hmmm. guess i'll put this one out there just in case it's useful for anyone else. i wanted to keep certain fx params visible when the fx windows were not. so... paramsliders has a compact bank of 36 sliders/buttons which can sync between instances on different tracks using Js gmem[]. this means we can keep one master instance of paramsliders open and floating, while several slave instances in various tracks can be used to control fx params via parameter modulation or midi learn (using Jeffos' most excellent MIDItoReaControlPath). paramsliders can scale &/or invert midi output, which somewhat compensates for Reaper's unscaled midi learn facilities. screenshot below.
if this makes sense and interests you, download this:
ps- as usual, should you choose to accept this plugin, merge the contents of the bangzero folder with the bangzero folder in Reaper's Js Effects folder. this message will self destruct...
small update in the op. adds instructions on the "++" options page for how to set midi min/max values. also reveals a convenience option that repeats the last midi cc msg which is useful when setting midi learn in controlled fx. and a couple of little gui tweaks. enjoy! /dan
Neat. I made myself a "nothing but sliders" JS for grouping multiple plugin parameters onto a single slider but never thought of syncing across multiple tracks by gmem. Looks cool too.
Hey Bang, just posting to say I really like your GUIs I mean, the meat is cool but I always find your GUIs well thought and classy, you're pushing things forward!
(To make ~=themable JS effects, it'd be great if a couple of REAPER's theme colors were exposed to JS effects: main/edit background, 3D highlight/shadow & text color, we'd do the rest with alpha & PNG manipulation for the font...)
Hey Bang, just posting to say I really like your GUIs[...]
thanks Jeffos! i *like* good guis, and try to keep mine clear, simple, and "classy". exposed theme colors would be nice. and i'd *really* like a "value only" gfx_mode so the aa font hack could do color text! :^) enjoy! /dan
ps- big thanks for MIDItoReaControlPath, esp. for osx/mac.
Last edited by bang; 05-23-2013 at 11:30 PM.
Reason: awk hunt
hello all! little update in the op to v0.12alpha. it optimizes @gfx to skip redraws if the sliders haven't changed. also fixes a possible quantize glitch and adds some very subtle color cues. enjoy! /dan
Location: Unwired (probably in the proximity of Amsterdam)
Posts: 4,868
Thanks for the quick fix.
Quote:
Originally Posted by bang
darn. it's broke. fix asap.
??? digital controlled automation? what do you imagine?
What I am thinking of is a master-slave relation where the parameter value of a slave is scaled (multiplied) by the parameter value of a master, rather than linking the values directly, so there is a relative rather than an absolute relation. There are quite a few threads on this forum discussing 'VCA groups', see e.g. here for a recent one.
I posted a PoC of a workaround a while ago that establishes such 'VCA group' type of links between parameters; it uses OSC messages to another application (in this case, Pure data, but the same could be achieved with a number of other apps), which simply multiplies the slaves' values by the master value, and then sends them back to REAPER, again via the OSC backdoor. The use of global memory variables in JS of course is much more elegant - not to mention your lovely GUI.
What I am thinking of is a master-slave relation where the parameter value of a slave is scaled (multiplied) by the parameter value of a master, rather than linking the values directly, so there is a relative rather than an absolute relation. There are quite a few threads on this[...]
hmmm. quite a can of worms in those threads. :^) but if i understand right, we could already get the functionality you want by using individually scaled parameter modulations for each slave slider. so you would scale the modulation strength instead of the slave's value directly. this could be tedious to set up and configure for very many slaves though. (and i do wish Reaper's somewhat obtuse parameter modulation scheme had some sort of min/max option.) seems like the main challenge would be a good, clear, integrated user interface that shows everything together in one place. that's quite a bit more than a few hacks beyond paramsliders though. (and how much effort is one standardized "hack" anyway? :^) and i think you would still have to set up at least each target parameter modulation manually. anywho...
enjoy! /dan
ps- fwiw, the scaled midi option in paramsliders is there for the times when parameter modulation is too "hard". param mod will override parameter values loaded from presets, even when the source fx is bypassed. if that's undesirable, midi is available. but midi has limited precision compared to param mod, particularly when scaled. so it's a tradeoff.
Location: Unwired (probably in the proximity of Amsterdam)
Posts: 4,868
Quote:
Originally Posted by bang
hmmm. quite a can of worms in those threads. :^) but if i understand right, we could already get the functionality you want by using individually scaled parameter modulations for each slave slider. so you would scale the modulation strength instead of the slave's value directly. this could be tedious to set up and configure for very many slaves though. (and i do wish Reaper's somewhat obtuse parameter modulation scheme had some sort of min/max option.) seems like the main challenge would be a good, clear, integrated user interface that shows everything together in one place. that's quite a bit more than a few hacks beyond paramsliders though. (and how much effort is one standardized "hack" anyway? :^) and i think you would still have to set up at least each target parameter modulation manually. anywho...
enjoy! /dan
ps- fwiw, the scaled midi option in paramsliders is there for the times when parameter modulation is too "hard". param mod will override parameter values loaded from presets, even when the source fx is bypassed. if that's undesirable, midi is available. but midi has limited precision compared to param mod, particularly when scaled. so it's a tradeoff.
Indeed, quite a can of worms. Perhaps take my remarks more as a warning than anything else.
Using individually scaled parameter modulations for each slave slider is very useful, but I don't think it can achieve the same as DCA groups (or at least, how I understand such functionality). The modulation strength would always be the same for all slaves of a master, but each individual slaved parameter would still be allowed to have its individual value, including automation envelopes, to be taken into account before scaling their 'final' values (by the value of the master). And since automation of (both master and) slave parameters would also need to be taken into account, we need to use something like JS sliders to function more or less as proxies for the underlying parameters, because we can't decouple the control elements in REAPER's GUI (knobs, sliders, buttons, etc.) from the corresponding parameters.
Btw, I don't have much of an issue myself with having to spend a considerable amount of time and effort to prepare a setup which is useful to me. But I guess the "tedious to set up and configure" part is where this approach would stop short of an acceptable workaround for many users who wish to have DCA grouping for the typical use case.
paramsliders_v015.zip is out. this adds an option to specify one slider as a master slider that scales an invisible set of secondary sliders relative to the visible sliders. so slider a1's value is scaled by the master slider and sets the value of invisible slider a1x, and so forth. the release also includes paramslidersvol, a variant of paramsliders that includes the option to specifiy one slider as a volume control for audio passing through the fx. this is a possibly convenient alternative to setting up a parameter modulation on some sort of volume fx. also fixed a few bugs. enjoy! /dan
ps- lot of new Reaper sliders under the hood in this one, so presets are broke bad. sorry.
Using individually scaled parameter modulations for each slave slider is very useful, but I don't think it can achieve the same as DCA groups[...]
i think i'm getting this now. i was imagining using the baseline value in the parameter modulation dialog for automating things. that might do something similar to what you want, but it is awkward and obscure. otoh, i think the main bit you want Banned is a group of visible, manipulable, automatable sliders which are scaled en mass by the master slider. so, this latest release might work for that. i don't think it's possible for the master to directly scale the visible slave sliders because it would make the automation logic ambiguous. Reaper always automates the full slider range. so if the master were scaling that down, Reaper would see scaled values and feed them back. then if the master value changes, do we unscale the scaled values and rescale them. seems like too many strange loops. so instead i made the master scale a group of parallel internal sliders based on the visible ones. that's a bit of a compromise. hope it works. or show me a better way. and, all this is somewhat experimental. i'm not much of an automation guy myself. so let me know if anything is not workable for some reason.
enjoy! /dan
ps- note that it should be possible to remotely control and view both the master slider and various slave sliders from some master instance of paramsliders using sync.
hmmm. makes sense to extend the invisible scaled slider concept a bit to use min/max values like midi. so shift-click and option/alt-click will set minimum and maximums for the invisible scaled slider. the visible slider will set the invisble slider values based on the min/max and any enabled master slider. and like midi, the text values shown on the sliders reflect min/max and master. note that when a midi channel is set, slider text values are shown as midi values. otherwise slider/min/max values use the 0.0-100.0 scale. this is only for display. nothing changes internally.
hope this makes sense. question welcome. enjoy! /dan
Location: Unwired (probably in the proximity of Amsterdam)
Posts: 4,868
Quote:
Originally Posted by bang
i think i'm getting this now. i was imagining using the baseline value in the parameter modulation dialog for automating things. that might do something similar to what you want, but it is awkward and obscure. otoh, i think the main bit you want Banned is a group of visible, manipulable, automatable sliders which are scaled en mass by the master slider. so, this latest release might work for that. i don't think it's possible for the master to directly scale the visible slave sliders because it would make the automation logic ambiguous. Reaper always automates the full slider range. so if the master were scaling that down, Reaper would see scaled values and feed them back. then if the master value changes, do we unscale the scaled values and rescale them. seems like too many strange loops. so instead i made the master scale a group of parallel internal sliders based on the visible ones. that's a bit of a compromise. hope it works. or show me a better way. and, all this is somewhat experimental. i'm not much of an automation guy myself. so let me know if anything is not workable for some reason.
enjoy! /dan
ps- note that it should be possible to remotely control and view both the master slider and various slave sliders from some master instance of paramsliders using sync.
Awesome, Dan, will test it as soon as I have a chance.
Indeed, the automation logic is probably one of the trickiest parts of this entire DCA groups concept. I ran into a similar issue with my OSC-based approach, having to use 'dummy' tracks (/ track volume faders) to work around it, which may easily become a bit of a mess, visually at least. Your parallel internal sliders approach seems to be much better.
Does this mean that I could link the velocity parameter of a violin on on a plugin on one track, with the cutoff parameter of a synth on another track?
this is very nice plugin in concept but somehow it seems to save changed value sets into other projects. i tested it and used on new project this plugin and parameters changes memorized from previous. is it safe ? it is bug? seems like values are saved in one file that is shared for all projects instead of saved in each. is chance for update ? repair ?
renaming fields option would be enough to make this perfect reaper friend after first "bug" repair.
this is very promising thing. can you finish this ?
fwiw: paramsliders - compact sliders & buttons w/ cross track sync
Linear Mode
