Hi, I am an Ardour beginner. I am wondering whether it’s possible to use control surfaces to control automation parameters of AU plugins?
I am using MIDI learn (ctrl+middle) to link nanoKONTROL2, it works just fine for e.g. track volume, but not for automation parameters (several AU plugins tried, using Ardour 4.4.0 Intel 64bit).
Any ideas? Thanks!
you’re probably trying to use MIDI learn with the “native” plugin GUI. This cannot work sanely, not with any plugin standard or any host. It would mean somehow intercepting events in the GUI (like mouse press/release), somehow figuring out that they are on a visual control, and then starting a MIDI learn process for whatever plugin parameter that is.
You need to initiate MIDI learn on either:
- The fader of the automation lane for that parameter
- The fader in the "Generic" GUI for the plugin (accessible by right-clickng it in the processor box of the mixer strip
Thanks Paul for your quick response and explanation! Ctrl+middle clicking on faders on the generic GUI does not offer ‘operate controller now’. I already tried MIDI learn on the automation lane, ‘operate controller now’ appears and disappears after moving a slider, but somehow the control (knobs or sliders) does not respond. By chance I discovered that attaching binary controls (on/off switches) to mute/solo/record buttons in the same way is working.
I have an additional observation: I added an automation lane for the filter freq (Synth1 by Daichi) of an oscillator and linked to a knob of my control surface using MIDI learn.
First I set the value using the mouse to minimum. Turning the knob from low to high yields two values: 0.004 for min and 0.012 for max. When I set the value using mouse to maximum, the knob yields 0.988 to 0.996.