VCA and Folder Actions - FunkybotsEvilTwin/CSIUserGuide GitHub Wiki

CSI allows for controlling and navigating Folder and VCA tracks from your surface. Both workflows are designed to simplify navigation for large projects by focusing on hierarchical relationships within your tracks.

Folders

If you prefer to work with Reaper's Folder tracks, which have the advantage of passing audio and acting as a bus for further processing, then CSI offers a Folder mode.

How to Activate a Folder Zone

The process is basically: 1) press a button you've assigned on your surface to activate the Folder Zone, where your surface will only show Folder tracks, then 2) press another button to "spill" (expand) the tracks feeding a particular Folder out to the rest of the surface.

Zone Home
    Pan    GoZone Folder

TrackToggleFolderSpill, TrackFolderParentDisplay

When the Folder Zone is active, only Folder "Parent" tracks in Reaper will be visible on your surface. In the example below, the DisplayLower widgets will show the name of the Folder Parent via the TrackFolderParentDisplay action. If you want to spill the Folder Parent to see the Child tracks, you'd press the Channel Select buttons which are assigned to the TrackToggleFolderSpill action.

Zone Folder
    OnZoneActivation          SetXTouchDisplayColors Yellow
    OnZoneDeactivation        RestoreXTouchDisplayColors
    
    DisplayUpper|               TrackNameDisplay
    Fader|Touch+DisplayLower|   TrackVolumeDisplay
    DisplayLower|               TrackFolderParentDisplay
    Shift+DisplayLower|         TrackAutoModeDisplay
    Toggle+DisplayLower|        TrackPanAutoLeftDisplay
    Alt+DisplayLower|           TrackInputMonitorDisplay
    VUMeter|                    TrackOutputMeterMaxPeakLR
    Fader|                      TrackVolume 
    Flip+Fader|                 TrackPan 
    Rotary|                     NoAction
    Toggle+Rotary|              TrackPanAutoLeft
    RotaryPush|                 ToggleChannel
    Shift+RotaryPush|           TrackPan [ 0.5 ]
    Option+RotaryPush|          TrackPanWidth [ 1.0 ]
    Alt+RotaryPush|             CycleTrackInputMonitor
    RecordArm|                  TrackRecordArm
    Shift+RecordArm|            CycleTrackAutoMode
    Solo|                       TrackSolo
    Mute|                       TrackMute
    Select|                     TrackToggleFolderSpill
    Shift+Select|               TrackRangeSelect
    Control+Select|             TrackSelect
    BankLeft                    Bank Folder -8
    BankRight                   Bank Folder 8
    ChannelLeft                 Bank Folder -1
    ChannelRight                Bank Folder 1
ZoneEnd

Folder Navigation in CSI

Folder navigation allows you to easily organize and access tracks by navigating through folder hierarchies on your surface. Assuming your TrackToggleFolderSpill action is assigned to the Select button in your folder zone, here's how it works:

  1. Activate the Folder Zone

    • Activating the Folder Zone on your surface displays all top-level folder parent tracks.

  2. Accessing Child Tracks

    • Press the Select button on a folder parent track
    • Example: Press Select on the "Drum Bus" folder track.
    • Result: The parent folder track (e.g., "Drum Bus") will appear on the left, and its child tracks will be displayed on the right. All other tracks outside this folder will be hidden.

  3. Navigating Sub-Folders

    • Sub-folders within a folder will appear to the right of the parent track.
    • Example: Within the "Drum Bus" folder, you have a "Kick Bus" sub-folder containing "Kick In" and "Kick Out" tracks.
    • To view these child tracks, press Select on the sub-folder (e.g., "Kick Bus").
    • Result: The sub-folder's parent track (e.g., "Kick Bus") will appear on the left, and its child tracks (e.g., "Kick In" and "Kick Out") will appear on the right. All other tracks outside of this sub-folder will be hidden.

  4. Navigating Backwards

    • To move back up the folder hierarchy, press Select on the parent track shown to the left.
    • Example: Press Select on the "Kick Bus" parent track.
    • Result: You will navigate back to the "Drum Bus" folder level.

  5. Returning to Top-Level Folders

    • To return to viewing only the top-level folder tracks, press Select again on the parent folder track (e.g., "Drum Bus").
    • Result: The view now shows only the top-level folder tracks.

  6. To Deactivate the Folder Zone

    • To return to return home you can either press the button assigned to GoZone Folder again (this toggles it off) or GoHome

Folder navigation helps keep your track organization clear and ensures only the relevant tracks for your current workflow are visible.

VCA's

CSI offers the ability to spill VCA's onto your multi-fader surfaces. We won't get into how to create VCA's in Reaper other than to say there are plenty of videos and other resources on that topic like this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZzR7-KSQMU&t

What is VCA spill?

One common mixing workflow involves creating multiple VCA faders to control the levels of entire groups of tracks. For instance, you may have VCA faders for each of your orchestral sections, or maybe one for drums, another for bass tracks, another for guitars, lead vocals, background vocals, etc. VCA's can be a great way to manage projects with large track counts and simplify mixing by minimizing the visible number of channels on your control surface.

But let's say you're mixing using VCA's and you've got your Drum VCA but you still want to tweak the relative levels of the kick and snare drums, how do you quickly make those tweaks? You can use the VCA Spill feature of CSI to "spill out" the tracks feeding that VCA to the other channels on the surface, similar to opening and closing a folder.

How to Activate a VCA Zone

The process is basically: 1) press a button you've assigned on your surface to activate the VCA Go Zone, where your surface will only show VCA tracks, then 2) press another button to "spill" (expand) the tracks feeding a particular VCA fader out to the rest of the surface.

Zone Home
    Global+Pan    GoZone VCA

TrackToggleVCASpill, TrackVCALeaderDisplay

When the VCA Zone is active, only VCA Leader tracks in Reaper will be visible on your surface. In the example below, the DisplayLower widgets will show the name of the VCA Leader via the TrackVCALeaderDisplay action. If you want to spill the VCA Leader to see the Follower tracks, you'd press the Channel Select buttons which are assigned to the TrackToggleVCASpill action.

Zone VCA
    OnZoneActivation          SetXTouchDisplayColors Cyan
    OnZoneDeactivation        RestoreXTouchDisplayColors
    
    DisplayUpper|             TrackNameDisplay
    Touch+DisplayLower|       TrackVolumeDisplay
    DisplayLower|             TrackVCALeaderDisplay
    Shift+DisplayLower|       TrackAutoModeDisplay
    Toggle+DisplayLower|      TrackPanAutoLeftDisplay
    Alt+DisplayLower|         TrackInputMonitorDisplay
    VUMeter|                  TrackOutputMeterMaxPeakLR
    Fader|                    TrackVolume 
    Flip+Fader|               TrackPan 
    Rotary|                   NoAction
    Toggle+Rotary|            TrackPanAutoLeft
    RotaryPush|               ToggleChannel
    Shift+RotaryPush|         TrackPan [ 0.5 ]
    Option+RotaryPush|        TrackPanWidth [ 1.0 ]
    Alt+RotaryPush|           CycleTrackInputMonitor
    RecordArm|                TrackRecordArm
    Shift+RecordArm|          CycleTrackAutoMode
    Solo|                     TrackSolo
    Mute|                     TrackMute
    Select|                   TrackToggleVCASpill
    Shift+Select|             TrackRangeSelect
    Control+Select|           TrackSelect
    
    BankLeft                  Bank VCA -8
    BankRight                 Bank VCA 8
    ChannelLeft               Bank VCA -1
    ChannelRight              Bank VCA 1
ZoneEnd

VCA Navigation in CSI

VCA navigation allows you to easily organize and access tracks by navigating through VCA hierarchies on your surface. Assuming your 'TrackToggleVCASpill' action is mapped to the Select button, here's how it works:

  1. Activate the VCA Zone

    • Activating the VCA Zone on your surface displays all top-level VCA parent tracks.

  2. Accessing Child Tracks

    • Select a VCA parent track by pressing the Select button on your surface.
    • Example: Press Select on the "Drums" VCA track.
    • Result: The parent VCA track (e.g., "Drums") will appear on the left, and its child tracks will be displayed on the right. All other tracks outside this VCA group will be hidden.

  3. Navigating Sub-VCAs

    • Sub-VCAs within a VCA will appear to the right of the parent track.
    • Example: Within the "Drum Bus" VCA, you have a "Tom VCA" sub-VCA controlling the "Tom Floor", "Tom Mid", and "Tom Hi" channels.
    • To view these child tracks, press Select on the sub-VCA (e.g., "Tom VCA").
    • Result: The sub-VCA's parent track (e.g., "Tom VCA") will appear on the left, and its child tracks (e.g., "Tom Floor", "Tom Mid", and "Tom Hi") will appear on the right. All other tracks outside of this sub-VCA will be hidden.

  4. Navigating Backwards

    • To move back up the VCA hierarchy, press Select on the parent track shown to the left.
    • Example: Press Select on the "Tom VCA" parent track.
    • Result: You will navigate back to the "Drums" VCA level.

  5. Returning to Top-Level VCAs

    • To return to viewing only the top-level VCA tracks, press Select again on the parent VCA track (e.g., "Drums").
    • Result: The view now shows only the top-level VCA tracks.

  6. To Deactivate the VCA Zone

    • To return to return home you can either press the button assigned to GoZone VCA again (this toggles it off) or GoHome

VCA navigation helps keep your track organization clear and ensures only the relevant tracks for your current workflow are visible.