Following on with the success of bringing old Digidesign control surfaces back from the dead with the aid of V-Control Pro from Neyrinck, they have now turned their attention to the Faderport from PreSonus, which does already work with Pro Tools, but has a limited feature set with Avid’s DAW. With the latest version of V-Control Pro, Neyrinck claims that they have supercharged the Faderport with Pro Tools. We investigate…

What PreSonus Faderport Can Do In Pro Tools Mode

• By default, the FaderPort will be in its native Studio One mode. To switch to Pro Tools mode, you need to press and hold the NEXT button while powering on your FaderPort, then press the Touch button to enable Pro Tools (HUI) operation.

• Once configured in Pro Tools, Faderport in Pro Tools Mode can do the following…

  • In the Channel Strip section, most of the buttons like Arm, Mute, Solo and Fader all do what you would expect. However the Bypass / Bypass All doesn’t do anything in Pro Tools mode.

  • Moving onto the Transport section, all the buttons do what you would expect them to do in Pro Tools Mode. The Automation Controls let you select the track automation mode, but provide no visual feedback

  • When it comes to the Session Navigator there are several buttons that do not do anything in Pro Tools mode. These include the Link, Master and Section buttons and the Marker mode only uses markers 1 to 9. All the rest are not accessible.

Other things that the PreSonus Faderport doesn’t do in Pro Tools Mode include…

• It does not integrate with Avid Control. Focusing must be done from the FaderPort, which means a lot of scrolling around. In Pro Tools mode, the Faderport operates as one HUI bank of 8 tracks. If you use Avid Control to select a track outside that bank of 8, the Faderport is no longer focused but unfortunately it doesn’t provide any visual feedback of this. In fact, it will continue to control the previous track it was focused on. All of this means you cannot be sure what the Faderport is controlling if you are also using the free Avid Control app with the Faderport in the Pro Tools mode.

• The Faderport does not give any automation mode or status feedback. You can set the Auto Mode for a track, but you have to check the computer screen to see which Auto Mode you are in. When using Touch or Latch modes, you don’t see any indication of when writing is engaged and disengaged.

• The Faderport doesn’t offer control over your Send Level, Mute, Pre/Post, and Pan.

• Although you can create a Memory Location or Marker, the Faderport does not offer a Dialog Cancel/OK when you create a Memory Location. You have to hit Cancel or OK from somewhere else to be able to move on.

• Pressing the Solo Clear button on the Faderport only clears any enabled Solo buttons on the current HUI bank of 8 tracks. It won’t clear any enabled Solo buttons outside the HUI back of 8 channels.

• The fader calibration marks on the Faderport do not match what is happening in Pro Tools.

What You Can Do With A Faderport In Conjunction With V-Control Pro

These were some of the challenges that Neyrinck set out to resolve to be able to ‘supercharge’ the Faderport with V-Control Pro when used with Pro Tools.

The key difference is you no longer use the Faderport in Pro Tools mode, you run it in its Studio One mode and V-Control Pro does the translation. This enables the Faderport to play nicely with both the free Avid Control app and the Slate Raven control surface.

Let’s look at what new features are added by using V-Control Pro from Neyrinck…

• Fast Focus / ReFocus 00:46 - Instead of operating as one HUI bank of 8 tracks, with V-Control Pro, Faderport now functions as up to 4 HUI banks of 8, giving a 32 track ‘window’. Now when you select a track with a mouse or Avid Control with V-Control Pro, the FaderPort automatically focuses on it. It will instantly focus if the track is in the current thirty-two track window. If outside the window, the Channel button immediately starts blinking to indicate it has lost focus. Simply tap the blinking button and the Faderport will automatically ReFocus. Now you can select any track at any time for a focused FaderPort.

• Slate Raven Integration 01:44 - As well as integration with the free Avid Control app, V-Control Pro also brings Slate Raven Integration to the Faderport. Select any track with Raven and the Faderport will automatically focus so you can grab a fader when you need to.

• Pro Automation 01:49 - Now using V-Control Pro with your Faderport you get the missing automation status feedback. You can select and see the automation modes: Off, Read, Write, Touch, Latch, Trim and more importantly you can see the status on the Faderport. The red buttons will blink to indicate when automation is armed. When you touch the fader and engage Write Mode, the red buttons light solid. When using Touch Mode writing is instantly disengaged when you release the fader.

• Sends Control With Fader Flip 02:22 - V-Control Pro adds sends control with Flip Mode. Tap the Link, Master, Click, or Section buttons to select Send A, B, C, or D. The rotary encoder now adjusts the respective send level. Pushing the encoder toggles the send between pre-fader and post-fader. The bypass button enables you to change to Flip mode. In Flip Mode, the fader controls the send level, the mute button controls send mute and the encoder controls send pan for stereo sends.

• Volume and Pan Reset 02:52 - Without V-Control Pro, you cannot use the FaderPort to reset Volume and Pan for a track. With V-Control Pro, you can press the Shift button and tap the fader to reset it to 0 dB. To reset the pan to the centre position, press Shift and push the encoder. It also works in Send Flip Mode too.

• All Solo Clear 03:03 - When it comes to Solo Clear, with V-Control Pro, the Faderport will clear all solos used across the entire session.

• Dialog Cancel/OK 03:11 - Using V-Control Pro with the Faderport control surface, now detects when Pro Tools is displaying a dialog button that needs you to click Cancel or OK. This switches the Faderport to a mode, in which the Prev and Next buttons blink and operate as Cancel / OK buttons. This is incredibly handy when creating memory locations and other situations.

• Accurate Fader Marks 03:22 - V-Control Pro remaps the FaderPort’s control messages so that the scale on the Faderport fader matches the scale on the Pro Tools Faders.

• Set Up Faderport 03:36 - The last section of the video covers how to set up the Faderport. Make sure that the Faderport is set in the native Studio One mode and not in the HUI/Pro Tools mode. Also, make sure you set up all the V-Control Pro fast virtual MIDI ports in the Pro Tools MIDI Input Enable window and then use the same virtual MIDI Ports in HUI mode in the Pro Tools Peripherals window.

Does V-Control Pro Support the Other PreSonus Faderport Control Surfaces?

FaderPort V2 is the first surface to be supercharged using V-Control Pro from Neyrinck. Paul has told us that they are looking at FaderPort V1, Faderport 8/16, and other HUI surfaces that could be supercharged. Paul asks that if this interests you, to join their Facebook V-Control Pro Users Group and let them know what other ‘supercharged’ surfaces you would like to see supported with V-Control Pro.

How To Get V-Control Pro from Neyrinck

You can get V-Control Pro from Neyrinck either as a perpetual license (on sale for $199) or as an annual subscription ($49.99) - you choose. Neyrinck uses iLok licensing, which can be activated on a machine or a USB key. Click on the button below.

What We Think About The Neyrinck V-Control Pro And PreSonus Faderport Combo

Yet again the very clever people at Neyrinck have developed a solution that turns, what was already a very useful single fader control surface in the PreSonus Faderport, into an incredibly versatile solution.

Add that to how well the Faderport now integrates with the free Avid Control app and the Slate Raven, enabling you to get the missing tactile feedback from either device and then to be able to control a real fader of your choice with the single fader in the Faderport.

Just imagine what you could do with the Faderport 8 or Faderport 16. We can’t wait to see these cost-effective control surfaces being given the Neyrinck ‘supercharging’ experience. If you agree, we recommend that you join their Facebook V-Control Pro Users Group and let them know, that you would like this too.