User guide

Tracktion 4 Reference Manual
156
7.4 : Using Control Surfaces
Installing And Conguring A Control Surface
Control surfaces provide a great way to add tactile control to Tracktion. Typically control surfaces
come in two avours: the most powerful, but also typically more expensive option, is the dedicated
control surface; the second option is a MIDI fader or rotary control bank. Generally speaking, dedicated
control surfaces will be designed to mimic the look and behaviour of a mixing console, complete with
transport control functions, and other functions for controlling a sequencer directly from the device’s
surface. They also offer powerful bi-directional communication, allowing changes inside Tracktion to be
reected on the control surface’s interface (motorized faders for example). They are usually designed to
require minimal, if any, conguration to connect to a sequencer such as Tracktion. As long as the host
software supports the control surface model, or the device is capable of emulating a model that is sup-
ported, installation is typically just a case of specifying the MIDI ports to which the device is attached.
By contrast, MIDI control banks are usually much more multi-purpose in their layout, and typically take
some degree of conguration to use as control surface style device. Often they are better suited to be-
ing used as lightweight controllers for individual plug-ins, rather than as mix surface substitutes, but
with Tracktion you can choose either approach. If you would like to learn about using a MIDI controller
as a plug-in controller, you may want to read Section Three of this chapter.
An example of a dedicated control surface is the Mackie Control Universal. The Control Universal
makes a great partner to Tracktion, and is extremely easy to install and use. Using the MCU with Track-
tion is described later in this section.
There are many examples of simple MIDI controllers. Some controllers sport a simple bank of rotary
controls, others offer various types of input control, and some devices such as the Novation ReMOTE
family of controllers combine a keyboard, rotary controls, sliders, and touch pads all on one device.
Just to muddy the waters a little, some controllers would seem to t the physical description of a MIDI
controller, but offer the primary advantages of a dedicated control surface in that they need no congu-
ration, and typically interface tightly with the host software. Mackie’s Control C4 device is an example of
this kind of device. The C4 is also discussed later in this section.