How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation nocturn)

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AndersBrontosaurus
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How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation nocturn)

Post by AndersBrontosaurus »

Hi.
I've borrowed a midicontroller from a friend so finally I needto grasp this about Midi.
Yes I know, there are several other threads and I've read through them but there are still issues for me and I hope someone can point me in a fruitful direction.

Novation nocturn use a program called automap to map the knobs and buttons. To be able to do this all vst:s have to be wrapped by automap. I have managed to do this so I can control the few vst's that I have.
However, I am not able to control native buzzmachines and this bugs me. It must bepossible in some way, right? I know that all machines can be wrapped by polacmachines in some way but I don't understand how. I also managed to control peerctrl with the Nocturn yesterday but today I can't recreate this.
Since I can control vst's I assume all basic settings are correct but where do I go from here?

Thankful for all help.
mridlen
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by mridlen »

Normally with MIDI, you go under Preferences... -> MIDI Input and define your input device with the drop down menu. This will allow you to play the keyboard, but not the knobs.

To add the knobs, click the "Add..." button and wiggle the knob or slider to register it, give it a name, and click OK. Keep in mind that this will only work for the selected MIDI channel. If you want all knobs on all channels, you will need to change the channel. I like to give it a naming scheme like "MIDI 12 Knob 3" or something like that, so you can easily pick your channel and knob without too much guesswork.

To map a knob to a parameter of a machine, double click on it (or select Parameters...), right click on the desired parameter and select "Bind to MIDI controller" and select your knob of choice.

If that doesn't work... I don't know what to tell you. :lol:

You might try loading the buzzmachine in the VST loader?
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Paul Eye
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by Paul Eye »

I'd say, forget the built-in MIDI mapping and go with PeerCtrl instead, much more flexible and you don't need to waste time setting up all the controls you need. Just remember to use only one PeerCtrl per song or things very probably will get borked. You need to turn off Automap mode on the Nocturn (if possible) to control PeerCtrl via regular MIDI CCs. Just check that your MIDI input device is something like "Nocturn" in preferences (not one of the Automap ones; for example the device I use in my prefs is just named "SL MkII"). Also, remember to right click on PeerCtrl and select the MIDI input channel (probably channel 1 unless the Nocturn's CCs have been customized, my SL MkII is on channel 1 by default).
Also it seems that you don't need patterns for the target machines if you're F7 recording automation, all values just go into the PeerCtrl pattern(s).
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AndersBrontosaurus
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by AndersBrontosaurus »

Thanks both of you for your input.
Right now I'm incredibly frustrated. Sometimes things works a little better sometimes not.

Things tend to get worse the more tired you get though.
When I started fiddling an hour ago I could at least add controllers on preferences>midi input. Now I can't.

I can control automapwrapped vst's but that's it.

I have set wave output driver to: Polac asio
I have set midi input device to: Midi automap ( I can choose between the three alternatives automap midi, automap propellerhead and automap propellerhead mixer so no alternative without "automap"
I have set midi output device to all of the above. (automap midi, automap propellerhead and automap propellerhead mixer)

When I try to add controller nothing happens when I touch the knobs on the Nocturn.

I cannot turn off automap server. Then the controller stops.

mridlen wrote: If that doesn't work... I don't know what to tell you. :lol:
You might try loading the buzzmachine in the VST loader?
Yes, that was one of my problems... how is it done?
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Paul Eye
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by Paul Eye »

I took a quick look at the Nocturn manual and it seems the MIDI stuff works a bit differently than on the SL MkII, so unfortunately I can't really help more than this. Have a look at the manual and you'll probably figure it out :)
AndersBrontosaurus wrote: When I try to add controller nothing happens when I touch the knobs on the Nocturn.
You mean in preferences or the PeerCtrl assignment window? If you mean preferences, don't bother with that :)
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by snowglobe »

AndersBrontosaurus wrote:I know that all machines can be wrapped by polacmachines in some way but I don't understand how.
You need to open up a "shell", which you'll be able to do if your index.txt file has this line: Polac VSTi 1.1, VSTi Shell
You can also just click an empty spot in the machine view and type c v and it should be show up as one of the options.

Once you have the shell in the machine view, double-click to open it and browse to your gear folder to select the machine you want to wrap.

Also, Paul-Eye is correct about not bothering with buzz MIDI preferences if you're going to use peerctrl. Just go into peerctrl's assignment settings and then into the MIDI CC Settings ... submenu and set up cc mappings in there.
AndersBrontosaurus wrote:I also managed to control peerctrl with the Nocturn yesterday but today I can't recreate this.
Don't know if this could be it, but one reason MIDI can seem to work one moment but not the next is due to using MIDI filtering and MasterKeyboardMode. If MasterKeyboardMode is set to True the currently selected machine will receive MIDI even if its MIDI Input Channel is set to None. An unfocused machine will not receive MIDI if its filter is set to None.
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AndersBrontosaurus
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by AndersBrontosaurus »

Ok. Some kind of breakthrough. Thanks for all help so far.

I've managed to open a shell and load it but if I open and load another one it won't change to the new machine. It should, right? Sounds strange to have to open a new shell if you change your mind about machine.

I also managed to add controller in prefs tonight. Not sure why, I did a few things at the same time so we'll see what works tomorrow. I suspect the trick might be that I skipped Nocturns built-in and went with LoopMidi instead.

I added controllers in pref for all my eight buttons and eight knobs. (Is there no way to rename them afterwards?)
After that I managed to bind controller to peerctrl so I'm happy.

If I click on any vstloader I can also assign them to parameters in the vstLoader but not to the machine itself. Would this be possible or should I just stay with the peerctrl?

Is it possible to change names of the parameters in peerctrl to keep track on what parameters on what machines they go to?

About midibuttons, can they be set to other things than just 0 and 127? In Automap they can be set to other alternatives like steps, toggle, momentary. Can I do this with Polac's?

Thank you for helping out! <3
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domtron
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by domtron »

The Nocturn Midi-in/out is always called Automap,with or without autowrap.
Regarding the buttons see polac preferences for a plethora of options.

Don't autowrap your plugins,the Nocturn is a discontinued product.
Just use,send out Midi CC's to your plugins (i remember this was confusing to figure out for me too,so don't ask me how to do it,haha)
You can assign the CC per knob in the automap window and save your CC mapping within automap.
Iirc you need to learn the CC's in Automap too by sending CC's from Buzz or elsewhere.
Otherwise it is a nice Controller.
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AndersBrontosaurus
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by AndersBrontosaurus »

Thanks for replies. I finally got some time to fiddle with the nocturn yesterday. I realized that the reason for why it only works Izzy of the time was because I didn't understand that I accidentally changed midichannel.
I tried to use more than one peerctrl and it seems to work. One peerctrl per channel. Three pages it's perfectly overviewable without glaring I much at the screen. 3x8knobs!10channels= more than enough.

Unfortunately it seems like a few knobs area little glitchy. Does anyone know if there is a special treatment for encoders or should I just return it?

PaulEye, what's it like to use a Novation zero? Can you name the parameters yourself for the displaywindow?
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by Paul Eye »

AndersBrontosaurus wrote:I tried to use more than one peerctrl and it seems to work.
Don't say I didn't warn you if things break later on, and your song gets corrupted and impossible to load :)
what's it like to use a Novation zero? Can you name the parameters yourself for the displaywindow?
Correction: I have a 49SL MkII. But, well, I'm on indefinite hiatus for now but I still mess around with something every now and then.
That being said, you mean renaming the params on the display of the SL? Yeah, it works from the Automap software. Automapped VST(i) plugins work and you can F7 record param changes as long as you have enough tracks in Polac VST(i) and have learned the params you're going to record. Automapped plugins don't of course need PeerCtrl/MIDI assignments, Automap takes care of that.
In MIDI mode you can then control everything else via PeerCtrl as you would with any MIDI controller.
The Zero might work differently so you'll have to find this out yourself :)
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by AndersBrontosaurus »

Paul Eye wrote:
AndersBrontosaurus wrote:I tried to use more than one peerctrl and it seems to work.
Don't say I didn't warn you if things break later on, and your song gets corrupted and impossible to load :)
what's it like to use a Novation zero? Can you name the parameters yourself for the displaywindow?
Correction: I have a 49SL MkII. But, well, I'm on indefinite hiatus for now but I still mess around with something every now and then.
That being said, you mean renaming the params on the display of the SL? Yeah, it works from the Automap software. Automapped VST(i) plugins work and you can F7 record param changes as long as you have enough tracks in Polac VST(i) and have learned the params you're going to record. Automapped plugins don't of course need PeerCtrl/MIDI assignments, Automap takes care of that.
In MIDI mode you can then control everything else via PeerCtrl as you would with any MIDI controller.
The Zero might work differently so you'll have to find this out yourself :)
Ah. Is it also possible to name parameters for native machines. I've tried some vst's but I always seem to find a native one I prefer more.
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by Paul Eye »

AndersBrontosaurus wrote:Ah. Is it also possible to name parameters for native machines. I've tried some vst's but I always seem to find a native one I prefer more.
You don't control native machines via Automap so, no, you can't rename their params.
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by AndersBrontosaurus »

Ah, but if you control a peerctrl what does the display say? If you're using Automap? If you're using the advance mode?
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by AndersBrontosaurus »

indefinite hiatus. great bandname, by the way
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Paul Eye
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Re: How to control Buzz with MIDIcontroller? (Novation noctu

Post by Paul Eye »

AndersBrontosaurus wrote:Ah, but if you control a peerctrl what does the display say? If you're using Automap? If you're using the advance mode?
You're not using Automap to control native Buzz machines. You do it via MIDI like with any other controller. Automap is for VST(i)s (and RTAS but that has nothing to do with Buzz).
But to answer your question, the display says a bunch of MIDI CCs :)
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