Remote Controlling Triggers

As we mentioned before, some soft keys are known as triggers because pressing them causes an action to happen, as opposed to displaying a menu page. An example of this is shown in the

program Simple Sampler. <record>, <play>, and stop are all triggers.

To remote one of the triggers, press and hold the soft key for about a second. This will then bring up the remote control screen described above, allowing you to choose how you want to

control it. The flashing underbar indicates that this key is remotely controlled. If you change the mode to off on the "remote control" menu page, the underline will, of course, go away.

To change the "one second hold time," see Miscellaneous Setup Options on page 138.

MIDI GROUPS

The use of "MIDI groups" allows an alternative way to control the H8000FW from MIDI, with the minimum of setting up. A MIDI group is a numbered sequence of MIDI controllers, for example, 70,71,72 .. 77. When the H8000FW has been told to respond to this group, these controllers will correspond to the parameters on the H8000FW's screen. This allows a multi-controller such as the Peavey PC1600 to control the H8000FW with very little configuration required.

For example, referring to the parameter screen at the right, the MIDI group from 70-77 would give you the following results:

70: predelay

71:decay time

72:room size

73:diffusion

74:hi decay

75:hi freq

76:lo decay

77:lo freq

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Each parameter would be controlled over its full range - for example, in this preset lo freq has a minimum value of 10 (Hz) and a maximum value of 1000 (Hz). This means that the minimum MIDI value (0) would give you 10 (Hz) and the maximum MIDI value (127) would give you 1000 (Hz).

In this example, using a MIDI single controller, the resolution will be limited to the 128 steps offered by MIDI, meaning that the minimum change possible is (1000-10)/128 or about 8Hz. MIDI double controllers (numbered 0 to 31) will give better resolution.

If you then changed to a different screen, say

in the LEVELS area, the following would

70:A OUT1 Wet/Dry

71:A OUT2 Wet/Dry

72:A OUT3 Wet/Dry

73:A OUT4 Wet/Dry

74:A OUT5 Wet/Dry

75:A OUT6 Wet/Dry

76:A OUT7 Wet/Dry

77:A OUT8 Wet/Dry

The MIDI group will continue to control whichever screen is displayed. This looks useful: how do we set up such a MIDI group ? All will become clear ….

Configuring the MIDI Group

The last key in the SETUP/MIDI "stack" controls the MIDI group. This operates just like any of the H8000FW's other controller screens, with some added features:

The parameters on this screen cannot be controlled by way of the MIDI group. There's a reason for this. The controller number con is the first

controller number in the group. This is most usefully set up by MIDI capture.

See page 96 for more on MIDI capture.

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The group size is the number of controllers in the group. For example, in the screen at the right, the group is from 70 to 77. This is a useful location for the group, as these controllers are unassigned by the MIDI specification and not generally used.

The active con displays the number from 1 to group size of any member in the group that changes. This is useful as a way of checking that the group is set up correctly and is acting on received MIDI signals. It will display 0 as shown above if no group member has changed since power-up.

If operation is normal, the external controller will directly control the parameters on the current screen. This sounds right, but can cause problems when moving from screen to screen. For example, suppose you are using a faderbased controller like the Peavey 1600, and you push the fader all the way up to control, say, a vibrato depth. Then you switch to another screen where the same fader controls the master output level. The minute you touch the fader, the level will go way up, and the floor will be covered with bits of loudspeaker. This can be prevented by setting operation to sticky.

If operation is sticky, each member in the group can only be changed by moving the controller through its current position. The value will then

stick and respond to further movements of the controller. Looking at the top right of the screen, you will see a small horizontal thermometer. The arrow shows the direction to move the controller to pass through the current value, while the vertical bar is the position of the current value. Once the current value has been reached the thermometer will disappear and you will have full control.

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