When editing sounds, one of the slightly arduous tasks is scrolling back and forth in the parameter page list. I have set up softkeys S3 and S4 to go to the previous and next item in the list, which helps when moving between adjacent pages, but what I’d really like would be a feature where one could map a set of, say, CC’s, so that the UI would jump to a specific page when a given plugin or chain is active on the screen. Then one could an external MIDI device with buttons on it, emitting CC’s when they are pressed, to quickly jump between the pages.
I don’t think such a thing exists. I know it’s possible to set up a number of jumps to various menus and pages when external events are received, but I don’t think this particular case is covered.
I can of course go ahead and write a feature request, but I think the topic warrants some discussion first.
For instance, to be general enough, the feature could simply enable page n to be reached when CC value n is received, so as not to tie it to a specific plugin.
I quite like the idea of being able to jump to the page showing the parameter that has a CC binding when that CV is adjusted but if some CC are sequenced it could cause the display to bounce between pages. Also, the CC may be mapped to several parameters and a parameter may appear on several pages. There are quite a few considerations to do.
That’s an interesting thought, I was actually not thinking of that, what I meant was that when a given CC received, that itself would cause a jump to a specific page. So, say that I’ve configured CC 80 as the ‘page’ CC, then upon receiving CC 80 0 the first page in the currently displayed chain would be brought up, for editing on Zynthian, if CC 80 1 was received, the second page would be shown. No connection between the CC’s for parameter page selection and the parameters themselves.
One could also imagine separate CC values triggering each page, which might make it more flexible in terms of how to set up a controlling device, e.g. upon receiving CC 80 it jumps to the first page, CC 81 to the next, etc.
Think of a small device with 16 buttons alongside Zynthian, when a button is pressed, it goes to the relevant page. The screen and knobs on Zynthian are still used for the editing, the buttons are just for the shortcuts.
This is similar to the way many synths with parameter pages work, such as the Matrix-12, Hydrasynth or even the DX7 (allthough it only has one parameter per page) - I could mention the MiMi-a too, but since I’m the only one with experience with that one it’s hardly a relevant example.
On a V5 one could fathomably imagine a special edit mode for the 4x4 button matrix where all or some of the buttons could be mapped in this way, directly on the device.
IMHO, this should be implemented as CUIA.
Then leave ctrldev driver implementations to map optimizing the workflow for each MIDI controller.
Generic CCs are used for MIDI-learning engine parameters and shouldn’t be mixed with UI navigation. We have ctrldev drivers for UI navigation and optimized/specific workflows.