Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Volta and the Mackie Control Universal Pro

Access to your DAW's automation system was one of Volta's primary goals. However, I was reminded recently that people may not have fully 'connected the dots' here. There are amazing possibilities. Have you ever wanted to record and edit automation for your modular? Well, you can do this with a control surface like the Mackie Control. The concept is really simple, so we constructed a wordless demo. We used eight ramps from Volta to control what you hear:

  • LFO speed (driving the clock of an analog sequencer)
  • filter cutoff
  • filter resonance
  • VCA envelope attack
  • filter envelope attack
  • oscillator PWM
  • Z5000 CV in
  • VCA amount controlling Z5000 reverb return into mix

We set up a camera to record the video pass where we're recording the automation from the Mackie Control, then, without moving the camera, recorded another video pass of the DAW playing the automation back, and dissolve so you can watch the faders move without my hands.

We found that this system was useful even without the automation recording aspect, for example, if you've ever wanted convenient, simultaneous, precision, real-time access to multiple parameters on your modular. Moving long faders is far easier than twisting tiny knobs shrouded in patch cables.

15 comments:

  1. Is their any chance this will work with a vst host i.e Cubase 5.

    I would of course need to buy a Motu soundcard (should be good for sales) but I feel you will lose a lot of sale if it is AU only.

    Someone has allready written a very basic vst plugin that works with MOTU soundcards for controlling analog synths so it can be done, I would much rather you guys did a vst version for sure :)

    Will yu be bringing out a dedicated hardware unit to go with this?

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm going to try and use Native Instruments Kore 2 inside Cubase 4 on mac to see if I can use Kore 2 to host Audio Unit plugins.

    Then I might be able to use Volta in Cubase 4.

    ReplyDelete
  3. The initial release of Volta will be AU/MAS only. I'm interested in hearing from people who would like a VST version.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for getting back to me Stretta.

    I think there are as many people using Vst as there are Au, I am looking into the possibilities of running Kore 2 software as a messed up Au to Vst adaptor but would much prefer a dedicated vst plugin version.

    Will you be working on dedicated harware, or should I go and buy a Traveller Mk3 now?

    All the best

    Sam

    ReplyDelete
  5. I get asked the dedicated interface question a lot. I respect the fact that you're trying to make a purchasing decision, however, there simply isn't any way I can answer it. My advice is to go buy the Traveler.

    ReplyDelete
  6. He he, so you're not denying the possibility of making a dedicated interface for Volta :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. looks amazing!!

    one thought, will it be possible to send CV back into the computer? so you can control automation of say a pan or a effect send with an analog sequenser or lfo etc?

    ReplyDelete
  8. Sending CV into the computer would require an audio interface with DC coupled inputs. There are none that I know of, or if there is a model, it is so obscure no one has it.

    But I agree, this would be very useful.

    ReplyDelete
  9. So cool to watch from afar. Seeing it coupled with the mackie . . . now I want to see a monome app as Volta automation!

    ReplyDelete
  10. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  11. @Tetramorph
    Working on ability to trigger custom ADSR envelopes and such using SevenUpLive + slicing and retriggering LFOs etc. This is without even using Volta, however, Volta would be a welcome addition especially for the pitch calibration. I haven't used it yet so I don't know but future is bright for monomes and modular.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Actually, I gotta clarify by saying, you can play with this stuff now, but Volta is gonna make it really work and make is a lot easier. So we need Volta!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi,
    You have any issue for PC version of Volta ?

    I wants be beta tester ;)

    Bye

    ReplyDelete