Faderfox control boxes - continuous midi controllers?

[steved]

I have been researching midi controllers for LIVE ( my evolution Mk149 is a bit limited to say the least ! ) and am impressed by the Faderfox boxes. I have a couple of questions that I would like help with if anyone has any ideas _

1. Some control boxes like the Behringer BCR-2000 use continuous midi controllers. Are these constantly updated by LIVE sending midi messages out to the control box - or do you have to tell LIVE to update the settings ?

2. The Faderfox doesn't seem to use these continuous controllers - I was reading somewhere that you can press midi mute while you are adjusting the faders/pots to match the ones shown in LIVE on your monitor - so the controllers don't jump . ( As you can see I'm a bit confused about the whole issue) . This , on the face of it , would not seem as efficient as continuous controllers that were automatically updated.

Please could someone try and clarify this for me, and indicate the pros/cons of these different types of midi controllers ( continuous/ non continuous ). If Faderfox don't use them then is it a big drawback in practice?

Oh, one more thing. With the release of Live 4 - will the Faderfox boxes remain as compatible, or will they possibly release a new version to control some of the new features ? ( I appreciate I should really be asking Faderfox this - I'll e-mail them ).

Oh, and one very last thing. The Faderfox blurb says "you cannot program the LV1 or assign controller numbers or key numbers, but that is a function that is rarely needed with current programs." Obviously you can use the midi learn function in Live - so is there any disadvantage to not being able to programme the LV1 controls ?

Thanks, Steve.

[Guest]

Hi Steve,

the Faderfox LV1 is a pretty slick little controller with a lot of possibilities (I own one).

But, in answer to your question, it has no ability to receive any MIDI messages from LIVE.

This is why the developer "invented" the fader mute feature. It let's you approximately set the fader (or knob) to a value near the onscreen setting an then take over. Most likely there will be a small jump of the respective value.

In comparison to the Behringer's continuous buttons this can be a drawback. It depends on your working habits, too

I use the LV1 together with the current beta versions and it works great. Note that there are currently no templates that include MIDI channels so that you will have to do a little setup for this. I figured it out quite easily how to do that.

I do not think it's a drawback that you can't change/reconfigure the Faderfox. It makes things much easier, IMHO.

BTW, the developer is a very kind and clever person and the hardware is really solid.

Best regards,

dominique.

[steved]

Thanks Dominique ... if anyone else has any opinions about the ways in which the lack of ablity to receive midi messages limits the usefulness of a midi controller then I would be interested. The faderfox looks great and I am very tempted ..... but ....

Just as an aside - I'm still planning my summer holiday and I remember many years ago that John Peel chose to go on holiday to the place where his fridge was manufatured ( very post-modern - he was always ahead of his time ). So, as a tribute to him and the Abletons I'm tempted to do the same and visit Berlin . I could pick up a copy of Live 4 while I'm there.

So here's the question .... ( no prize I'm affraid ) ... where did he go on holiday ?

[hyerstay]

I use the Doepfer PocketDial. 4 bank buttons to access 16 knobs each, which can send any type of message. I use it with Reaktor-style relative binary incremental cc messages (<64 for -, >64 for +). It supports acceleration and you don't have to worry about setting a knob to the right position first, or getting midi to go back to the PD. Works great with Live, all NI, Zebra, LC-Xmu and more.

http://www.doepfer.de/pd.htm