The Linear Canvas

I bought my PreSonus FaderPort about two years ago. It is a USB controller for use with digital audio workstation (DAW) software like Sonar, Cubase, or Pro Tools. I am generally satisfied with it. It works mostly as advertised.

I recently reinstalled my Cakewalk Sonar v8.5 Producer on a different computer. Initially I had trouble getting the FaderPort to show up in the Controller/Surface list. But copying the correct 32 or 64 bit FaderPort.dll file to the proper Shared Surfaces folder in the Programs Files/Cakewalk folder, then registering the file with REGSVR32, does the trick. But that was the easy part. I couldn’t remember how to program the key mappings for my life.

One of the main selling points of the FaderPort was that five of its keys could be customized to the user’s needs. These Custom Key Mappings were prominent in the ad for the device, but nothing on the web site mentioned the mappings at all. And if it was in the manual, I couldn’t find it. I searched everywhere for an hour, trying to remind myself how I’d accomplished it last time, two years ago.

I decided to just play around with the controller options in Sonar. I finally looked at the Controller/Surfaces toolbar and then I remembered there was a properties button on it. I pressed the button and there were the key map settings I had spent way too much time looking for.

If I were going to change the FaderPort in any way, besides mentioning the properties page that the installation includes with the FaderPort driver in the manual, it would to be able to switch to Track View using one of the customizable buttons. For whatever reason that option has been left out of the key mapping list, while a plethora of other useless objects were included. There are even mappings for other views. Including a mapping for the console view which already is a permanent map on another key.

I wrote PreSonus and told them that once, and I got no response. It was probably because I use the FaderPort on Sonar instead of their DAW software, Studio One. That’s OK. I am just glad it works as well as it does. Next time at least I can find the answer to this problem on my own web site. Too bad PreSonus doesn’t have it on theirs.