VCA and Folder Actions - FunkybotsEvilTwin/CSIWiki GitHub Wiki
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 Associated 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 "Buttons"
Pan GoAssociatedZone VCA
ZoneEnd
TrackToggleVCASpill, TrackVCALeaderDisplay
When the VCA AssociatedZone 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
So if I have "Drums VCA" fader with all my drum tracks, entering VCA Mode (by pressing the Pan button like in the above example) will show me only the VCA tracks, then Select on the Drum VCA will show me all the drum tracks controlled by that particular VCA fader. To hide those tracks, I'd simply press Select on the Drum VCA again. To exit VCA mode, I'd simply GoHome.
You can also spill multiple levels of VCAs! Example: if your VCA drum group, had another subset of VCAs for Kick, Snare, and ambient mics - you could spill the drums, then subsequently spill out one of the sub-VCAs.
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 Associated 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 "Buttons"
EQ GoAssociatedZone Folder
ZoneEnd
TrackToggleFolderSpill, TrackFolderParentDisplay
When the Folder AssociatedZone 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