humnumb wrote:I can relate to your pain. I went from SL Remote 25 to Maschine and couldn't be happier. Maschine's automapping just works and there's no need to go through installing a middle man software like you do with Novation Automap. Novation's Automap also requires you to manually make "wrapped" duplicates beforehand of any plugin you want automapped. Maschine simply automaps any plugin without needing to do anything and of course, you can customize your own automapping configuration for each plugin and save as default.
ok so let me get this straight. You're comparing Maschine's direct parameter mapping of plug-ins to Remote SL's automap universal mode, even though Novation also has an equivalent mode? If you've got two bowls of fruit, one of which only has apples and the other has a mix of apples and oranges, wouldn't you compare like with like?
When using the Ableton auto map template, you get direct parameter mapping of the selected device in groups of 8. Just like Maschine, just like the APC40 etc. No intermediate software needed. If you you want to use the entire set of controls for a plug-in, you can use automap universal which has many benefits over the remote script based control. But best of all you can use the best of both worlds. With plug-ins that is. Abletons devices are stuck with only Ableton instant mapping.
It's amazing how much misinformation is out there with the Remote SLs because people don't take an hour to read the manual.
To the OP, seriously read the manual. And do a search of this site, there is lots of useful info. But to get you started (I didn't read the whole thread):
There are 3 modes: Host Automap, Advanced Mode and Automap Universal, .
Host Automap: These are ones for Logic, Cubase etc. Live has a specific live template that is designed to work with Live remote script. The sliders control levels, pan, sends. The top encoders control the selected device parameters. Live devices CANNOT be edited in terms of the order of parameters, but you can rack and assign 8 macros as least. With VSTs, you can actually change the order of parameters in the expanded automation view. In Ableton automap template the bottom knobs are freely assignable. But you do not assign the top encoders because they are bi-directional and dynamic (change parameters depending on what's selected and include multiple pages). To use this mode you need Port 2 of auto map under the control surfaces, as you found out.
Advanced Mode: This is basically just regular midi mode, like any other generic midi controller. Each template that is not a host auto map or automap universal (when you hit the Automap button that is), these other ones are all regular midi templates that you can edit with the Novation editor software. Make a blank one if you just want to use Ableton's regular set-wide midi mapping. To use this you need "remote" selected under the midi ports section for the novation device.
Automap universal is for plug-ins only (VSTs, AUs). Live devices are not VSTs, they are just live devices. This mode is where you use wrapped versions of plug-ins and it makes use of the automap server. It's amazing for VSTs but you seem to only care about native Live devices right? So this wouldn't be for you. There is a manual midi mode in automap universal as well but frankly it's a little more complicated then using regular midi templates and it requires the automap server, which is unecessary for generic midi mapping, so you might as well stick to those basic midi templates (advanced mode).