novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

Been using this little nocturn midi controller i got for 50 bucks on ebay to control pro tools plugins using automap. Havent seen much praise for automap and pro tools 10 when i googled it. Just mostly people complaining it doesnt work or crashes pro tools. Bought it because the price was right hoping it would work. does it ever.

Im using pt 10.3.8 (hd) and automap 4.8.3 (beta) in osx mavericks. Working so smooth. For 50 bucks you cant afford not to have something like this. The nocturn is a great plugin controller. I already have an m audio keyboard using direct link im controlling pt itself from that and plugins from automap. Very intuitive easy to use software. I highly reccommend it. A control surface like artist control / mix is out of my budget, so this does the job right now. It works so good im impressed. I own pt 11 (hd) but havent started using it much because so many 3rd party features like automap are still unavailable. There are few 3rd party control surfaces and none are affordable! Im not complaining because im sure its all coming soon. So for now im on pt10. Cant wait til they come out with automap for pt11!!!

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

Update, I just tried it with Pro Tools 11 for the heck of it, Although I know it is not supported. It actually works in Pro Tools 11!!! Does not map AAX plugins but thats OK if you have something like "Blue Cat Audio Patchwork" You can use your VST / Au plugs and automap them!!! Wow!!! Sometimes you just gotta try the software and see if it works. I think I just got lucky. Also My M Audio Direct Link seems to be working fully in Pro Tools 11!!! Interesting because I thought this software was not compatible. Its been a year since I bought 11!!! So much false info on the internet about Pro tools... Gotta try it and c if it works!!! It does!!!

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

I'll sell ours for 50 bucks new in original box, only tested once and as we have Icons and artist series it's just laying in the closet :-)

I never liked Nocturn so happy to see someone who does.

Christopher

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

Nice to know, as I have considered getting one... :-)

Only thing is that I wish they would make a Nocturn with more than 8 encoders.

I wonder if it's possible to link several Nocturn's to get a 16 or maybe even a 24 encoder controller??

I could go with an Artist Mix, but as I understand it you can't map the plugin parameters to the Artists encoder, like the Icon or Command 8? :confused:

Auto-mapping seems to be the "holy grail" here and as I understand it, Novation are the only controllers who dose that... Not sure though. :-)

But 3 Nocturn's linked together as a hardware channel-strip, controlling Duende or Waves SSL in Pro Tools... I wish!! :D

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

So that no one overlooks this fact, let's put it in large type:

Dealbreaker right there.

I loved my Nocturn and Automap for plug-ins, in concept. In practice, it made for a crashy Pro Tools. Read about one troubleshooting episode I had with it here on this GS thread.

But still I tried, and tried. And sometimes it was great. And then, along came AAX, and Automap cannot work with AAX. And Novation's response to this reality was completely disingenuous - they claimed as late as Nov 2013 that they had "just discovered" that AAX wouldn't work with Automap, while this information had actually been known for at least a year. Here is their official announcement, if you're interested.

Can you tell I'm a little peeved at them? :mad:

Anyhow, I recently discovered that I can get the Nocturn to emulate the M-Audio Keyboard controller protocol (aka "Hypercontrol"), at least enough to do some plug-in editing. Using the Nocturn like that, you're just sending out dumb MIDI, though, and it's a bit clunky in practice.

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

It actually has 9 rotors, and 1 slider all of which can be assigned to control almost any function on any plugin. They are all flexible, you kinda have to make your own custom control maps to get the plugin how you like. It also has 8 buttons which can control similarly, press the button to change a paramater (mono/stereo for instance), or even change rotor settings in designated steps! That makes for 18 controllable parameters, and it has endless pages, so once your done controlling one set, you just press page + and get all rotors, slider, and buttons to map all over again!

I don't use it for everything, and it won't solve all problems in the studio, but it's very valuable for such a cheap price (50 bucks you can't go wrong). Its really good for doing digital eq and dialing in correct amount of compression, setting ratio, threshold etc. It doesn't map the native AAX plugins in PT 11. So no mapping your AIR delays and stuff like that since you cant get them in VST, but since I got the nocturn I have replaced most of my stock pro tools plugins with better 3rd party effects. I still use all the AIR effects, but those arent too bad to control with the mouse. I mainly bought the nocturn for EQ which I can now do so much better. I honestly don't know how people EQ things digitally in the box day in and day out without some type of controller like this. It's like trying to play a fighting game on a touchscreen vs someone who got an actual controller or gamepad. I see why a lot of folks have mixing boards, but for someone who is all digital and doesn't want to spend a lot of money on an artist control this is great.

Sorry you had those kind of problems. I have had zero problems with it in pro tools 10 and 11HD on mac osx. When i found out i could use it in 11 that was what made me finally switch from 10 to 11 after almost a year of owning 11. try using the latest beta for it

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

Warning! Old thread bump :D

Just wanted to say thanks for the tip and info for using Nocturn and Automap i PT 11. It really is great!

It even lets you connect several Nocturns, so you can build yourself a custom channelstrip to control for e.g. Waves SSL or the Duende.

Really nice to have this affordable alternative to Softtubes Console 1. ;)

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

Question: how is everyone using Nocturn with this method and Waves Plugins? I'm not able to find a way to Automap my Waves plugins and I only find the Waves Shell 9.3 & 9.7 under VST or AU option in Automap's software setup, there are no individual Waves plug-ins for auto map to wrap.

I'm using Pro tools 11, Novation Nocturn, Bluecat's Patch work, and Automap4

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

As i understand it "Automap" creates extra files (duplication). Does this cause any problems?

Re: novation nocturn / automap with pro tools is incredible
 

I tried one of these a year ago and it gave me nothing but grief!. Finally had to uninstall it so my 003 would work. If its working for you, more power to ya! I had high hopes, but returned it for a refund:o