Pro Tools MIDI Control with the DM4800/DM3200

[jamsire]

Video of how to use the DM for MIDI Control in PT10.

Enjoy

Jamsire

 

[Drumstruck]

That's excellent - thanks Ernie

 

[jamsire]

Thanks man. Gotta share the knowledge!

 

[DJ X]

stickied

 

[jamsire]

YAY!!! My very first stickie! Wowee! I'm certainly honored.

 

[DJ X]

Here's to many more

 

[waterstrum]

Wow!
I'm blown away by this video.
Not only were you able to figure all of this out, you were able to communicate it in very clear way.
My hat is off to you sir.

 

[jamsire]

Thank you! Gotta share what you know.

 

[captdan]

Indeed! These videos should put to rest, once and for all, the age-old question: "Can I control my plugs with the DM?"

Uh....Yes! You CAN!

CaptDan

 

[DJ X]

Guys, if you you see questions like the one CaptDan cited above being asked on other audio forums, please spread the love and post a link to this thread. Helping other knowledgeable folks discover our little forum is the best way you can support us!

@jamsire, do you think you could include a link to this discussion in the "About" section of the video so people can ask questions here?

 

[jamsire]

HI! Do you mean on the youtube channel? I'll do whatever I can to help.

**UPDATE** - I added a link to the description for both videos.

 

[captdan]

I spent a couple hours today - at the DM, with Protools in one window, and Ernie J in the other. I was able to get about 75% of the way - setting up the controllers, Midi Mixer and 'our friend,' the UDL.

It occurs to me that DM4800 users are going to have an advantage here - simply because they're more likely to have more open, non used faders to dedicate to these specific tasks. Also, they get 24 faders whereas the 3200 users are limited to 16. Still, not bad. However, in my case with a 3200, 6 of my faders in the 33 layer are dedicated to Efx sends, and two additional for recording/monitoring, That leaves only 8 for Midi/plugin control.

So - two questions for The Master:

1. You mentioned using your Bus layers for Aux/Efx. Could you elaborate?

2. And - even dumber question - am I right to assume the Buss layer is useless as Midi fader control? Those are the least used modules on my board, so I'm moved to ask that.

All that said, this capability is indeed, quite powerful.

CaptDan

 

[jamsire]

Hi CaptDan!!!

1. No Can Do. The UDL ONLY responds to the Physical Channel layers only because they are hard wired to MIDI CC#'s. The Busses and Aux's - are not.

2. "I" use the first eight busses for my outboard effects through my analog cards as a wet/dry mix/ parallel effects utility. I use an Alesis Wedge (1&2), a Rocktron Intellifex (3&4), and an Ensoniq DP4 (5-8). Essentially, I'll send the guitars through busses 3&4, then on the buss layer, I'll raise the fader position to hear enough of the effect (to the way I programmed it) and add it to the overall mix.

The AUX's have no signal passing through them unless I patch something through them in patch bay.

YAY!!

 

[DJ X]

Thanks Ernie!

 

[cmaffia]

Sadly this knocks me out from using this method too on the DM3200 as I use my physical layers for external gear and all my external preamps :-(.

 

[jamsire]

Before you give up - remember you can make a Routing Snapshot - just for the routing and create a situation where you are NOT using the external gear for anything and control whatever you need to record in the plug-in on your screen.

In fact, you should make a SECOND project with these new settings and switch back and forth. In a new project, the MIDI setup, Ext. Control, and Ctrl. Change Mixer are completely reset, you can go back and forth between the various setups.

@cmaffia, you aren't using your external preamps when you're editing midi data are you?

 

[captdan]

First, I'm not surprised at your answers; I recall now that you use a lot of outboard on your Buss layer. I like having the full featured fader modules for efx sends (both internal and for my outboard Lexicon) - for the obvious reason that EQ and dynamics are available for finer tuning. So that knocks out 6 stereo channels on the DM3200.

The other issue I have is, I prefer to limit my Firewire output slots to 16, rather than the full 32 channels. I believe that provides me a little extra CPU room. So my channels 15/16 are the primary gateway to P.Tools - for down mix as well as M/L output slots. To alleviate the hassle of muting/unmuting the 15/16 channels for tracking, I simply move my monitor channels to the 39-48 array - the only remaining candidates for UDLayer work.

All that said, the Snapshot idea would be the best workaround. So, my next step is to set up a Mix/UDL template that can be called up inside any project file. Great suggestion.

CaptDan

 

[jamsire]

I do what I can with what I got.

 

[Chris]

Hi Jasmire, thank you so much for shedding some light on the MIDI CC messages and this video. I am very very grateful for your efforts!

Excellent Video

 

[jamsire]

You're very welcome Chris!!