Will: In simple terms, what we have is a
way of sending both Control Messages (i.e. what parameters
on Scope modules understand) and MIDI Messages over a stereo
ASIO channel. In a lot of ways, the first part of that is
the most exciting, as it allows us to control parameters in
Scope at 31 bit resolution and automate them from within the
DAW.
Once you have the ability to control over that link, all of
the DAWs have nice ways of hooking up external MIDI
controllers, which makes automapping external controllers
into Scope a real possibility. In my case, I'm able to
automap 64 controls across 8 banks of my Ableton Push into
Scope parameters and see the current values in the LCD
screen. |
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A lot of what I've done is heavily dependent on the work
Simon has done in BC Modular, e.g. exposing the control of
modules via cable connections, as well as building the
control modules themselves. We very much see this as
the beginning and the two major limitations of what we have
so far are the dependency on Max For Live and the need to
use ASIO connections for the control signal. For the next
steps we'll be looking at ways to overcome both of those
(the former being somewhat more straightforward). You
can download ScopeSync from
here.
Hooking it up
As you can see, it has controls labeled from A1 through to
H8, grouped into 2 sets of 8 across each of 4 tabs. These
match up to the labeling within the associated Control
Source modules in Scope. To get started, you can just load
this up into a MIDI channel in Ableton Live, point the audio
outputs to an appropriate pair of ASIO channels (not ones
that are hooked up to your speakers or headphones, or you'll
get some nasty noises!) that are connected in to the Data
and Dest connections of a Control Source module in a Scope
Modular patch (Data = L, Dest = R).
You'll then have 2 or 4 BC Pipe outputs in your Modular
patch that can be split into individual control connectors
using the Pipe module. There will also be some MIDI outputs.
The default setup is for the MIDI input to be passed on to
MIDI port A.
In the Control Source modules, you can switch the sets of
controls that they are listening to using the popup menu
(accessed by clicking on the BC link). In the 16 control
version, you will get pairs to choose from, whereas the 32
control version will offer sets of 4. Note that this means
that a single Control Source module will not be listening to
all 64 controls in this version of the patch. You'll need to
add more modules for that.
Basic usage
At this point, you can just start twisting knobs or sending
MIDI in the Max for Live patch and the control signals and
MIDI will automatically start to be passed to Scope. If you
happen to have connected a new Control Source module up and
the controls are out of sync, you can use the Snapshot
button on the ScopeSync patch to send an update with all
settings from the patch.
Note that snapshot won't work to sync after changing values
on the Scope side, as the synchronization will not detect a
change in settings. You can just manually change a value on
the Max for Live patch to re-sync it.
You can also automate the controls either using other MIDI
plug-ins (e.g. LFOs) or by creating automation lanes. All 64
controls should appear in the automation list. |