Displaying information on LCD Panels, Controlling LEDs...

I just received my LCD panels and controllers from MIDI Boutique, and was able to easily configure them to work at the basic, prototype level. But I'm having some problems getting all the information I want, on display, and am not sure if someone can point me in the correct direction, or if I'm making implicit feature requests for things V6 can't yet do, or a bit of both! I'm looking to work at the OOTB/configuration level, not to descend into doing my own custom programming to parse MIDI messages ala an Arduino...

1) I found how to map expression/crescendo pedals to a display, showing their level/% setting. The configuration menu implies that the output includes identifying information, as do many display choices. For example, I'd like to see 2 lines that show "Swell Pedal 100% / Crescendo Pedal 0%". What I get is "100% / 0%" i.e. no labels to tell me what values those numbers represent. The numbers themselves are correct and tracking properly in real-time. Is there a way to display some identifying preliminary text?

2) I'd like to display the current IR Reverb Wetness % and the current Mixer Preset #, something like: "IR Wetness 34% / Mixer Preset 1", from the Audio Mixer, Routing,... panel. Is there a way to do that?

3) Each MGB display panel comes with a variable brightness RGB LED. Is there any way to control these from within present-day Hauptwerk? For example, to display the current state of a reversible setting, such as Audio and/or MIDI armed for recording, or to use color to indicate progress, such as loading vs loaded?

To Mssrs. Francois et Martin: apologies if these are properly feature requests. There isn't too much documentation about this feature set, and I'm not sure I can accurately distinguish between my lack of know-how and something not supported. I'd be glad to formally submit this to the suggestion box if that's the correct path.

[mdyde]

Hello Bob,

1) I found how to map expression/crescendo pedals to a display, showing their level/% setting. The configuration menu implies that the output includes identifying information, as do many display choices. For example, I'd like to see 2 lines that show "Swell Pedal 100% / Crescendo Pedal 0%". What I get is "100% / 0%" i.e. no labels to tell me what values those numbers represent. The numbers themselves are correct and tracking properly in real-time. Is there a way to display some identifying preliminary text?

Yes -- you can give those labels. With an 'Organ expression pedal/slider/knob ...' line format selected, enter your desired label text (e.g. 'Swell') in the screen's 'Fixed label/prefix text ...' field.

2) I'd like to display the current IR Reverb Wetness % and the current Mixer Preset #, something like: "IR Wetness 34% / Mixer Preset 1", from the Audio Mixer, Routing,... panel. Is there a way to do that?

There isn't currently an LCD line format for displaying the audio mixer wetness scaler or mixer preset. I've logged an enhancement request that you'd like one.

(There is a MIDI console status output system variable for the wetness scalar, but that wouldn't be useful for off-the-shelf MIDI-LCD units. Also, the mixer preset isn't currently controllable from MIDI, and thus isn't available via the MIDI console status output system or LCD system, but those things are logged as enhancement requests.)

3) Each MGB display panel comes with a variable brightness RGB LED. Is there any way to control these from within present-day Hauptwerk? For example, to display the current state of a reversible setting, such as Audio and/or MIDI armed for recording, or to use color to indicate progress, such as loading vs loaded?

There is an option on the LCD settings screen to select the lamp colour. Currently Hauptwerk doesn't have functionality for switching the lamps on/off in real-time in response to state changes (e.g. to show when master pistons/couplers/functions, and/or organ stops/couplers/tremulants, are on/lit), but that too is logged as an enhancement request.

Thanks again!

1) Well there it is. Perfect, exactly what I wanted. Too many shiny distractions, look, over here, a control....

2) To me, the IR wetness is the more important of the two - I tend to associate Mixer Preset with rarely changed setup, not really a performance-time variable, but being able to quickly tweak the gross reverb level is useful while playing. I was surprised the wetness slider was an organ-local control, not HW-global (same comment regarding the Volume slider - seems functionally a global.) When designing my name-board, I reserved an analog slider for IR wetness (works fine) and a display line (the missing piece.) FYI - I did the same for both Volume and Trim - physical controls + value displays. For the Mixer, a reminder of which Preset is in play seemed useful, but I felt no compunction to allocate a physical control. But with IRs associated with Presets, that may be changing.

3) I saw that lamp control. On further reflection, it seems less important than when I designed my draft version of my name-board, absent a working prototype - I was thinking along the lines of an operation, e.g. "load instrument", in progress (red) vs completed (green.) But I since found you've provided real-time output of the actual progress to the panel, so that use case goes away, and it just becomes a miscellaneous indicator light that the panel's controller can drive from MIDI. Nice, but less useful to me.

Martin, have you given consideration to how increasing use of IR is going to interact with a limited number of Mixer Presets? If your reverb model was simple, one IR at a time, then everything would be easy - an IR favorites list, treat it like temperament. Then one could select an IR on the fly with simple standard control use. However, the current rich model of how multiple IRs are embedded in the Mixer precludes that simplistic approach. I'm seeing sample-set providers increasingly including instrument/venue-specific IRs with their sets, which practically requires dedicating one of the limited number of Presets to that single instrument - if one wants to match IR to original instrument, rather than teleport the instrument to a designated venue. And one doesn't want to delve into the Mixer just to load an organ. Going to run out of Presets rather quickly. Time for HW VII...

[mdyde]

Thanks, Bob.

I was surprised the wetness slider was an organ-local control, not HW-global (same comment regarding the Volume slider - seems functionally a global.)

Yes -- allowing global assignments for those are logged as enhancement requests, but they wasn't included in v6 (because doing so within the available time would have meant sacrificing other higher-priority enhancements):

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=19269&p=144785#p144785

Martin, have you given consideration to how increasing use of IR is going to interact with a limited number of Mixer Presets? If your reverb model was simple, one IR at a time, then everything would be easy - an IR favorites list, treat it like temperament. Then one could select an IR on the fly with simple standard control use. However, the current rich model of how multiple IRs are embedded in the Mixer precludes that simplistic approach. I'm seeing sample-set providers increasingly including instrument/venue-specific IRs with their sets, which practically requires dedicating one of the limited number of Presets to that single instrument - if one wants to match IR to original instrument, rather than teleport the instrument to a designated venue.

We do have enhancement requests logged for increasing the number of mixer presets, importing/exporting/copying mixer presets, and filtering screens by mixer presets (which would be especially necessary if more mixer presets were to exist). (I had actually hoped to include those in v5, but there wasn't time.) We also have enhancement requests for allowing reverb selections to be overridden/'virtualised' on a per-organ basis. I'll add your notes to the enhancement request.

Thanks Martin.I do think that a mechanism to allow an organ configuration to bring along its reverb package with minimal fuss will become increasingly important as the use of HW IR capabilities gets internalized. I've exchanged notes with several of the major proprietors of sample-sets where they mentioned how excited they were about having this capability integrated in a standard way into HW, and how including IRs with sets would become the ideal going forward. Had to agree.

After spending a lifetime in big-time systems/software development, all I can say is I have no idea what you are talking about, implying the actual existence of that chimera, a prioritized features-list coordinated with a build-list! I have it on the direct word and authority of multiple C-level Fortune-100 executives that such a thing is inconceivable and pure hokum. Priorities! Bah! All desires must be top priority. They said it, must be true....

Sorry, couldn't resist. That trope is actually true though: when feeling charitable, I assume as a motivational technique, or a tantrum when feeling less so - or perhaps a linear combination of both factors. Who can tell?

[mdyde]

Thanks, Bob!