The WING's knobs on a plugin

The FX page of the custom controls puts four parameters of the plugin you're on under the WING's four knobs. Which four is up to you: you program them once per plugin, and they're there in every session from then on. There are no ready-made maps - a plugin nobody programmed has nothing on its knobs. The one exception is an EQ with bands, which follows the band you touch.

The WING KNOBS strip#

Under the plugin in the CHANNEL view sits a strip tagged WING KNOBS. It's there when a plugin is selected and something drives the FX page - Wing control switched on in Setup > MIDI, or another controller mapped to the FX page.

12345

1. 1The plugin's own control
2. 2WING KNOBS and the bank: its name, 1/2
3. 3A knob: what it turns and the value now
4. 4Previous / next bank of four
5. 5LEARN: program the knobs

• Each knob shows a small dial, the label and the value - the same as the desk shows.
• The knob you're turning on the desk lights red here.
• The arrows step through the banks of four, like the < / > buttons on the desk's FX page.

Programming the knobs: LEARN#

Clicking a knob on the strip when you're not learning starts learning on that knob.

Banks#

• The right arrow past the last bank gives you a new, empty one (NEW 4/4). Banks are called BANK 1, BANK 2 ...; a plugin can have up to 16.
• Right-click a knob for a list: Knob 2 of bank 1, Nothing on this knob to empty it, then every parameter of the plugin you can put there. Parameters already on another knob say where ((bank 1, knob 3)).
• ... next to the arrows: Empty this bank or Empty every bank.

What can't go on a knob#

A parameter that changes the plugin's delay (lookahead, a linear-phase mode, oversampling) is refused: ... changes the plugin's delay - it can't go on a knob (turning it mid-show would put the channel out of time). In the right-click list such parameters are greyed.

Where it's kept#

The knobs are kept per plugin - the mono and stereo version of a plugin share them - in Wing knobs.xml in ~/Library/Application Support/Shadow Rack/. Program a compressor once and it's the same on every channel and in every session.

EQ band follow since 0.4#

For EQs with bands the knobs program themselves: the FX page follows the band you touch in the plugin's window.

• F6: a plain click on a band's point is enough.
• Pro-Q: the band is picked on the first movement of a drag - a click alone doesn't tell Shadow Rack anything.
• The bank shows the band: BAND 3, HPF, LPF. The arrows step through the bands in use, low to high by frequency; past the ends come your own banks, if you programmed any.
• If one of your own banks holds that band's frequency, your bank wins.
• With nothing touched yet, the knobs start on the lowest band.
• It doesn't react while LEARN is on, when several bands change at once (a preset, an undo), or when the change comes from the desk knob itself.

Right-click a band knob on the strip to start LEARN: programming happens on your own banks, the band banks stay automatic.

The big read-out#

While you turn an FX-page knob - on the desk or on a mapped controller - a small read-out appears over the top of the plugin, so you can read the value from the desk without leaning in to the screen.

It shows the knob and bank (WING KNOB 1 - MAIN), the parameter in big letters, the value in red and a bar for where it sits in its range. It stays for about a second after you stop and fades out; clicks go through it to the plugin.