Tonight, I bought my first control surface.  I won't say what model it is until later otherwise you might not read any further.

I've really missed having a mixing console for my audio work, so I got it for use with Sonar.  It took little time to set up and get working in Sonar so I did some rough mixes on several songs.  It was so much easier than doing the same thing with the mouse and keyboard.  Ugh.  I'm glad I won't have to do that again.

Once I was through running this thing through its paces in Sonar, I decided to see if I could get it to work in MC.  With a little experimenting (which also didn't take long), I found that if I set MC as if the Digi 002 was connected and if I set the control surface to its factory-loaded "scene" 4 (one of 4 sets of preset configurations which are user-programmable), this unit would control level with the faders and panning with the knobs in MC's Audio Mixer.  With data on what control messages are used by other functions on the Digi 002, I could program other functions on this controller.

Now, to the make and model of this unit.  I had written it off myself based on what I had read online about it.  It looked far too small and it was "far too inexpensive" to be any good from what I could tell.  When I looked at one up-close and operated the faders and knobs, I decided that it was much better than I had thought.  The faders are very smooth - about as smooth or smoother than those on the MCI recording/mixing console I used at the studio.  What I bought for about $60 is a Korg nanoKontrol.  Yep, I know that sounds like it's no good but for anyone who doesn't have $1000, $5000, $10000 or more for a Mackie or a Digidesign, this one is worth a look.  It has 9 control strips and transport controls.  The 9 strips have a fader, a knob and 2 buttons.  Multiple units can be connected (USB, powered by the bus) to add to the number of channels available.

And, no, this isn't supported by Avid.  This is just a tip from someone who's already taken a shot at doing things "on the cheap."

very interesting... thanks for that tip.

So You can control up to 9 audio channels, or daisy chain two nanokontrollers for 18 channels? Thank You for sharing this.

wow!! I have a mackie unit. I wonder if I can get avid to recognize it if I call it a digi002

I"m glad you've found the info helpful.  As long as you can send the messages that MC expects for various functions, it should work.  What I don't know is what all the messages are that the Digi 002 sends for the various functions.  If someone with a Digi 002 could hook it up to a sequencer and record the data as keys are pressed, faders are moved and knobs are turned, then we'd know how to set up other parameters on the nanoKontrol.  I doubt that the full MIDI specs are published on the Digidesign controllers but there might be something somewhere.  The same would apply to the Command8 if MC was set for that controller.  If you send the same message as either of those controllers, then MC should respond in the same way.

-update minutes later-

In the Control8 manual at Digidesign's site - under "Mapping" in the Stand-alone chapter - there are CC numbers given for a few functions.  If those CC numbers could be set in your controller, then MC should respond to them just as if a Control8 was attached.

I have a NanoKontroller and it does work well for faders. However the panning, transport kontrols and mute/solo do not.

I have a midi map of a Digi 003 and tried those CC codes but can't get any further functiona. Such a shame, as the Nano is excellent with other software.

Hi, James.  Yes, the Korg device can't be beat for the price.  I never tried to get more functions going in MC and haven't used mine since I bought a Tascam FW-1082 to have more (and motorized) faders as well as having the analog mixer I/O functions in the same unit.

Sometime I want to try out the Tascam with MC to see if it will work at all.  I suspect it won't since it's a Firewire device but when I have some time to mess around with it I want to try anyway.

So, like you, I have figured out how to make the faders work, but has anyone managed to work out what the CC codes are for the other knobs and keys?

Hi, Swisso.  I haven't heard from anyone who's figured out the other CC codes and I never had time to chceck further into it.  Now that you've reminded me, I will see what I can find out.  No promises, mind you, but I will see what I can come up with.  It may take some time but I will report back if I find any more information.  I can only pursue this in whatever spare time comes along, so feel free to remind me again sometime if I haven't posted something more.

Cheers Scott, much appreciated.

Hi Scott,

This is an awesome discovery. Really glad I found this thread, I've been trying to get iPhone/iPad midi control working with Media Composer. http://community.avid.com/forums/t/101364.aspx

Like you, I've been able to get the levels and pan working as they are based on the standard CC 7 and CC 10 commands. It seems like the rest of the Command|8 midi commands could be SysEx commands and therefore need to be recorded.

I don't have a Command|8 to try this, but for anyone that does, could they download these two apps and see what they get when they have Media Composer open and connected to a Command|8.

The Midi Monitor app can see what commands are being sent from the Command|8 and the SysEx Librarian app can record them so they can be named and saved.

Can anyone help who has a Command|8? We should then be able to use these codes in both the Korg panel and Midi Touch. Even if we can only get Mute and Solo codes then along with level and pan control, these two controllers would be pretty useful!

EDIT - I just noticed this is the PC forum, but hopefully someone will read this who has a Mac too.

That would be great if someone could do that. I searched high and low on the net for manuals or tech brochures of the Digi 002 controller and Command 8 looking for some code to feed into the Nano.

Hi, Mark and James.

I scoured the web a few weeks ago looking for controller data.  What I found is really the reverse of what's needed - it's mostly what codes are sent out by a few controllers that don't seem to have any relation to MC.  What's really needed is to discover the codes being sent by the controllers which are already known to work with MC.  Like you, I'm hoping that someone with any of the compatible controllers (now there are the Artist series, as well) will take the time to check which codes are sent by each of the switches and knobs.

Found out this morning that someone I'm working with has a Command|8. I was able to see the commands being sent back and forth, so I recorded every button that resulted in something happening inside Media Composer.

All of the commands being sent are Midi Note commands (let me know if you want them), which are pretty easy to duplicate. Looks like it needs to send a Sysex command beforehand though to identify the source device as a Command|8. This is the tricky part, as I don't yet know if this needs to be done onece, every time or just as certain intevals.

I've had a quick play with this in the Midi Touch app and it works pretty well. Need to do a lot more setup to really get it working, so it sees the return message for instance. Will update when I've had a chance to add more commands in.

With regard to the artist series controllers, I'm not sure the Eucon commands are similar to Midi or even open enough to be viewed and replayed on other devices, but be intersting to know for sure.

This morning I saw one of the sound guys had an iPad with an app called AC-7 Core controlling his ProTools session - it was amazing - hopefully we can get some similar functionality in Media Composer.

Mark,

I'd love to have a look at the codes you got from the Command|8.  If you made a note of which buttons, knobs or sliders were sending which codes, I'd like to have that, too.  Thanks.

You may be right about the Eucon commands.  When I started this thread, those controllers either weren't around at all or in the form they may have existed weren't known to work with MC.