There seems to be a special topic with encoders on Presonus controllers.
I have five DAW controllers available:
1) Presonus Atom
2) Presonus StudioLive 16 in DAW mode
3) Native Instruments Komplete Kontrol M32
4) Arturia KeyLab MkII 61
5) Midifighter Twister
When I control a VST plugin (doesn’t matter if it’s one from Presonus or a different manufacturer, e.g. Plugin Alliance) by encoders on an external controller the behaviour between Presonus devices and devices of other manufacturers is different.
When you have routed e.g. a volume control in a plugin to an encoder on the StudioLive mixer the display on the mixer starts showing the corresponding parameter value. When you move the encoder the corresponding parameter in the plugin gets adjusted, also the value in the display of the encoder. When you use the mouse then to modify the value in the encoder display on the mixer changes also (maybe from 5 to 10). And when you then move the encoder again it proceeds with the actual value 10 instead of jumping back to 5 where you left the encoder before.
So an integrated workflow between hardware controller and mouse operation, just as I would expect it from a programmable encoder.
But when I use a controller from a different company (Arturia, Native Instruments, djtechtools) the external encoders always communicate the value they had when you last moved them. If you have reached a value of 29 with an encoder, then move it to 73 and then move the external encoder again the value would first jump back from 73 to 29 and then operate normal.
But this is a problem when you control more than one plugin with the same controller. If you moved the encoder to position 20 first on one plugin, then call another plugin to the focus and move the encoder, the controlled value of the second plugin will immediately change to 20 too even if it has been 120 before.
So it is difficult to control multiple instances of a plugin in Studio One with controllers from other manufacturers.
Why would I do this?
The ATOM controller offers 4 encoders. My StudioLive 16 offers 8 encoders available in multiple banks. But sometimes the plugins have more parameters to control. Therefore I ordered the Twister which has four banks of 16 encoders. They offer an additional push button function and can control two parameters depending on pressed or not pressed. But the handling result is not as I expected it. The Presonus equipment does the better job for this purpose.
So I checked the transmitted MIDI informations in the program MIDI-OX. Both controllers show exactly the same values in the data monitor when adjusted. Both need to work as encoder which sends values between 0 (left side) and 127 (right side) when moved.
They don’t transfer relative values like „+1“ or „-1“ to pick up the current value and modify it (Mode 3Fh instead of „controller“).
So why do the Presonus encoders behave correct and the other external controllers fail here?
If this behavior is a company secret to provide an advantage over the competitors then it might be helpful if Presonus would offer an external contoller for this funcitonality with encoders and displays like the Mackie Control C4 Pro:
https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/MCUproC4--mackie-mackie-control-c4-pro#:~:text=The%20Mackie%20Control%20C4%20Pro%20controller%20gives%20you,and%20values%20via%20the%20unit%27s%20backlit%20LCD%20display.
Who else would be happy with such a product?
Regards
Juergen Boehme
