Using Hardware Pages

Extension

Some devices have multiple hardware pages, sometimes also called scenes or layers, between which one can swtch on the hardware itself. E.g. the korg nanokontrol has a switch for 4 scenes, which change the midicontrol numbers sent from sliders, knobs and channel buttons; the transport buttons stay the same in all scenes. This allows accessing many more actions than the number of hardware control elements on the device ( it is Modality in hardware ;-).

Simple hardware paging: the Korg nanoKontrol.

Bringing hardware Pages to the Front

The Faderfox UC-4 is a nice example where one can show this support of hardware paging in code.

The Faderfox UC4 has a more complex notion of paging. For its 8 knobs with hat switches, 8 sliders, 8 buttons, and single crossfader, there are two paging groups:

• knobs and hat switches have 8 pages, paging is by holding "shift" and clicking a hat switch
• sliders and buttons are paged by holding "shift" and clicking a button from the bottom row
• crossfader remains the same no matter which pages are selected.

For demonstration purposes, it has desc files for both kinds of hierarchical orders: element types on top and pages on top.// Look for devices MKtl.find; // When a UC4 is connected, MKtl finds two descs: // [ [ "Faderfox UC4", "Faderfox UC4", 1937953817 ] ] // Supported by 2 desc files. // Best create MKtl from one of the desc files: MKtl('midi_1_faderf', "faderfox-uc4"); MKtl('midi_1_faderf', "faderfox-uc4_pg"); // the first one has pages like the korg above MKtl('ff1', "faderfox-uc4"); MKtl('ff1').elAt; // controller names on top MKtl('ff1').elAt(\kn); // 8 pages within knob group MKtl('ff1').elAt(\kn, 0); // 8 knobs in page 0 // the second has pages on top: MKtl('ff2', "faderfox-uc4_pg"); MKtl('ff2').elAt; // 8 knob+hat pages + 8 sl+but pages + xfade MKtl('ff2').elAt(\pgKn1); // knobs and pushbuttons MKtl('ff2').elAt(\pgKn1, \kn); // 8 knobs in that page

Here, one can show how to bring pages to the front for coding convenience:// with the page-on-top format, one can easily "bring a page to the front": k.free; k = MKtl('uc4pg', "faderfox-uc4_pg"); k.gui.parent.alwaysOnTop_(true); k.elementsDict.size; // 361 elements! k.postElements; // post hierarchical order k.trace; k.trace(false); // add an action to all elements k.elAt.action = { |el| ["UC4-all", el.name, el.value.round(0.001), el.deviceValue].postcs }; // an action to xfader always stays active k.elAt(\xfader).action = { |el| [el.name, el.deviceValue].postln }; // an action for all knobs&hats in pgKn1: k.elAt(\pgKn1).action = { |el| "knobs&hats in pg1: ".post; [el.name, el.deviceValue].postln }; // to get to the first knob, you must give the page name first // (which is clumsy, but clear): k.elAt(\pgKn1, \kn, 0); // Or you can bring the first page of knobs to front: k.toFront(\pgKn1); // this adds all groups in \pgKn1 to namedDict, // so they can be reached with their direct name: k.elAt(\kn); // pgKn1 is is front, so this is all knobs in pgKn1 k.elAt(\kn, 0); // first knob of current knobpage k.elAt(\pbt, 0, \on); k.elAt(\pbt, 0, \on); // ... in longhand, this adding can also be done with: k.elAt(\pgKn1).do { |grp| k.addNamed(grp.name, grp) }; // and add first sliderbutton page as well k.toFront(\pgSl1); k.elAt(\sl, 0); k.elAt(\bt, 0, \on); k.toFront(\pgSl4); // switch to page 4 k.elAt(\sl, 0); // now sl 0 is from page 4