Automap support

[knechtodawas]

Hi, I wrote the following post in the Orion 8.5 Beta thread:

Hi together,

I read in the KVR forum that Richard has the information from Novation being necessary to include their Automap feature. As this feature seems not to be in 8.5 can you please tell me when you plan to include it?

Then I was told that you gave up to implement this. My questions.

1. Does this mean that Automap support will never be included? Or is it just postponed?
2. What I don't really understand: If I use Novation hardware with Orion (or another not supported DAW), does Automap for VSTs (wrapping the plug in) works nontheless? I understand Novation so that Automap VST control and Automap DAW control are independent from another.

[Richard]

We currently do not have a working SDK from them, their support pointed me to an outdated nonworking version. So I asked their support to get me in touch with their developers directly. They replied that their developers would get back to me when they have time (ie never, this was months ago).

So I decided to send back my Novation MK-II, taking advantage of the Thomann 30-day money back guarantee. This was not just because I was disappointed by their support- I also had problems with both the hard- and software. SONAR would consistently crash while Automap was installed. Readouts or values sometimes randomly changed in Live, perhaps due to over-sensitive knobs (this looked more like a hardware problem to me). Furthermore, in Live, VSTi plugins did not show the parameters I expected to see, etc, etc.

Overall the new idea behind it is fantastic, but in practice, very little worked for me. As a regular MIDI controller it did a good job, though (whether in Orion or anywhere else).

To make it short-
1) In its current state, no
2) I think yes, at the very least it'll work like a regular MIDI controller

[Christophe]

i think automap has been very badly implemented !
even trying with minimonsta in ableton and i gave up , i let you imagine with undred of vst
i did tested to automap all my vst directory but automap create a version of your vst so i disabled it !
with orion you can use a template to save your mapping

[knechtodawas]

Thank you for your answer. I fight with the decision of buying a Novation MKII or a M-Audio Axiom Pro. As the prorpietary auto mapping functions of both products are not supported by Orion the differences between the controllers are marginal. The Axiom looks cool (fitting to my monitors), the Novation has these red LEDs around the encoders.

[Christophe]

the novation has a touchpad allowing you to modulate two Control Change at the same time

[aijing2011]

good post and help me a lot

[trancemaster1339]

Well my 2 cents are..

Automap DOES work with my VST(i)'s in Orion 7.62 but the "follow GUI Plugin" feature doesn't.
This means when selecting a plugin like Synth1 or so and then select another i manually have to press the "A" Icon in the toolbar (Automap 3.2). (new Automap 3.7 does NOT have the toolbar wich is essential in my workflow)

None of the internal generators or FX (except for Toxic2) can be used with automap.
As for Toxic2 you have to manually select it from the Orion>Synths Folder (scan it in automap plugin list).
Then again, there's no template for the synth by default so you have to manually program it (only once).

But i have programmed all of my softsyths / fx manually since the default automap settings make a big mess (at least that's what i think) of the layout.

So basically...
it will take some time, but you CAN use Automap for VST(i) in Orion.

Hope this is helpfull to others.

CHEERS

[unknown_gods]

A special discovery for Orion Platinum / Novation Automap users

Automap VST wrapper UI, use it from version 3.4.1 to 4.x
http://forum.novationmusic.com/viewtopi ... =40&t=4211

You can also select each automaped VST mapping from "Mixer/Plugin-Mappings" preferences tab in 4.2 version

[michl]

@unknown_gods : can you record automation without ORION crashing with this hack?

[unknown_gods]

unfortunately crash is there, orion does not recognize automation on those special midi data, this is a bug or lack of feature.
Although each VST generator can change parameters and you can play and listen to your changes, you cannot record the events (automation is crashing the program).

For now I have to load a pre-setted new "simple" non automaped midiCC template for each VST I use for automation. In orion at generator settings you have to change automation from VST parameters to MidiCC. Automaped VSTs respond to those messages also the same way.
If you want to change back to automap just change the template, but remember the crash. Midi input for Orion is usually "...novation device...: port 1"
So.. Automap/Orion automation is not working for me at the time being

[El_Capitan]

~2 year later is there any status update?

Automap 4.6 is out now.. lots of bug fixes since this product was last addressed. What say you now?