Granucon - Music Software - Virtual MIDI Sliders

> Software > Virtual MIDI Sliders

Table of contents

Intro and download

The features

How to setup Virtual MIDI Sliders

The windows

The toolbars

Keyboard shortcuts and MIDI remote control

« Intro and download

Virtual MIDI Sliders is a MIDI mixer/controller that can be configured freely and can act as a translation layer for a hardware controller box. Below is a screenshot of the main window which contains the 24 slider and the 24 buttons, only the first 16 are visible in this screenshot. For a full view of Virtual MIDI Sliders you can take a look at another (large) screenshot.

(Click for large view)

File

Size

Version

Licence

Virtual MIDI Sliders v1.0.0 Setup.zip

569 KB

v1.0.0

Freeware

Slider Settings Files:

File

Size

Description

Redsound Darkstar XP2

5 KB

A VMS settings file for the Redsound Darkstar XP2. Thanks to Colin Hall (www.artistnos.co.uk) for making it.

Whorld

5 KB

A VMS settings file for the program Whorld which lets your sliders control the creation of images. Thanks to Colin Hall (www.artistnos.co.uk) for making it.

« The features

Virtual MIDI Sliders has the following features:

	5 pages with 24 freely configurable sliders and buttons.
	The page selection can be automated by a MIDI controller.
	4 banks with 10 controller snapshots each.
	The controller snapshot actions can be automated by MIDI controllers.
	A MIDI keyboard with bank change and program change and a panic button.
	A vector controller.
	A morph slider which lets you morph between two controller values.
	A controller randomizer.
	Slider group mode.
	The 24 sliders on the screen can be automated with a hardware MIDI controller box which turns Virtual MIDI Sliders into a translation layer for MIDI controller data.
	Favorites menu for frequently used slider settings.
	Compact view which transform the program into a virtual label strip.

Profiles (also known as Slider Settings Files) for the following devices are included with the program:

Jomox AiR Base 99

Roland JV-1080

Yamaha FS1R

But of course any device that accepts MIDI controller data (e.g. hardware synthesizer, softsynth, VST plugin, digital mixer, FX processor, etc) can be controlled with Virtual MIDI Sliders because you can make your own profiles. If you have made a profile that is also useful for other people please send it to me so I can put it on this website.

Virtual MIDI Sliders has some useful features for Nord Modular (Micro and Engine) users. You can, for example, create a profile with all 120 sliders assigned to different MIDI controllers and then filter the unused sliders using a controller dump from the Modular or a Modular pch file (G1 only at the moment). This means that the program only shows the sliders that are assigned to controllers currently used in the Modular patch. So, if you always assign controller 20 to filter 2 cutoff and your current patch does not have a filter 2 module the slider assigned to controller 20 will not be visible (active).

[ filter unused sliders ]

Filter unused sliders

« How to setup Virtual MIDI Sliders

[ virtual midi sliders setup diagram ]

Virtual MIDI Sliders Setup Diagram

See the image above for an example of a possible setup with Virtual MIDI Sliders in conjunction with a hardware controller box and a sequencer or softsynth. To connect Virtual MIDI sliders to your sequencer or softsynth you need to install a virtual MIDI port on your system (also known as virtual MIDI cable or virtual MIDI router). There are a couple of free virtual MIDI ports available:

LoopBe1 from www.nerds.de

MIDI Yoke Junction from www.midiox.com

Maple Virtual MIDI Cable from marblesound

Hubi's MIDI LoopBack device from Hubert Winkler (win 3.x and 9x only)

There are also some commercial virtual MIDI port available:

MIDI Matrix from NTONYX

Virtual MIDI Router from Sony (free if you own ACID, Vegas, or Sound Forge)

For extra routing possibilities I recommend MidiTrix (freeware) from Hermann Seib.

« The windows

The MIDI Keyboard

Virtual MIDI Sliders also has a MIDI keyboard that can be played with the mouse. The bank and program selectors can be used to select different sounds on the connected synth. If notes get stuck you can use the panic button to silence all playing notes.

[ midi keyboard ]

MIDI Keyboard

The Snapshot Window

The values of all sliders and buttons can be saved as a controller snapshot. There are 4 banks with room for 10 controller snapshots each. Different banks can be saved to disk and loaded from disk.

[ snapshots ]

Snapshot Window

The Vector Controller

With the vector controller you can control 8 sliders with one mouse movement. 4 sliders are connected to the X-axis and 4 sliders are connected to the Y-axis.

[ vector controller ]

Vector Controller

The Morph Slider

With the morph slider you can morph between the sliders upper range and the lower range. Slider ranges can be setup with the menu items "Selection » Set Upper Range For Selected Sliders" and "Selection » Set Lower Range For Selected Sliders" which means that the current slider position is used to set the range boundaries.

[ morph slider ]

Morph Slider

« The toolbars

The Main Toolbar

The main toolbar can be used to create, open and save files, make MIDI settings, send and request MIDI data, randomize controller data and enable group mode. You can also show or hide the different windows, show information about the program and close the application.

Main Toolbar

The Snapshot Toolbar

The snapshot toolbar can be used for quick access to the snapshots. Hint: Click with the left mouse button on a snapshot button to rename a snapshot.

Snapshot Toolbar

The Pages Toolbar

With the pages toolbar you can switch between the 5 available slider pages. Every page has 24 sliders each with its own controller settings, so you can have a total of 120 different sliders. No matter which page is active the sliders always listen to the same remote controller values so when you have an external hardware controller box connected (on the remote input port) you can extend its number of knobs with virtual sliders. For example if you have a hardware controller with 24 sliders you can use Virtual MIDI Sliders to quickly switch between 5 different configurations.

Pages Toolbar

The Transport Toolbar

With the transport toolbar you can control the transport functions of a connected device (if that device supports MIDI controllers). For example a sequencer, a digital recorder, etc.

Transport Toolbar

« Keyboard shortcuts and MIDI remote control

A lot of the functions Virtual MIDI Sliders offers can be controlled by the computer keyboard and (more important) by MIDI controllers. In the table below all keyboard shortcut keys and MIDI controllers are listed so you can program you hardware controller box to control specific functions of Virtual MIDI Sliders. If you are using a hardware controller box that has fixed values for its knobs, buttons or sliders you can change the default controller values that Virtual MIDI sliders uses by editing the VMSliders.ini file which is located in the directory where the program is installed. Edits must be made in the following sections of the file: [Remote Settings] and [Transport Settings].

Function	Shortcut Key	Remote MIDI Controller
The File Menu
Initialize Slider Settings	Ctrl+N	-
Open Slider Settings	Ctrl+O	-
Save Slider Settings	Ctrl+S	-
Save Slider Settings As	Shift+Ctrl+S	-
Filter Unused Sliders Using Controller Dump	Ctrl+F	-
Filter Unused Sliders Using Nord Modular Patch File	Shift+Ctrl+F	-
The MIDI Menu
Send All Controllers	F6	-
Send All Controllers On Current Page	F7	-
Send Selected Controllers	F8	-
The Selection Menu
Select All	Ctrl+A	-
Deselect All	Ctrl+D	-
Select All On Current Page	Shift+A	-
Deselect All On Current Page	Shift+D	-
Enable Selected Sliders	Ctrl+E	-
Disable Selected Sliders	Ctrl+B	-
Set Upper Range For Selected Sliders	Ctrl+U	-
Set Lower Range For Selected Sliders	Ctrl+L	-
Clear Range For Selected Sliders	Ctrl+C	-
Group Selection	Ctrl+G	-
Randomize Selection	F9	-
Setup Randomize Factor	Ctrl+R	-
The Pages Menu
Load Page 1	F1	65
Load Page 2	F2	66
Load Page 3	F3	67
Load Page 4	F4	68
Load Page 5	F5	69
The Snapshots Menu
Take Snapshot	Ctrl+T	72
Snapshot 0	Ctrl+0	73
Snapshot 1	Ctrl+1	74
Snapshot 2	Ctrl+2	75
Snapshot 3	Ctrl+3	76
Snapshot 4	Ctrl+4	77
Snapshot 5	Ctrl+5	78
Snapshot 6	Ctrl+6	79
Snapshot 7	Ctrl+7	80
Snapshot 8	Ctrl+8	81
Snapshot 9	Ctrl+9	82
Transport Controls
Play	-	83
Stop	-	84
Record	-	85
Pause	-	86
The View Menu
Vector Controller	Ctrl+V	-
Morph Slider	Ctrl+M	-
MIDI Keyboard	Ctrl+K	-
Snapshot List	Ctrl+I	-
Compact View	Ctrl+P	70
General
Minimize / Restore Window	-	71
Sliders
Slider Controller 1	-	1
Slider Controller 2	-	2
Slider Controller 3	-	3
Slider Controller 4	-	4
Slider Controller 5	-	5
Slider Controller 6	-	6
Slider Controller 7	-	7
Slider Controller 8	-	8
Slider Controller 9	-	9
Slider Controller 10	-	10
Slider Controller 11	-	11
Slider Controller 12	-	12
Slider Controller 13	-	13
Slider Controller 14	-	14
Slider Controller 15	-	15
Slider Controller 16	-	16
Slider Controller 17	-	17
Slider Controller 18	-	18
Slider Controller 19	-	19
Slider Controller 20	-	20
Slider Controller 21	-	21
Slider Controller 22	-	22
Slider Controller 23	-	23
Slider Controller 24	-	24
Buttons
Button Controller 1	-	41
Button Controller 2	-	42
Button Controller 3	-	43
Button Controller 4	-	44
Button Controller 5	-	45
Button Controller 6	-	46
Button Controller 7	-	47
Button Controller 8	-	48
Button Controller 9	-	49
Button Controller 10	-	50
Button Controller 11	-	51
Button Controller 12	-	52
Button Controller 13	-	53
Button Controller 14	-	54
Button Controller 15	-	55
Button Controller 16	-	56
Button Controller 17	-	57
Button Controller 18	-	58
Button Controller 19	-	59
Button Controller 20	-	60
Button Controller 21	-	61
Button Controller 22	-	62
Button Controller 23	-	63
Button Controller 24	-	64

Keyboard shortcuts and MIDI remote control table