Roto Control (MIDI controller by Melbourne Instruments)

[Azzarole]

@neitherdrizzlenorrain

The haptic feedback is awesome.

I agree that this is also a plus. I really like how this feels on my Nina and can only imagine how thankful I would be for that feedback when using it on a dark stage.

[tha_man]

Very interesting device, not cheap, but not terribly expensive either, considering those motors. Ableton looks more and more interesting because of controllers like this one and latest LK with it’s sequencer integration.

But motorized knobs could still be useful for controlling hardware, even without CC feedback. If you use it for controlling multiple devices, knobs will remember positions as you switch between them, just like encoders.

[Writetomichael]

Overall I love it. I do find that the motor catches the knob occasionally, especially when I’m making lots of individual small movements in a short amount of time.

It’s not quite as accurate (I.e. occasionally gets lost) when constantly twiddling as a non-motorised knob is.

Is anyone else finding that?

[SteveElbows]

@tha_man

But motorized knobs could still be useful for controlling hardware, even without CC feedback. If you use it for controlling multiple devices, knobs will remember positions as you switch between them, just like encoders.

It wasnt a totally safe assumption that it would work that way when switching between different MIDI presets on the Roto-Control (as opposed to just flipping between different pages of the same MIDI preset), but thankfully the way they have implemented that functionality so far, it does.

[Honeysmack]

Simple setup mapping track volume and mutes on the OT

[presteign]

@Azzarole

I don’t mind that it doesn’t auto map Ableton plugins. In fact, I prefer to think about what I’d like to control and then map that myself. In my experience, that makes it a lot easier to understand and learn. I’d hate it if it always dumped all of the parameters onto several pages by default, as I’d also try to stick with one page.

Agreed that a simple parameter dump is not ideal, but I would also expect that a lot of users will be setting up very similar mappings, and thus there’s probably some degree of out-of-the-box defaults that could be useful.

Now I wouldn’t expect a boutique operation like Melbourne Instruments to have the bandwidth to go and create default mappings for hundreds of plugins, but given that end users will be creating these templates, and many of those templates will be useful for more than just the individual that created them, maybe there’s room for some kind of streamlined sharing facility.

Just to spitball a UX idea: Imagine you load up the setup app while Ableton Live is running, focus a plugin in Live, and Roto Control lights up a little Melbourne Cloud icon or something that shows “5 user templates found for Serum” and you can instantly download them, try them out, and set one as your regular Serum template (or edit it and maybe even upload it yourself).

[tdwash]

I didn’t see it documented anywhere so I asked MI support, and apparently the Roto stores 64 plugin setups. That’s plenty, but more would be ideal considering these setups are also shared with stock Ableton devices. Either way, I’m happy with my purchase.

[beeone]

I have a simple quesyion to users, is it possible to map the knobs to let say an external midi synth and the buttons to ableton’s track mute buttons on the same page ?

[josker]

I think you could achieve this using Ableton’s MIDI mapping functions. That is, have the buttons send some specific CC message, and then MIDI map that (Command-M or Ctrl-M in Ableton) to the track mute button in Ableton. So it’s not actually specific to Roto-Control’s Ableton mode, but rather just uses MIDI.

[beeone]

Ok
Thank you
I will have to investigate that

[Obelisk]

Exactly this. The midi mode of roto-control makes it work more like a regular midi controller and each preset can have its set of knobs and buttons send on any combination of midi channels.

[josker]

@Writetomichael

Reported

I got word that they’ve made progress with this

[huwfeesey]

Mind if I ask how you’re controlling Ableton with the Hapax? Over USB I assume, are you clocking the Hapax externally?

I’ve tried this a lot but have always ran into latency issues, given up trying now!

[Azzarole]

I don’t own a Hapax and have no info on that. I just assumed it would be good to control a DAW with it.

[tdmusic]

Apologies for the lazy Q I could probably answer by watching a video or reading the docs, but is it possible to name the pages and press a button to see all page names? Like how on Push the banks have names like “Filter”, “Envelope” etc.

[neitherdrizzlenorrain]

no.

[tdmusic]

Oh, that’s a shame! I’ll send them a feature request maybe

[Muu]

I’m trying to use G-Force plugins with the roto and I absolutely cannot change patches without it completely crashing ableton.

[Writetomichael]

@Writetomichael

I do find that the motor catches the knob occasionally, especially when I’m making lots of individual small movements in a short amount of time.

It’s not quite as accurate (I.e. occasionally gets lost) when constantly twiddling as a non-motorised knob is.

Is nobody else experiencing this?? Could be that I have a dodgy unit if not

[neitherdrizzlenorrain]

Sometimes I get strange motoric feedback, maybe you mean this. also if I quickly change pages, sometimes it overwrites some parameters unintentionally.