I’m having a peculiar issue, when I mouse over the “Controller” section of the automation menu in Ardour, nothing shows, just a tiny sliver of the likely unpopulated menu. Here is what most of the submenus in the automation menu look like for me
Which version of Ardour are you using (Menu > Help > About)?
Is there an instrument plugin(s) on the track, if so which one? or have you selected a custom MIDNAM ?
In case a synth plugin announces that the synth can only support only a given subset of Controls, Ardour will limit the available controls to those.
OK, that may explain this. Sadly, Ardour 5 does not allow to override information given by a synth (and also doesn’t handle empty lists correctly). This has been addressed by Ardour6.
There’s also ongoing work in sfizz to provide a good MIDNAM. I think you have to stay tuned.