View Single Post
Old 05-21-2013, 01:31 AM   #103
Banned
Human being with feelings
 
Banned's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Unwired (probably in the proximity of Amsterdam)
Posts: 4,868
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by TonE View Post
Banned, commenting on your VU-meter example can you also change the volume on that knob where the vu-meter is dancing? If yes, would it be also possible to use all 32 knobs to display 32 vu-meters, all parallel?
I should check to make 100% sure (as that was just a PoC thingie, and I never use VU meters like that myself), but I think not - you would have to decouple the knob (sending e.g. MIDI CC#1 on Ch.1) from the LED ring (which would have to be receiving and displaying something else, e.g. CC#2 on ch.2), and I don't think that is possible.

What *can* be done is using the push button on the same encoder to create such a function: when pressing on the encoder, it can send a command (e.g. a note-on command for, say, note 0 on ch. 1) to the intermediate patch between the BCR-2000 and REAPER (e.g. Pure data, but that could also be something else), which would then respond by switching functions on its end: stop sending the VU meter as CC# data, start interpreting and routing the incoming data to the desired parameter of your choice (e.g. the level of send 1 on the currently selected track(s)).

You can definitely use all 32 LED rings, but unfortunately you can only 'fill' the ring on the upper 8; the lower 24 have more limited LED display modes. That's just about visual appearances though; it would still give you the same visual feedback, it's just not typical to display VU meters with only one or two LED 'dots' on a ring.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TonE View Post
Another BCR-2000 related dance, when changing presets, I think there are all together 32 presets on the BCR2000, could you have different setups all defined in those presets, and switch among those, and it would still communicate nicely with Reaper? Or is this only possible with a single preset at maximum? If all 32 presets can work in parallel, this would increase the possibility space for the factor 32. Then we need only a mechanism to switch into those presets DIRECTLY, from some external trigger, NOT using prev/next buttons on the BCR2000, imagine you are in preset1 and want to switch to preset15, here you would need to press 14 times the next button, which would be a catastrophe. Using program change events, might be one idea to jump into BCR2000 presets.
Yes, you can use multiple presets, and they maintain their state nicely. So when go back to you previous preset, all knob positions are still where you left them (unless you switch the power off - so just don't do that during a live performance ). There is no unnecessary spamming of current values back and forth.

You can of course also use very similar complementary setups. A simple illustration of this, perhaps even more useful in the light of recent developments, is to set up the same CC#s in 7 bit mode on one preset, and in 14 bit mode on the next (and perhaps another few using various acceleration schemes). This way you can switch all controls between coarse and fine tuning mode. However, because the presets are independent, and since there is no spamming of current values when changing presets from the BCR-2000 side, when using the same parameters on multiple presets, their values are not updated between presets.

An even more sophisticated technique, which can also be used to work around the problem just mentioned, is to switch the functions of individual control elements on the fly using SysEx. I can for example make an encoder switch between 7 and 14 bit mode seamlessly, by first reading/storing its current value, using that value as the default value in a little SysEx message that changes the resolution (bit depth) of that encoder, and then send the SysEx to the BCR-2000, which will then of course update its function accordingly. This approach of course takes quite a bit of hacking to be fully automated (I alson use Pd to compose/generate such SysEx commands), but certainly gives us a lot of flexibility where required.

And as for switching between presets, a little tip: you don't have to press a button repeatedly: just hold down either the 'next preset' or 'previous preset' button and turn any knob. Changing the current preset from 1 to 32 is just one action with two hands.
__________________
˙lɐd 'ʎɐʍ ƃuoɹʍ ǝɥʇ ǝɔıʌǝp ʇɐɥʇ ƃuıploɥ ǝɹ,noʎ
Banned is offline   Reply With Quote