... i cant find any that tell what rotors to map to what knobs on the soft synth
Huge subject here; largely determined by personal preference, genre, synth features, ... and sure to be hotly debated. But all is not lost here for most current soft-synths. I'll get to that below.
I have an axiom 25 and only have eight rotors and one slider.
... plus pitch and mod wheels, programmable pads, buttons, and possibly aftertouch, optional sustain & expression pedals. There is a "feel" component to every kind of controller type. Aftertouch is great when you don't have a free hand (as are sustain and expression pedals). Buttons and pads work well in "toggled" settings, or for incremental sequences of control. I prefer sliders for parameters with smooth, active adjustments, and knobs for one-off, or set-and-forget adjustments. Something to think about before developing a controller plan.
For Zeta and Rapture, what are my best options for the most effective dynamic control?
Pitch bending and vibrato depth (& to a lesser extent - rate) are nearly universal. Note the dedicated PB / mod wheel on most controller keyboards. Filter cutoff frequency and resonance are very popular choices. Loudness control (volume; expression) is a close second or third. While it may depend on genre and intention, it's often lost that there are effective manipulations of these controls at subtle levels.
I know it depends on the patch i am using, but there must be a collection of best options.
It gets more complicated than that. Rapture and Dimension Pro have multiple Elements, and each one is the equivalent of a soft-synth. z3ta+ has one of the most extensive toolsets for routing and component combinations - when it was released in the early '90's, or now.
on Rapture there are like 50 or 60 rotary knobs in the synth. What ones do i choose to apply my measly 8?
My suggestion? Go generic. For example, map them to CC 16-19 [General Controllers 1-4] and CC 80-83 [General Controllers 5-8]. It doesn't have to be those controls, but you stand a good chance of avoiding "hard routed" or "reserved" parameters. Truth be known, the suggested MIDI spec continuous controller mapping means nothing,
but there are some real exceptions to be avoided unless you know exactly what it will do.
Every synth that you've mentioned has a MIDI or Modulation Matrix. z3ta+ has the most versatile (and complex) Matrix. Rapture and Dimension Pro are more straightforward. You'll want your
Source (knob; slider) mapped to your
Destination (filter cutoff; volume) at a specific
Depth (range of values or percentage). Everything else in the Matrix is additional icing on the cake.
It can be more intuitive to MIDI Learn a specific control to a certain parameter. But - in the synths listed - this will affect the same parameter across all instances and patch / presets. Not wrong; just different. In a MIDI Matrix, the routings are customized, and saved within the preset itself. Plus, there are options like Cutoff - All and Volume - All that get around the multiple component / Element structure.
I don't envy you having to program the Axiom routings using that 'Oxygen 8'-style process. But at least you can save it to non-volatile memory. There may be some generic templates already stored that you can use as a starting point. Try out a few mappings in either a Matrix or MIDI Learn procedure. If you get stuck, post back to this thread.
post edited by b rock - 2013/12/10 18:40:39