When creating control panels, it is common to have many controls represented on the panel. This can be time consuming to create if you have lots of customization to the appearance of the controls. Duplicate Special is a tool that allows the programmer to rapidly copy controls and remap them to different parameters, processing objects or devices. This document covers two different examples of using Duplicate Special to create custom panels quickly.

Example 1 - Mixer

This example shows how to create a panel for a 12-channel mixer.

Start by opening the mixer default panel and converting it to custom. Do this by right clicking on the title bar and choosing Convert to Custom.

On the custom panel, select the edit box for the gain, the fader, mute button and channel signal name. Do this by holding SHIFT while left clicking on the controls.

Next copy the controls using Ctrl+C and paste them to a new custom panel using CTRL+V.

The size and appearance can now be changed by modifying the properties.

** TIP ** You can find additional images for faders, buttons and LED’s under the Libraries\Pictures\Harman Pro folder.

Once everything looks correct for the first channel strip of the mixer, we are ready to create 11 more channels.

This is where Duplicate special comes in handy.

Look in the Venue Explorer. Drill down and expand the mixer.

The parameter number for each control increments by 100 for every channel on the mixer.

To make it easy to read, turn off Display Addresses in Hex in the Application Options of Audio Architect.

Start at the top with the edit box for the gain. Right click on the edit box and choose Duplicate special.

Select Row as the type and 11 controls with 6 spaces between each control. In the Parameter Assignment section of the window, set the type to Parameter and increment a value of 100 for each control.

Clicking OK will generate the controls for the other 11 channels each with the correct parameter offset.

To create the remaining controls for the mixer, just repeat the Duplicate special function for each remaining control in the mixer channel strip.

When finished you will have a complete 12 channel mixer.

Example 2 - Matrix Router

In this example, the user panel needs to control a 12x8 matrix router.

In the Venue Explorer, drill down into the Matrix Mixer and look in the Output 1 folder. Copy the first control, Input 1 On/Off [0], into the top left corner of a custom control panel by dragging that cross point over from the venue explorer. Choose button on/off as the control type to create into the panel.

This gives a single on/off button.

Edit the visual properties of the button for the desired look.

You could do this for every output to create the first column, but an easier way is to use Duplicate Special.

In the Venue Explorer you can see that in the matrix router each output parameter increments by exactly 128

Select Column as the type and 7 controls with 6 spaces between each control. In the Parameter Assignment section of the window, set the type to Parameter and incriment a value of 128 for each control.

Now the first column is complete.

Because each input increments by one on every out, Duplicate Special can be used again to fill in the additional inputs for each output.

Repeat this procedure eight times starting on the next row down each time and you will end up with 96 cross points.

Creating twelve input labels and eight output labels seems like a lot of work. Duplicate Special can help here too. The input signals were already named in the Properties of the input cards. This signal name will follow through to the input of the Matrix Mixer. This name can be accessed through the Venue Explorer by selecting the Signal Name parameter.

Drag over the Signal Name parameter [55000] to the custom control panel from the venue explorer and drop it above the first column. Select Text Display as the type and edit the properties to make it easier to read.

Use Duplicate Special as described above to create 11 more labels for the inputs.

Repeat the procedure for the output labels by using the Naming Override parameter for each output. Notice each parameter increments by two for every output. Choose text box when
dragging over the Naming Override parameter to the custom control panel.

The output labels on this panel will now pull their information from the output labels used in the Matrix Mixer Properties.

There you have it a panel with 96 state variables and labels done in minutes. As you can see, duplicate special can be a time saver.

This can also reduce the potential for errors by reducing the number of steps needed to produce a custom panel.