Eight macros sit on the bar along the bottom of the canvas. One macro can turn many controls at once, each by its own amount, which makes it a single performance control for a whole sound. Your host can automate all eight.
Turning a macro
- Each macro on the bar is a small arc and a name. Drag it like a knob; its name shows the value while you turn it.
- Double-tap a macro to put it back to 0.
- What a macro drives moves at once: the knobs and bars it reaches show the movement, even before you play a key.
Cabling a macro
- Drag from a macro’s dot on the top edge of the bar onto a node and choose the control from the list.
- A new macro cable starts at +100 % and moves its control one way, up from where the control is set. Tap the cable to lower the amount or make it negative, so turning the macro up turns that control down.
- Cable one macro to as many controls as you like, stepped ones too: a filter type, a switch, an octave.
- A macro still called Macro 1 to 8 takes the name of the first control you cable it to. To rename the macros, tap the Macros label at the left of the bar, then tap it again to open their popup.
Seeing the macro cables
Macro cables are thin, dusty amber helper cables that sit back behind the patch. Tap the Macros label and they all light up with their amounts, and the nodes they reach stay at full strength.
Ideas
- Bright: cutoff up, a little drive up, reverb mix down.
- Space: reverb size and mix up, delay feedback up, with a negative cable taking the dry level down.
- Motion: an Oscillator’s rate and amount together, from still to busy.
- Morph: a wavetable’s Position, Akord’s Mood or Hääl’s Vowel, for a sound that changes character with one hand.
In a host
All eight macros are Audio Unit parameters. Your host can map them to a controller, record their moves and play them back, and the macros on the bar move along. Name them so they read well in the host’s lists. In a very small plugin window, Helin shows just the eight macros.
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