Problems with Controller Assignments

[jamsden]

I've been creating a lot of controller assignments for our Logic Pro X based rehearsal setup. I'm controlling two guitar tracks with two FCB1010's and have a number of controller assignments from a Code49 keyboard to do other things. Here's the typical problems I have:

 

1. Its very hard to determine the value mode and scaling for different kinds of parameters: on/off vs. bypass on/off (inverted), plugin parameters like S-Gear that use 0.0 and 1.0 for off/on footswitches that send single values (FCB1010 non-stomp footswitches), footswitches that toggle (FCB1010 UnO stomp switches), footswitches that send press/release (Apogee GiO), etc. Somehow the mapping between the MIDI message and the value change in the parameter needs to be more visible and controllable - like it is when creating controller assignments for Smart Controls or controller assignments in MainStage.

 

2. Audio index for channel strip selection seems to be inconsistent about 0 vs. 1 based indexing. Sometimes I have to subtract 1 from the audio index of a track to get the right track, then I come back a few days later and all the controller assignments stop working. I have fix this by adding 1 back to the audio index for the channel strip so that it matches the label assigned to the track. 

 

3. It would be really convenient if controller assignments could be made without using Learn mode. With Learn mode you have to have multiple plugin windows open to select the parameters, some plugin GUIs don't provide parameter selection to learn mode so you have to switch to the Controls view and hunt for the parameter. Then its real easy to forget to run learn mode off and break your controller assignment. Logic is inconsistent here. Control surface controller assignments require Learn mode to select a track parameter, and although you have to send a MIDI message to complete the assignment, you can then edit the MIDI message directly. Controller assignments for Smart Controls is the opposite. You can directly select the parameter from a menu, but can't enter the MIDI message directly. It should be possible to learn and/or directly set parameter selection and MIDI messages.

 

4. There's no way to edit the parameter of an existing controller assignment. If you got the wrong parameter, you have to relearn a new controller assignment and delete the old one. This is inconvenient and error prone given how hard it is to get the MIDI message/parameter value  mapping right. It should be possible to select a controller assignment and edit anything, either directly or using learn mode.

 

5. There really needs to be a way of exporting and importing control surface zones and modes in order to conveniently move controller assignments from one computer to another. 

 

6. It would be useful to have project-based controller assignments that are specific to the project, not the user, and can be saved and loaded with the project and easily shared with others. Smart control assignments seem to do this, but it is not possible to create a Smart control controller assignment that doesn't map to a screen control (like you can in MainStage). Since users can't create their own smart control templates, and the existing templates are quite limited, and possibly only useful for limited controller assignments, this is insufficient.

 

Basically controller assignments seem too focused on supporting control surfaces and not enough on giving users the flexibility to create and reuse their own controller assignments across projects and computers. 

[markalex905]

I'm also a bit stuck on problem #4 - not being able to reassign the Parameter. Does anyone have a solution for this?