FX Chains of no use to me - no ACT control on indivdual VSTs. Help....

I've never really messed around much with the FX Chains before, but today spent some time setting up a chain that I may use fairly often for my master buss - T-racks Compressor & EQ and some metering, assigned the knobs I wanted and all worked well with ACT on the FX CHain interface.

Then I thought I'd tweak a couple of controls on the EQ that are not assigned to the FX UI. Double clicked the EQ module, T-Racks EQ opens, click on interface twiddle knobs on ACT controller (BCF 2000) and........ nothing. Checked nothing had gone screwy with the controller, opened up properties box and there are the FX chain parameters assigned to controls but no EQ. Click on EQ again, nothing.

Please tell me I'm missing something fairly obvious here. If I can't control individual FX Chains modules via ACT when I open their interfaces it pretty much makes FX Chains a waste of time for me. I'd have to use a mouse.

Is there a way of controlling the individual FX via ACT? Help/ideas appreciated as always.

The idea behind FXChains is to provide a composite object that hides the underlying effects. There is no way via ACT to switch between the chain parameters and the constituent effects. Even if we did that (which would be complex) it would be pretty confusing to know what the current context was via an act surface.
The recommended use when using chains is to use the assignable parameters to control the individual effects and not manipulate the effects directly.
If you want full control of all individual effect parameters (via ACT) don't use a chain, just patch the effect directly.

Hi Noel.
 
Ok Understand re chains. Thanks.
 
But you say if you want full control of an effect don't use chains. Can I get full control of Pro-channel ie all knobs in the EQ for example when its not even in a chain ?

yes you have full access to pro channel via act

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk
]

The idea behind FXChains is to provide a composite object that hides the underlying effects. There is no way via ACT to switch between the chain parameters and the constituent effects. Even if we did that (which would be complex) it would be pretty confusing to know what the current context was via an act surface.
The recommended use when using chains is to use the assignable parameters to control the individual effects and not manipulate the effects directly.
If you want full control of an effect don't use a chain.

 
 
Aha..OK
 
If ACT is confusing, why can't you just implement simpel MIDI learn/MIDI control of all the user implemented Nobs and Faders in the FX chain GUI instead. As far as I understand that wouldn't cause any conflict with ACT system-
 
Best Regards
Freddie

mike_mccue

Noel says

"If you want full control of an effect [with ACT] don't use a chain."

IIRC, If you are willing to use a mouse, track ball, or pen tablet with your FX Chain 2.0 you can always work [around] with any parameter you want within the actual efx GUI.

best regards,
mike

Ha Ha That's cute Mike!  But isn't the whole idea to put the parameters you want to control on the chains GUI? 
 
Brian

yorolpal


Well, I guess they figured (rightly) that to control every parameter of every effect in the chain on the main GUI you might need forty-leven knobs and umpteen buttons and that ol faceplate would start lookin mighty cluttered.

Well then you just hide them all and use your ACT controller that has forty-leven knobs and umpteen buttons!
Mine only has half an umpteen so I have to pick and choose!
 
Brian

Noel Borthwick [Cakewalk]
yes you have full access to pro channel via act

Can someone explain this?  None of the ProChannel modules have an act learn button.  I have tried Remote Control, but the controls are jumping and not moving properly when assigned rotaries from Axiom61.

The rotary encoders work fine for PAN but when assigned to anything in pro channel they jump, jerk, stick and are useless....  Bug?  I read other people with this problem.. 
 

On my Mackie Control the select buttons work for track display and dynamics. However the EQ is a duplicate of the dynamics. There is no EQ control at all. This worked is pre X series Sonar. 

For the MC I don't use ACT. It is supposed to work. I'm not asking for a feature to be implemented I am asking for the MC dll to work with the X series as it did pre X.    

 sdf

BTW in the context of the original thread, I'm pretty sure that I added ACT support for the individual plugins in an FX chain in X3d or  X3E. You have to open the plugin UI and give it focus for it to work. Its been awhile since I looked at that so maybe I'm dreaming :)

It works, Noel. It didn't for a while, but it does now. :-) You kinda slipped it in on us quietly without saying anything. I remember Scook pointing it out to me that it now works and I was like, Really?? haha. It made it possible for me to use my pedals with TH2 while having TH2 in the Pro Channel, so I was psyched.
 
I do have a video in my signature on using a midi controller with TH2 using ACT.

Here is a fun game:  Have a few drinks on a Saturday night and try mapping your control surfaces!
 
Craig,
I found your SOS article and after following it verbatim I was able to gain control over the ProChannel.  
 
It seems to behave differently when selecting ACT learn from the pulldown menu versus choosing it from the transport button.  When I use the pulldown menu -> blue act button -> learn -> deslect act button, there is a pop up that asks for confirmation.
 
When I use the tansportbar button to bring up the ACT window, and follow the same procedure, there is never a confirmation dialog.  I wonder if the absence of the confirmation dialog indicates there is a problem.
 
Also, the stuttering I was seeing had something to do with how the Axiom was transmitting controller values.  I needed to use a different preset from the controller.