Author Topic: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?  (Read 9597 times)

Offline balinas

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 25
Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« on: November 22, 2017, 11:46:52 PM »
The recent news of Cakewalk's reconfiguration (it is apparently be shut down by Gibson) has left me wondering what other DAW;s do with control surfaces.  AZ Controller in Sonar has gotten my surface controllers finally working with Sonar.  A quick look at Presonus' Studio ONE pro v3.5 gives me an idea that my MCU PRO will be somewhat functional in Studio One.  my VS-100 configured as a Mackie device shows the transport controls are functional, which does allow the foot pedal to be used as a remote device to start and stop recording. TouchOSC which I use for remote audio recording control wont be working in Studio ONE. 

AZ, can you keep us up to date with your exploration of other DAW's and control surface compatibility? Not that I will be leaving Sonar soon, but I thought I should start looking.  Thanks,  Bart
« Last Edit: November 23, 2017, 12:08:18 AM by balinas »

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2017, 12:13:52 AM »
I also think about what can be the next...
For the moment, the only other DAW  C++ API is Reaper.
But I am going to ask other explicity, I have started with Mixcraft. I do not need public API, AZ Controller is closed source so can be bound to particular DAW throw NDA code.
I guess Presonus will not be interested, they produce and sell own surfaces, no reason to have concurrents.  The same with Ableton (apart from Python, which they use for "other" controllers).

Offline Cheese

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2017, 01:41:33 PM »
Well.. I am really PO by this news... My project is almost "obsolete" now, and not by me.

But lets try to support obsolete device in obsolete DAW by obsolete plug-in  :)



above quote from other thread

it will be at least 3 years i think before the last sonar ever made will start to become outdated .. how many still use X3? they will have to crowbar it out of my dead,cold hands before i give it up :D


its early yet,they might reconsider when they realize they just pissed off 300,000 potential Gibson (or now Philips brand audio products) customers

maybe they sell the DAW to someone actually capable of fixing its bugs ;)  ...  but what will they bundle with Philips audio if sonar is dead ? (audacity probably :D )
« Last Edit: November 23, 2017, 01:48:27 PM by Cheese »

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #3 on: November 23, 2017, 05:45:19 PM »
maybe they sell the DAW to someone actually capable of fixing its bugs ;)  ...  but what will they bundle with Philips audio if sonar is dead ? (audacity probably :D )
They will bundle cubase or ableton, as they did and do with Tascam interfaces. I guess Sonar never was in plans (short leaving bundling with some US- models was Craig's personal initiative).

With all respect to CW, if they have not manage to fix nor advance Sonar engine since 8 (really more since 6), especially with monthly update, the probability that could happened in the future is almost zero. Gibson had to take that under control, check/revise the team, invest money into marketing (remember ad videos produced by CW itself...) But that is not what Gibson does for its companies.

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
« Last Edit: December 02, 2017, 08:07:39 PM by azslow3 »

Offline Cheese

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #5 on: December 02, 2017, 06:07:14 PM »
ableton? that has max for live?

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #6 on: December 02, 2017, 08:13:53 PM »
ableton? that has max for live?
I must admit, I do not know what is max for live. I have seen its page before, they mention some "modular system", some "devices" and has screenshots of "visual programming".
But that time (it was during choosing the first DAW), I have found Live license "no go" (I had 3 computers on with the DAW of choice had to run, in 3 different rooms).
Note that Ableton use Python scripts (with corresponding API) for control surfaces bindings.
Is Max good to build control surface functionality? Can it do this at all? Please let me know if that is the case. It will be interesting to test then.

Offline Cheese

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #7 on: December 03, 2017, 10:49:08 PM »
sorry i don't know Ableton myself .. just had some small tests .. seems very stable,and one to watch in the future ..

my concern for you with reaper is every time ive tried it its always crashed on any command considered slightly advanced ..  maybe stable for those that do not use it fully .. but! many say its rock solid! (lies! or noobs!)

anyhow,my dutch freind has used ableton for a long time, he txt me this to pass on to you

 you can build all in MAX yes
 isotonic studio make floating screen device for every kind of things
 controller things, Fx things, Midi controller things,
synth things
audio things
https://isotonikstudios.com
this i a short vid https://youtu.be/hCrc0QgZnQ8


hope you find your path soon :)

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #8 on: December 04, 2017, 09:41:49 AM »
Thanks.
I am sure Abelton is as stable as possible, why will try to use it on stage otherwise?
I am not a "pro" and I am not "loop music" oriented. Relatively expensive, restricted license DAW does not seems like the best choice in this case (and the reason I have started with Sonar).

I will look more at Max, but from what I have seen it is more to construct own synthes then to control the DAW. That (if I do, I do not so far) I prefer to simply write in a program, I am programmer.
As all such things, the ideas comes for NI LabVIEW (National Instruments, not Native Instruments ;) ). I was working with it long time ago and was writing binary modules whenever possible. The concept definitively has own spirit, AZ Controller also was partially inspired by it.

On isotonikstudios I see "MIDI MultiClip Editor"... just for €35 I can see several clips in parallel in the PRV. That does not sound promising, that "basic" functionality I would like to see as build-in.

When Reaper will start crashing for me, I will probably change my mind. But so far I have not used "advanced" commands and it is not crashing.
Lets face it, Sonar was that most buggy program I have ever used in my live. During first several days with X1, with the same noob testing approach as I have now, it was crashing almost in everything I have tried. X3-Platinum is much better. I have learned how to avoid many crashes, I have many workarounds to avoid crashes triggered from Control Surfaces (most workarounds are still required). I mean I do not think Reaper is worse, at least not yet  8)

I have tested Reaper several years ago and I was not convinced. I have not hit a single point to NOT to use it now. There was question about ARA... and just after several days of discussions, there is statement Reaper will have ARA. Note than there was a "plan B" for that, ARA and Reaper have APIs, so I could try to connect them myself (I have already started to look at that, till I saw a good news yesterday).

Can you describe what was crashing Reaper for you?


In linked post you can see the reason I in fact have no choice... Reaper is the ONLY DAW which satisfy my wishes.

Offline Cheese

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #9 on: December 04, 2017, 08:25:46 PM »
about once a year i test Daws to see how they come along,reaper has never worked well for me,crashed so badly that i removed it within days.but i do have to say i have not tried it for 2? years ... maybe now it works fine?

sonar does not get off lightly,that must have been programmed by keyboard players! (everything seems to be opposite to my logic).. some annoying things were solved  with the BCR2000 script (zoom in/out,scroll,vst control e.t.c .. i still say this is amazing programming) but to kill any daw start using audio transients/tempo mapping

if you move on to reaper i will for sure be testing ... imo they gain a wonderful ally :)


/actually,i go to download reaper now

Offline Cheese

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #10 on: December 04, 2017, 09:34:21 PM »
ok,you heard this?

"Reaper does not have midifeedback so it is not possible. It is possible with other DAW's that have midi feedback implemented like Cubase or Ableton or Sonar or Studio One. I use Reaper myself and miss this feature very hard."

https://mountainutilities.eu/forums/using-bcr2000-channel-strip-reaper-almost-there

imagine my surprise when i started setting up devices :D


they gonna love you over there :)

Offline azslow3

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1679
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #11 on: December 04, 2017, 09:55:33 PM »
For surfaces... I see several attempts to solve related problems. I can not judge what is better or works at all. It seems like "mainstream" is OSCII-bot. But there is https://forums.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=183143 thread. As Sonar, Reaper has API examples for several devices (MCU, Faderport, etc.). No AZ Controller like things so far  ;)

Tempo/transients crashes normally comes from related libraries. As many other, Reaper is using elastiq now. I do not know since which time (old videos/post point that is relatively new). Other source are plug-ins (you can use plug-in "firewall" feature in Reaper to catch such case).

I have spotted one feature in Reaper which I will miss: there is no "key" there (at least not yet). I mean they already use tempo information for loops, but pitch has to be adjusted manually. Even when known in the loop. They have to look at Waveform to understand how useful that can be when done right  ;)

Offline Cheese

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 15
Re: Can AZ Controller be adapted to different DAW's?
« Reply #12 on: December 04, 2017, 11:41:27 PM »
\o/ i see your post in that thread,you are the new guy!

they must see well meaning people come and go all the time,maybe not many with staying power or a proven track record (AZcontrol) ... doubt many will come here who will actually understand what you did for sonar,even less would actually try it :D ...  one thing is for sure


if they had AZcontrol in reaper they would shit bricks!




thanks for the transient tips,one day i`ll incorporate an easy way of working with them into my workflow .. before that i must find what crashes it,and now that seems to be anything i do ... best wishes :)