Quote:
Originally Posted by GearGuy
I'm curious to know how well it works for ProControl. Especially with multiple units. I have a main unit ProControl, Edit Pack, and Fader Pack.
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I’m one of the beta-testers of the new V-Control Pro with support for Digidesign Legacy Controllers since the beginning of the project and in close cooperation with Paul Neyrinck. I was (and I still am) testing the software with my 48 fader ProControl on my Mac Pro 2012 with Sierra 10.12.6 and Pro Tools 2018.4. I needed to be confidential about this project for almost three months now. But since the software is commercially available I’m allowed to share my experiences.
For the record: I know nothing about how the new V-Control Pro works with a Control 24, I can only answer questions about the functionality with one or more ProControl units.
To answer your question: it works very well inside the technical limitations inherent to the use of the old HUI protocol that exists since Pro Tools 5.3 (2003).
In general V-Control Pro provides virtual MIDI ports that are set up in Pro Tools as MIDI peripherals using the HUI protocol. V-Control Pro connects to ProControl / Control 24 by Ethernet and translates them to the HUI protocol. Some buttons on ProControl / Control 24 do not function because HUI does not provide every feature on those surfaces. But HUI is a basically a good protocol and lets you do almost everything you really need for professional mix control.
It works with a ProControl Main Unit and/or Fader Packs. This means you do not necessarily need a Main Unit, it also works with one ore more Fader Packs without a Main Unit. I suppose it also works with multiple Main Units, I don’t see why not, however I was not able to test this.
The Edit Pack is not supported but maybe it will be partially supported in a future version. But the motorised joysticks on an Edit Pack will never be supported because Pro Tools does not provide surround pan position feedback in the HUI protocol.
V-Control Pro works fine with 8, 16, 24 or maximum 32 faders (this is a HUI limitation). On my 48 fader ProControl I can freely choose 1, 2, 3 or 4 of the 6 units in V-Control Pro, even when Pro Tools is open and running.
Bank and nudge buttons let you access all tracks that are in a Pro Tools session.
What does work with ProControl:
- faders with .1 dB resolution
- Pan, Mute, Solo, Record
- track select
- sends A-E
- sends flip to fader
- all transport functions
- plug-in editing will be available in a future version
But there are some limitations due to the limitations of the HUI protocol:
- no more then 32 faders
- track names are limited to 4 characters
- no sends are accessible beyond A-E
- no ProControl Main Unit Channel Matrix
- no Solo Clear button
I’m working with ProControl since 1999 and I find these limitation very annoying. I hate scribble strips with just 4 characters and I was using the ProControl Main Unit Channel Matrix + the Solo Clear buttons on all my units a lot (muscle memory that has gone to waste now).
But on the other hand, before this new version of V-Control Pro my ProControl was virtually dead with Pro Tools 11 and 12, now it has revived and has become a fancy HUI controller with the legendary marvellous faders of the ProControl and V-Control Pro makes it possible to use a lot of its original functionality.
I do not know if there is some kind of agreement between Paul Neyrinck and AVID about V-Control Pro and supporting the Digidesign Legacy Controllers. But AVID can’t deliberately make V-Control Pro not work anymore in future Pro Tools updates exactly because V-Control Pro uses the HUI protocol to control Pro Tools. Dozens of control surfaces use the HUI protocol, if Avid stopped supporting HUI, it would make V-Control Pro and many other control surfaces incompatible.