Adding Encoders - Endless & Fixed

Question

perhaps i have yet to discover how to, but

how about endless encoders?   (would be sort of like jogwheel i suggested in another post)

we now can add a knob with fixed values, which i guess is a fixed encoder

but i'd love to have endless encoders as do MOST hardware controllers

perhaps you can, but i'm too new to the program still?

Comments

I honestly couldn't answer that, Dan, but I could tell you that my suggestion would be to separate it from a knob and also possibly even keep it from being a super/subcontrol. What the main advantage is to this type of control is DJs no longer have to hit the "sync" button, but can beat match as traditionally as an iOS touch based midi controller would allow them.

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HUGE thanks (THANKS) to everybody for the discussion. I'll be getting into this shortly for 1.5.1. I should mention that I've got a Novation Zero SL here which helps me figure stuff out from time to time, and might be useful for this.

If you are not on the beta team and would like to help out, please get in touch.

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Any progress on the jog/scrub concept?
It would make it a lot easier to use midi-designer for DAW controlling if there was a scrub wheel available!

In the absence of that I have linked several buttons to ffw/rew at different increments manually... works okay, but a jog wheel would be so much more effective ( and a definite improve in the eye-candy department! )

8 )

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Hey Jon, thanks for bumping this thread. We did add a relative control type (type of slider/knob). Thanks doesn't fit the bill at all, right?

The point is that if someone can tell me EXACTLY what we're trying to implement, from a MIDI perspective, it would help a lot. At some point, we'll figure it out, but any guidance would push this feature-request along quite a bit.

Thanks!
Dan

Dan Rosenstark
Author & CEO
MIDI Designer

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I was just looking at the knob options in MD to see if a jog/shuttle option was available for working with my DAW apps. Then found this thread about it. This feature would be of great use to me as well if you could implement it in a future version.

Answer 1

Encoder functional capability description

Only valid instantiation is a knob with no values or ticks (since it is pure relative).

By definition is a supercontrol - has no capability to send own value.

Increase encoder by one click, pushes up all subcontrols by one MIDI value.  As encoder rotates, subcontrols continue to increase until they hit max.

Sorta like a "stepper" on steroids.  Not the "normal" supercontrol MIDI value to position relationship.

Subcontrols do not provide any feedback to encoder (even in the valid case of single sub).

Only valid supercontrol of an encoder is another encoder or a momentary button acting as a stepper (up or down).

additional notes:

There is nothing “relative” about the existing relative option in MDP2.  It just sends MIDI values 63 and 65.  Nothing inside MDP2 can react to this in a “relative” way.  There may be some dinosaur hardware board somewhere that understands this.  But 99% of MD users have no use for it, prolly is confusing.  Hook up the “relative” control, and all it does is drive subcontrols to either the 63 or 65 MIDI position.  Huh?

There IS one existing true “relative” control in MDP2 - a momentary button configured as a stepper.  It doesn’t care what its subcontrol values are, but can nudge them up or down.  (All other controls drive a subcontrol to a predefined position derived from the MIDI value.)

So what I envision with the encoder is the steppers big brother.  And like a stepper, its own value has no meaning.

The killer use is that it preserves relative positions of its subcontrols.  Think of a mixer - set all your individual channel volumes as desired.  Now grab the “encoder” supercontrol, turn up three positions, and all your subs move up three positions.  This can be done with lots of SB code (as my example).

Answer 2

Encoder functional capability description

Only valid instantiation is a knob with no values or ticks (since it is pure relative).

By definition is a supercontrol - has no capability to send own value.

Increase encoder by one click, pushes up all subcontrols by one MIDI value.  As encoder rotates, subcontrols continue to increase until they hit max.

Sorta like a "stepper" on steroids.  Not the "normal" supercontrol MIDI value to position relationship.

Subcontrols do not provide any feedback to encoder (even in the valid case of single sub).

Only valid supercontrol of an encoder is another encoder or a momentary button acting as a stepper (up or down).

additional notes:

There is nothing “relative” about the existing relative option in MDP2.  It just sends MIDI values 63 and 65.  Nothing inside MDP2 can react to this in a “relative” way.  There may be some dinosaur hardware board somewhere that understands this.  But 99% of MD users have no use for it, prolly is confusing.  Hook up the “relative” control, and all it does is drive subcontrols to either the 63 or 65 MIDI position.  Huh?

There IS one existing true “relative” control in MDP2 - a momentary button configured as a stepper.  It doesn’t care what its subcontrol values are, but can nudge them up or down.  (All other controls drive a subcontrol to a predefined position derived from the MIDI value.)

So what I envision with the encoder is the steppers big brother.  And like a stepper, its own value has no meaning.

The killer use is that it preserves relative positions of its subcontrols.  Think of a mixer - set all your individual channel volumes as desired.  Now grab the “encoder” supercontrol, turn up three positions, and all your subs move up three positions.  This can be done with lots of SB code (as my example).