I use an X-touch, but I think this question is more general. I often find it difficult to zero a value using my X-touch: center pan, 0db/unity for aux sends, etc.
Am I missing something obvious in X-touch to make this easier? If the pan is active on the encoder/scribble strip, it’d be nice to press (or even shift-press) the encoded to center the pan. Same applies to zeroing aux sends.
Or is this more of a general issue with the MCP implementation in Ardour, where the general usage stuff was implemented, but not more specific actions?
Is there a way to customize the MCP settings to achieve this? I’m familiar with the Function Keys tab in Preferences > Control Surfaces > Mackie > Show Protocol Settings, but this doesn’t seem to cover anything like this.
While I don’t disagree iwth the usefulness, I don’t believe that is actually defined in the spec is likely why it doesn’t exist. Doesn’t mean others haven’t done it, just that it isn’t part of the spec.
Sadly to modify MCP you would have to edit code, sorry.
As far as I recall, I implemented 100% of Mackie Control Protocol inside Ardour. I do not recall any specification for “return to default” associated with any controls - that’s not the type of specification that is provided. It would fall more under the general category of “extended per-DAW implementations”. For example, in Ardour, if you press a solo button, keep it pressed and then pressed another one, it will solo all tracks/busses between the two. That isn’t part of the MCP specification either.
Humans seem to have have an odd capability to adapt to perverse user interface choices. The flip-side is that, for individuals, having made such an adaption once, their “elasticity” toward arbitrary new UI choices drops off fast. Considering my own situation: thirty five years from the point where I began editing line-oriented text all-day-every-day for a living, I still refuse to use an editor that doesn’t follow the basic modal-editor conventions that Bill Joy et. al. embedded in vi al those years ago.
I know and admire folks who use, e.g. Emacs with the kind of fluidity that I rely on in Vim. But neither they nor I would trade places, even if offered a huge incentive. And please don’t try to tempt me with VSCode, JetBrains, or any other modern IDE: the sheer pain of trying to recode my my myelin/muscle memory away from what I’ve already ingrained deeply is pointless. Yes, Virginia, I’ve tried the “Vi mode” thing in VSCode: it was 80% of the way to being tolerable. Hell, even typing here in this window is more than a little jarring.
