KnobConnector: Control any plugin with your E1 in REAPER 7

[Mint-Gecko]

@deniki4

Thank you so much for your work — this is a brilliant concept! It really looks like Electra One combined with KnobConnector is the ultimate mixing setup.

Thanks a lot! The original concept was developed with synth plugins in mind, but I have been thinking about applying this concept to mixing, latey.

@deniki4

For instance, when using the Kush Audio TWK plugin, I only need three parameters: input gain, output gain, and drive. For my workflow, they need to be on encoders 1, 6, and 7 respectively. At the moment, I’m adding placeholder entries for encoders 2–5 with blank parameters to make this work, but that clutters the interface. Would it be possible to either disable specific encoders or freely assign parameters to exact encoders?

I also thought about having specific functionality appear at specific knobs. Since the idea of plugin maps is to be hardware independent, I’m tending towards another idea: you have a mode where you can define what generic function you want to assign to a specific knob. Things like “Input Volume”, “Ratio” or “Band 1 Frequency”. At runtime, KnobConnector would then try to match these generic functions to specific parameters of the currently focused plugin or the plugins of the currently focused track.

That being said, have you tried declaring the unusedIf property to those workaround placeholder entries? This makes them look a bit less “usable” as it is intended for parameters than can suddenly be greyed out in a plugin UI (like a release parameter becoming disabled when enabling “Auto Release”).

@deniki4

I’d also love to see a “Channel Strip Mode” in the future — something where you don’t need to open plugin UIs at all. I imagine it working like this: when a track is selected, the Electra One screen shows three rows of parameters from all plugins on that track that have Plugin Maps. Instant access to key parameters across multiple plugins without opening any UIs could be the fastest mixing workflow imaginable.

I have been thinking about a channel strip mode as well, also with the goal of not opening the plugin UIs. Not sure what you meant with “three rows of parameters” though, as you can only control two rows of parameters with the E1 and toggle between two other double rows. KnobConnector however locks itself to the lowest double row to have the upper two double rows available for parameter navigation. Maybe you meant to populate the three of the four upper rows with modules from the plugins of the current track?

@deniki4

I just received my Electra One today and immediately started diving into KnobConnector. I did notice that sometimes when turning an encoder smoothly, the parameter jumps to its min or max value — I’m not sure if that’s a KnobConnector issue or something related to Electra One’s sensitivity settings?

This is an unfortunate issue with the E1 knob’s touch sensors. Technically, the E1 knob only sends data when the E1 also detected the knob to be touched. This doesn’t work 100%, and can sometimes cause the accelerations derived from the encoder movement to be inaccurately large and even have the wrong direction. The problem will be fixed with the upcoming E1 firmware v4.0.0. It’s in preview atm and if you feel brave enough, you can give it a try: V4.0 testing [was V3.7] - #187 by martin