--- /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