift button, the playhead will
+ move to the session start marker.
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Fast Forward</dt>
+ <dd>
+ <p>
+ When pressed on its own, starts the transport moving faster than normal. Successive presses
+ speed up the "fast forward" behaviour.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ If pressed while also holding the Shift button, the playhead
+ will move to the session end marker.
+ </p>
+ </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>
+ The Mix, Proj, Trns buttons do not obviously correspond any
+ particular functions or operations 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>
+ <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>
+ <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>
+ <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>
+ 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>
+ <p>
+ When pressed on its own, toggles punch recording. If there is no
+ punch range set for the session, this will do nothing.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When pressed in conjunction with the Shift button, this moves
+ the playhead to the previous Marker
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+ <dt>User</dt>
+ <dd>
+ <p>
+ See above. Any and all GUI-initiated actions can be driven with
+ by pressing this button on its own, or with a "long" press.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When pressed in conjunction with the Shift button, this will move
+ the playhead to the next marker.
+ </p>
+ </dd>
+ <dt>Loop</dt>
+ <dd>
+ <p>
+ When pressed on its own, this 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.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When pressed in conjunction with the Shift button, this will
+ create a new (unnamed) marker at the current playhead
+ position.
+ </p>
+ </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