Contour Shuttle Pro V2 as Sonar control surface?

I have the Shuttle Pro V2. To me this is one of the biggest mistakes CW did - by co-promoting it to their users.
Mine is basically used a BIG Jog wheel. It has very limited functionality, there's not updates for it - and as you say, Contour Design basically have disowned it.

This is one of those situations where the marketing people go to the backroom deals and forget about the users, and it's the kind of thing I *really* dislike about marketing.

If the Shuttle Pro was a 20 or 30 dollar item, fine. But it was about 200 if I recall. And that shouldn't have ended up a big ashtray.

On the Contour Design site, notice the new "Medical Mouse" looks exactly like the Shuttle Pro V2? Sheesh.

However, that being said, you can use it for PLAY, STOP, REWIND, SHUFFLE/JOG, etc... and not much more, so I wouldn't consider it a control surface, but more of a HUGE mouse.

ORIGINAL: timg11

I have a Shuttle Pro V2, and I would like to use it with Sonar. It has some "generic functions" that work with all applications to a limited extent. The biggest problem with the generic mode is that it only works when Sonar has the focus. I need a control surface that will drive Sonar, whether or not Sonar has focus.

I found the Tech Tip which is rather dated. It speaks of Sonar V2 as the newest version:

SONAR 2.x customers only

Also download and run the SONAR control surface plug-in from here: http://www.contourdesign.com/shuttlepro/shuttle_downloads.htm.

Unfortunately that link is dead. In fact, it appears that Contour Designs is disavowing all knowledge of having ever made the Shuttle products.

Does anybody have Sonar control surface plug in file for the Contour Shuttle Pro V2?

Thanks,

Tim.

ORIGINAL: dantarbill
Contour's website had gone kinda old and creaky...but then, I went back recently and found that they had apparently disavowed all knowledge of the products and wouldn't even offer the old drivers. That's a bit disconcerting.

was it the old "legacy" trick some companies are fond of pulling? one company in my case won't get 1p off me for being like that. other companies are far better support wise.. and they get my custom..

I thought the v2 of the Shuttle was actually LESS configurable than the original.

I have a v1 of the Shuttle pro, but under Windows 7 or Vista, the control surface plugin that originally came with it was excellent, as it did just what you said - worked when Sonar didn't have the focus.  Also, everything about it was configurable from within Sonar and the jog/shuttle would work at measure, beat, or tick resolution.  Now, the plugin for Sonar is completely un-configurable.  The buttons cannot be made to control the transport and whoever came up with the new button layout must not use Sonar.

So, I suffer with the Global settings, with the settings modified from the Sonar3Pro setting defaults.  I have the buttons as undo, set From and Thru, and then a line for the transport.  I have the btoom buttons set for turning on and off the metronome during play/record and navigate back and forward through markers.  Finally, the jog wheel goes forward and back by measures using keyboard keys at varying speeds depending on how far from center.  I wish there were a keybinding for back and forward by beat, as measure is too coarse.  I tried using the FF and RW, but they seemed to work in some sort of latch mode and unpredictable when assigned to the wheel.

I also have a BCF2000 and an Edirol PCR-800.  Both of these have transport controls.  The BCF has buttons for forward and reverse, which can be configured from the Mackie plugin to be beat or measure resolution, and the PCR has a knob by the transport controls that can be used for the same.  Both of these units work when Sonar doesn't have the focus because they are plugins within Sonar, not Global Windows apps.  Same goes for the Frontier Design Tranzport (now discontinued, but with Win7 drivers).

I tried to contact the original author of the Sonar plugin for the v1, and he wrote me back saying:

- if I recall correctly, the Shuttle SDK changed after I released my plugin and, as they were seemingly writing their own Sonar driver, I didn't update my code, so it's now incompatible

I don't know what Contour was thinking with the changes to v2.  It was perfect before and now it's something I am considering getting used to reaching to the left to control with the Edirol and freeing up that bit of desk space.  If the v1 plug worked, it would be perfect again, and it would be an indespensible tool.

I'm sure some crafty individual on this forum would be able to understand the SDK for this and make a new/better plugin, but I don't know if that person exists with the motivation to do so.

@superdan:  I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that the Xpress is going to have the same issues as any of the others.  If someone else here has found a way to get the wheel to move by beat and the buttons to be programmable at the same time (or even modified in the registry/ini files somewhere), those would be great steps in the right direction, but I've yet to find them or hear of anyone who has.

terryg@contourdesign


Hi All,

I realize this thread hasn't been updated in a while, but I wanted to see if Sonar users are still using the Shuttle products and if anyone is interested in utilizing the Shuttle SDK for Sonar support.

Thanks,

Terry Goyette
Shuttle Product Manager
Contour Design, Inc.

http://contourdesign.freeforums.org/

 
Terry,
 
I still do have the V2 on my desktop along with my mouse.   As I said in my original post here a long time ago, I do use it mostly as a BIG _jog_ wheel, with an ocassional stop/play/rewind when my hand is already on it.
 
But I must stay I think it's a little strange that someone from Contour Design comes here after a long absence and disappearing act to test the waters.  There was hardly any real support when you were in bed with the Cakewalk marketing people, yet you want to come "harvest" Sonar users again?
 
I find that arrogant and opportunistic at best.
 
Make a good product and support it properly.   Wouldn't that be a novel idea?
 
The product itself was well made, and had a limited but useful purpose.  It cost almost 200 (or more) when I bought my V2.  As others pointed out, it had LESS functionality than the previous model.
 
While I try to be a constructive and positive person in life, I must say that I am actually laughing that you have the gaul to come here without even a slight apology for abandoning Sonar users, yet seemingly to harvest us again.
 
As far as I'm concerned, I would doubt I would ever purchase a product from your company again unless you made something that no one on the planet did and only if iit was inexpensive.
 
Since history generally repeats itself, I'm sure Contour Design would not hesitate to do just what it did before.  Hit and Run.
 
Sorry to be blunt, but I'm being honest and I think your company needs to hear this (as do others).   People are tired of being treated like guinea pigs.
 
Good luck - whatevever you're up to.
 

terryg@contourdesign


Hi All,

I realize this thread hasn't been updated in a while, but I wanted to see if Sonar users are still using the Shuttle products and if anyone is interested in utilizing the Shuttle SDK for Sonar support.

I'm still using mine...although I've encountered mechanical failures on the two "inside", curved buttons under the scroll wheel.  (I had them mapped to next & prev marker and had apparently pounded the poo out of them.)  I've had to abandon those buttons and use the "outside" buttons instead.

It still gets used more often than the TranzPort...which duplicates all the functionality and then some...but it's just easier to find the buttons on the Shuttle.  (Odd that both of these devices have been abandoned by their respective vendors.)

Just being stupid here...what would the Shuttle SDK do for us?

(Uh...will the SDK fix the buttons?

No?

Hmm...didn't think so.)

 

terryg@contourdesign


Hi All,

I realize this thread hasn't been updated in a while, but I wanted to see if Sonar users are still using the Shuttle products and if anyone is interested in utilizing the Shuttle SDK for Sonar support.

Thanks,

Terry Goyette
Shuttle Product Manager
Contour Design, Inc.

http://contourdesign.freeforums.org/

Terry - Please see my post right above yours.  I would love to see something happen to get this back to the way it was in V1, and the code exists, it just needs to be updated.  Surely someone there must have the resources to get this back where it used to be.
 
If you look around the forum here over the years, you will find numerous threads about the exact same as this one, and specifically my post.  As I said above - I'm about the chuck the Shuttle, but if it were made to work like it used to, I'd love to continue to use it and would be an advocate for other Sonar users to do the same.  Heck - I'd even do a little tool expose on it on my website like I did the Behringer BCF2000 if it were useful like it used to be, but right now, it's hard to recommend anyone get the thing for Sonar because it just seems so far removed and unneccessarily convoluted considering all the other devices that work right around these issues (as above).  It really seems like since it used to work as a plugin it wouldn't be much of a stretch for Contour to take the responsibility to support the product.
 
And if you wanted to add some cool stuff to it, you could expand that Sonar plugin to allow for macros of commands to be built and run without additional software and maybe to have the option to use the bottom buttons as "shift modifiers" so that you can have a regular set of commands and an alternate bank of macro commands.  For example, I have Undo as my top left button, but it would be cool if I could use the button in a "shifted" context to undo, rewind to where I started, and record - In Sonar, three button presses on the keyboard (ctrl-z, w, r) - or even without the shift...
 
Please respond and let us Sonar users know what you guys are able/willing to do and maybe someone from the community with the skills would be able to assist.

<crickets>

I apologize everyone, but I was never notified of a response from this thread.  I was checking through some of my bookmarks and this thread popped up.

I am happy to work with a 3rd party to get something working for your Sonar users.  Please do not think we are uninterested or lackadaisical in getting back to our users.  You can blame me if you want to.  I am trying to reach out to our many loyal users because I realize no one has for a long time.

Please contact me directly if you would like to collaborate on a new Sonar plug-in.  Unfortunately, the old Sonar plug-in was well before my time.

I hope you can forgive my tardy response.

Terry Goyette
Shuttle Product Manager
Contour Design, Inc.
shuttle@contourdesign.com

http://contourdesign.freeforums.org

So, it's now six months later (May 2011). I came across this thread because I have a ShuttleXpress that worked flawlessly with SONAR 5PE, but now fails miserably with SONAR X1PE. 
 
Before, I was using the CS plugin that was written way-back for SONAR 3, adn which still worked for SONAR 5. It wasn't really all that bad, just not configurable. The latest basic driver/applet fmo the Contour Support webpage actually did work in X1, after I re-targeted the executable in the "Application setting" > Options. BUT, then I needed Lexicon Pantheon to work, for which the current workaround is to run the SONAR executable (SONARPDR.exe) in Compatibility Mode as Administrator. Since setting that, the Shuttle no longer talks to SONAR, even though the Taskbar icon indicates that SONARPDR.exe has the focus. (Whether teh Shuttle isn't talking, or SONAR isn't listening, or Windows isn't passing the message, I don't know.)
 
It would be great to see support for SONAR again. I have always liked my little UFO-shaped jog/shuttle wheel in SONAR, and would like to continue doing so, whether with the basic applet, or even better, a CS plugin.
 
So, did the trail of supprt die, or did it perhaps move to another thread?

koolbass
...since I just updated my computer to Win 10 x64, I find my Tranzport is no longer useable...

 
I thought people in other threads were saying that the Tranzport still works on Win 10.  Is that not true?

If I can get just button 7 to start and stop the transport I will be happy.  I have the original SP and I got it to work when I first installed driver version 2.1.13...but after a shutdown and reboot it stopped working..but just for Sonar Plat.  The SP doesn't show up in Midi/Devices, although my Tranzport does...so that means both the input and output settings in "Controllers" have to be blank, but even so I got it to work - all the buttons and wheels - after that first 2.1.13 driver update installation.