Key Control

[Urs]

Key Control...

... has been one of the most requested features over the years. We have had a funky implementation for many years, which we kept hidden because it would not work reliably in many - if not most - host applications. However, with a vast testing, refactoring and improvements job we were able to bring this back so that it works rather well with nearly every host software on Windows and Mac (but alas, not on Linux... yet)

So starting with upcoming betas of ACE, Bazille, Diva and Hive you can operate the UIs as shown here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaNxL8nwy6U

As the overall technology is a moving target, we have not documented it yet in our user guides (hence, this video). Instead we'll let it run for a while in some "experimental state" to gather where we go from here.

Note that we're happy to discuss alternative navigation (e.g. tab/shift-tab), customisation, localisation (keyboard layouts) and connecting this to accessibility. We're also happy to discuss integration with MIDI or control surfaces. However, we will not have many resources in the foreseeable future, so we'll be merely collecting feedback.

What do you think?

Cheers,

- U

[Urs]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in the video is that the navigation of knobs and stuff also affects the "Last Clicked Control" on the MIDI Assignments page.

Screenshot 2024-07-24 at 14.16.01.png

So if you assign MIDI Controllers like shown above, you can navigate the UI with cursor keys and at the same time modify parameter values via MIDI.

[Fannon]

Very nice! Even the simple feature of just entering the values by keyboard sounds already very useful. "Last Clicked Control" together with the new visual indicator makes sense, then it is much more obvious what you're currently controlling.

Do you have a rough estimate when those betas could drop? Would that also include other features and fixes that have accumulated over time? Thanks!

[Urs]

They were supposed to drop today, but as it looks now, they'll drop tomorrow.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I'd definitely appreciate the ability to navigate to the next/previous preset via a MIDI controller (thinking a button for each, or an endless encoder for increase/decrease both - though there are a few endless encoder types that could complicate that).

[Urs]

I'd definitely appreciate the ability to navigate to the next/previous preset via a MIDI controller (thinking a button for each, or an endless encoder for increase/decrease both - though there are a few endless encoder types that could complicate that).

That is something we'll probably be looking into in the not so distant future. Will only work while the UI is open though...

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Sounds good!

Unrelated, but a Control pet peeve of mine: Roland (and I believe some other) MIDI controllers/synths with detented bipolar [usually Tuning] knobs transmit a center value of 64. U-he synths expect 63 (which is technically correct, not arguing you picked the wrong value, Roland and others did). Would be nice if were possible to have a preference that allowed as to select the "Center Value" from 63 to 64 and have the controller messages scale behind the scenes to avoid tuning problems with such controllers.

I was using a non-Roland soft synth recently (can't remember which) and was happily surprised that they picked 64 and I could have in tune sounds using my controller.

[Urs]

Ok, that never occurred to me.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Any consideration of that request is very appreciated. Thanks!

[Fannon]

I'd definitely appreciate the ability to navigate to the next/previous preset via a MIDI controller (thinking a button for each, or an endless encoder for increase/decrease both - though there are a few endless encoder types that could complicate that).

That is something we'll probably be looking into in the not so distant future. Will only work while the UI is open though...

+1 for this feature. I've also looked for the ability to change presets via buttons. Some synths have 2 buttons to +/- the preset and 2 buttons to +/- the bank or folder.

[ThomasLehmann]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in the video is that the navigation of knobs and stuff also affects the "Last Clicked Control" on the MIDI Assignments page.

Screenshot 2024-07-24 at 14.16.01.png

So if you assign MIDI Controllers like shown above, you can navigate the UI with cursor keys and at the same time modify parameter values via MIDI.

Can I then use the mouse (with my right hand) to jump to the respective parameters in the synth and change the parameter using a rotary control on my midi controller with my left hand? That would be great !

[EvilDragon]

Sounds good!

Unrelated, but a Control pet peeve of mine: Roland (and I believe some other) MIDI controllers/synths with detented bipolar [usually Tuning] knobs transmit a center value of 64. U-he synths expect 63 (which is technically correct, not arguing you picked the wrong value, Roland and others did). Would be nice if were possible to have a preference that allowed as to select the "Center Value" from 63 to 64 and have the controller messages scale behind the scenes to avoid tuning problems with such controllers.

I was using a non-Roland soft synth recently (can't remember which) and was happily surprised that they picked 64 and I could have in tune sounds using my controller.

Ok, that never occurred to me.

Just so you both know, Roland is correct on this one. 64 is the center value of bipolar parameters, as specified by MIDI standard.

63 isn't "technically correct", it depends what sort of rounding method you're using. It just so happens that historically, 64 was deemed as "it".

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Hey man, I'm just a guy. Not a math whiz. But in MIDI, zero is the first value, which makes this all confusing. You'd think 0-63 is the first half and 64-127 is the second half and the true middle would be 63.5 right? So round to the nearest whole number and you get 64. Truncate and you get 63.

Would be nice at some point to get it working with my controller is all.

[Urs]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention in the video is that the navigation of knobs and stuff also affects the "Last Clicked Control" on the MIDI Assignments page.

Screenshot 2024-07-24 at 14.16.01.png

So if you assign MIDI Controllers like shown above, you can navigate the UI with cursor keys and at the same time modify parameter values via MIDI.

Can I then use the mouse (with my right hand) to jump to the respective parameters in the synth and change the parameter using a rotary control on my midi controller with my left hand? That would be great !

That has worked for many years... (I did improve the fine control thing though)

[muki]

do i see it correctly in the video, that you are using the central-upper-number-row ?
instead of the numpad

wouldn't that be problematic in logic, where the upper-row is directly controlling the screensets...?

just curious...