Paul Neyrinck has done it! He has released a new version of V-Control Pro that has initial support for Pro Control Main, Pro Control Faderpack, and Control 24 that only currently works with Pro Tools. Read the rest of the article for more details.

Neyrinck are still working on important features but many users have been asking for a release so they have made it available. There are two options for purchasing a V-Control Pro license:

1. Annual license
2. Full license

These features are still being developed:

1. Plug-in editing.
2. Support for DAWs other than Pro Tools.
3. Investigating ways to improve track automation mode selection.
4. Pro Control Edit Pack.
5. Investigating optional ways to indicate pan automatically in the scribble strip.

During beta testing, there were two questions that were asked a few times:

1. When using Pro Tools, Pro Control is showing 4-character track names, why not 8? I don't want to rename all my tracks.
2. When using Pro Tools, why does Pro Control show the track name on both scribble strip rows? That seems silly. Just show the pan numerical on the top row.

It is important to understand that Pro Tools only supports the HUI protocol for third-party surfaces, so what Neyrinck have done is to use V-Control Pro to turn Pro Control into a HUI surface. Paul explains...

The HUI protocol is very good. For example, it provides .1 dB fader resolution if the faders are capable (HUI hardware was not capable but Pro Control is). But the HUI protocol has a few limitations because it was designed for HUI hardware that has one row of 4-character scribble strips that display many different types of information. After talking to some pros about the trade-offs, we implemented it so that by default both rows show the track names. The lower row shows dB level when you touch the fader, You can change the Display Mode button to show only the dB level or the track name and dB level. The top row is best served to always show the scribble values so that you can see all the info provided by Pro Tools for tracks such as pan numerics, auto mode, pre/post, input assignments, send assignments, etc.

Be aware that Pro Tools uses intelligent track name shortening to indicate the track name even using just 4 characters. The good news is that this Pro Tools feature should mean you won't need to rename tracks in your existing sessions. Paul adds...

I understand that 8 is better, but I am sorry it is not possible with Pro Tools. Other DAWs such as Logic X, Cubase, and Nuendo will not have this limitation.

Thank you again for all the messages of support and encouragement. If you have any ideas and feedback I hope to hear from you soon. And I hope V-Control Pro lets you get your hands back on your faders!