Logic Control/Mackie Control Users

[ski]

I just recently acquired an original model emagic Logic Control, predecessor to the Mackie Control, MCU, etc. I can't imagine how I lived without this thing for so long! And its plug-and-play capability with Logic is flawless. Anyway...

 

I was wondering if other Logic Control/Mackie Control users out there would be willing to share tips, tricks, and insights for configuring the Controller Assignments setup page for the purpose of changing or adding various functions. For example...

 

I wanted the FLIP button to switch between normal fader operation and "motors off". With a little experimentation I got this to happen by setting the "Multiply" value from 1 (the default) to 3. See pic below.

 

I got lucky with that, but there are other things I'd like to modify but I can't figure out how to do. For example, for some reason the Touch button puts a track into Read, not Touch. Would love to know how to modify it to actually put it into Touch mode. Any help and insights would be much appreciated!

Edited September 26, 2012 by ski

[Ashermusic]

Sorry Ski, I have decided not to sell it to you.

 

 

 

 

Just kidding!

[ski]

Glad you're kidding, because.... well.... "possession is 9/10ths of the law" or whatever it is they say.

[dustinkiel75]

I just got a Logic Control this week. It is awesome! I had been mixing with a mouse for about ten years, this is so much better! I don't have any tricks to share yet, but thanks for the flip mode tip. I will post if I come up with anything.

[ski]

Great, thanks Dust! Yeah, it's such a relief to have faders and mute buttons and everything else!

 

Still hoping that someone out there would be willing to walk me through certain operations. For instance, I'd love to program the Write button to do something else. Disconnecting it from the stock programming is easy (i.e., it's easy to break stuff ). But programming it to do something else is unfathomable!

[ski]

OK guys, here's one for you...

 

I'd like to be able to set up the Logic Control so that it only shows a specific track, and to then make that track persistent. Here's what I've found so far...

 

By switching the Channel Strip View Mode to "Single" in the setup page, and then selecting the desired track, I'm able to get just that track to show on the LC (the Stereo Output and Master Volume also appear by default, but that's OK). The missing piece of the puzzle is to then get the selected track to remain visible (persistent) on the Logic Control regardless of what other track I select in the Arrange page.

 

For reference, the Euphonix MC Mix had a utility that allowed specific tracks to be made persistent on that control surface, so I'm thinking it's possible to do here too. Anyone out there with the kind of expertise needed to configure things this way?

[beej]

I just recently acquired an original model emagic Logic Control, predecessor to the Mackie Control, MCU, etc. I can't imagine how I lived without this thing for so long! And its plug-and-play capability with Logic is flawless. Anyway...

 

Yep, it's really great. They really wrangled an immense amount of well-designed control into the MCU.

 

I was wondering if other Logic Control/Mackie Control users out there would be willing to share tips, tricks, and insights for configuring the Controller Assignments setup page for the purpose of changing or adding various functions. For example...

 

I've been getting interested in controller hacking again, and extending things and seeing what's possible and what's not.

 

It's tricky to work out what's possible because there is a close link between how the controller assignments are set up, but also what parameters (through the control surface plugin) are accessible.

 

One of the things I'm looking at is better plugin control. Ideally and something I'm working towards, is having a new variation of Instrument Edit mode (either modifying that mode directly, or better still, keeping that mode - it's useful - and basically duplicating it to a user mode) - and rather than having 8 parameters on the Vpots, you have those 8 and another 8 on the faders (and you can Flip them etc to swap which set are on which).

 

Currently I'm not sure this is possible as it would require Logic to think it has a fader bank of 16 rather than 8 and the way Logic distributes the plugin parameters to the control surface parameters is kinda a black box.

 

For now, it's easy enough in a user mode to make manual assignments - so typically for a given softsynth I might have the filter controls and some key oscillator or mod parameters on the 8 vpots, with the amp and filter envelopes on the faders (it's cool as you switch presets you see the envelope shapes on the faders).

 

You can repurpose the various switches (rec ready, solo, mute, select) to control switched functions too, and with some more effort set up pages of assignments you can use the left/right cursors to step between - but (for my purposes at least), it's not so much about trying to map *every* parameter of a plugin, it's more having a quick and semi-consistent approach to quickly being able to tweak by feel the most important parameters on a given synth patch.

 

So while that all works nicely, it's tedious as you have to manually map each parameter for each instrument you want, and due to controller assignment bugs or implementation issues, once you start mapping loads of different plugin parameters to the same control, after ten or so the assignments start breaking and becoming unreliable. Judicious mode switching can help here, but really I want things to be as automatic as possible - which is why my ideal solution is a modification of Instrument Edit mode where Logic distributes parameters in order* automatically across *both* the 8 vpots *and* the 8 faders...

 

* Of course you can control the order with CSParameterOrder.plist files

Edited May 25, 2013 by beej

[beej]

I'd like to be able to set up the Logic Control so that it only shows a specific track, and to then make that track persistent. Anyone out there with the kind of expertise needed to configure things this way?

 

Hmm. The Logic Control surface handling has a concept called "Split mode" which divides a set of 8 parameters into a number of sets (Upper and Lower, typically, but you can have I think up to 8 sets in various combinations according to the CS manual). Now, while the MCU doesn't support this directly - it's intended for the C4 where you have 4 sets of 8 vpots, and each set can be showing different sets of parameters or plugins for editing - you can access it for the various parameters. For example, you can be in plugin edit mode, and set a split point so the first four vpots are showing the first four parameters from the assignments in the first page of controls, and the last four showing different controls from 9 pages on - and this works nicely on an MCU.

 

And yes, there is a "Channel Strip Split Lower" parameter. So, it *should* be possible to split the channel strips in a similar way - so, for example, the first channel strip is the Upper set of channels strips (and only showing 1), and the remaining 7 channel strips are Lower ones. Now, it should be possible to use the bank select to page the lower set of strips, leaving the upper strips in the same place - locking your first channel strip in place.

 

You can only have one split point, so you wouldn't be able to lock, say, channels 3 to 6 in place - it would would be either end locked in place to a certain amount of channel strips, but useful nonetheless. I'll have a play and see what can be done...

 

So let's get MCU hacking and see and document what can and can't be done..!

[beej]

Hmm, it seems like the channel strip split is primarily intended to link a track with a set of parameters. So, for example, on a C4, with four sets of 8 pots, you could split into 4 sets of eight, with each eight vpots displaying plugin parameters on a different track.

 

I'm not sure whether this can be abused for your purposes of locking sets of channel strips though, as it seems intended as a tool to help distribute and set up sets of vpot parameters, rather than fader banks...

[beej]

One of the things I'm looking at is better plugin control. Ideally and something I'm working towards, is having a new variation of Instrument Edit mode (either modifying that mode directly, or better still, keeping that mode - it's useful - and basically duplicating it to a user mode) - and rather than having 8 parameters on the Vpots, you have those 8 and another 8 on the faders (and you can Flip them etc to swap which set are on which).

 

Currently I'm not sure this is possible as it would require Logic to think it has a fader bank of 16 rather than 8 and the way Logic distributes the plugin parameters to the control surface parameters is kinda a black box.

 

An update on my progress with this.

 

If you look at the Vpot assignments in Instrument Edit mode with no instrument plugin loaded, Logic displays the parameters like this:

(#1), (#2) ... (#8).

 

You can't edit these, and they basically seem to be inbuilt control module variables corresponding to the 8 parameters displayed on the vpots/display. There is no (#9) etc, which is what I want - as I want to be able to allocate parameters 9-16 to the faders, so I can have 16 parameters available at once.

 

Ok, so the first thing I did was duplicate the control assignments from Instrument Edit mode and copy them to U1 mode. Now, going into User1 mode is a functional duplicate of Instrument Edit mode.

 

Ok. So the next thing I did was create a new (phantom) Mackie Control Extender and put it in the same control surface group. Ok, now we have 16 available parameters - 8 for the first MCU, and another 8 for the second. Those extra assignments get created in the controller assignments window. We move those into our new User1 mode as well.

 

Ok, now the problem is that non-existant vpots on a non-MIDI channel are controlling those parameters. We want the faders from our main control surface to do it. You have to do a little creative controller assignments hacking to change the controls assigned to these, but it does work. Yay!

 

I've currently got a little issue to solve (which I already solved before in a previous proof of concept) *but* what I want to do seems to be possible. There will be some other things to work through (as Logic thinks two control surfaces are assigned, the fader bank will now be 16 channels rather than 8, so those things will need looking at - and if the controllers are not present, or reset, these assignments get nuked (same old story) *but* I'm quite pleased so far at, well, getting this far with it.

 

A little bit more work and I might be able to get to a stable, workable implementation - to recap, a second Instrument Edit mode (and then PlugIn Edit mode) in which each "page" has 16 rather than 8 plugin parameters, 8 on the pots, and 8 on the faders.

 

Good stuff! More to come...

[Tayto]

The missing piece of the puzzle is to then get the selected track to remain visible (persistent) on the Logic Control regardless of what other track I select in the Arrange page.

Press NAME/VALUE button with CMD/ALT modifier to access 'Control surface group settings mode' where V-POT 6 toggles 'Channel Strip View track lock'.

(well that only took six years to find...)