Topic: Choosing plug-ins and/or Inserts from AlphaTrack With Pro Tools

LesPaul666 wrote:

I think I may have asked this sometime before, but after doing a bit of research about the Mackie HUI, maybe this has some merit and could be useful.

The HUI controller has the ability to *choose* the Plug-In and Insert menus of each channel in Pro Tools, allowing to activate a plug or insert of your selection(I guess it accesses the drop-down menus), as well as choosing and setting the parameters for each.

Is it possible to *map* the AlphaTrack somehow in the HUI protocol for this, as in MIDI?

It's kind of strange, the Command 8 doesn't even allow for choosing to activate an insert, only existing ones you put in previously, using the mouse. The Mackie HUI allows for both *full* plug in and insert choice and management.

Otherwise, I think the AlphaTrack is a great device. Trying to get away from the mouse as much as possible to speed up the workflow. Thanks!

: )

CS:Hello LesPaul666,

Well, the true answer is, yes and no. Yes the HUI spec allows for a bit more Plug-in management than AlphaTrack supports. But implementing those features isn't really possible with AlphaTrack. The reason has to do with how the HUI spec does it. With the Mackie Control set to HUI mode you will notice that in order to access those features there are a number of 'pages', or layers of information that you drill through (with button or knob selections) to make it happen. Because AT has to navigate all of those same layers virtually (they're all happening in the background) and simultaneously parse out only the data for the first channel, there is no way we can issue that long of a string of virtual commands and still keep the AT in sync with the program. Basically, you would press a button and ProTools may, or may not do what you wanted. And even if it did, the AT display would likely not get the information back in time to display it anyway.

So unfortunately, although it would be a great thing to be able to do, we just can't stuff that many commands through the system fast enough to make it work. I hope that all make sense.