Before things get lost in the mists of time
Just things not in the manual
Hidden modes and calibration
After installing Houston there is one important thing that you must do. Houston’s faders are touch sensitive and the calibration of the touch sensitivity in important for correct operation.
Switch Houston OFF and hold down the ‘SEND MASTERS’ and ‘EQ1’ buttons.
Now Turn Houston ON and release the buttons - the unit will now perform its position and touch sensitivity calibration on all faders.
While this is in progress DO NOT touch the faders or the calibration results will be wrong. It is also a good idea to stand well back, while the faders are calibrated. It may sound dramatic, but does give the best results.
Once calibrated the unit retains these values, and this process only need be performed if the Houston is moved to a new environment, or there is a huge change is air humidity where the Houston is used. For instance, you should perform this calibration again if the table the Houston sits on is changed from a metal to a wooden one.
There is another ‘soak test’ which is available by holding down ‘Send Masters’ and ‘FX Send 1’ while powering up; this does a long test, whose function I’m not sure of, but it does give a chance to check all the LEDs are working properly on the unit. Finally, pressing ‘Send Masters’ and ‘EQs’ gives a mode which allows the readings from the soak test to be read, particularly the amount of time that was taken (shown in the top left corner).
Switch Houston OFF and hold down the ‘SEND MASTERS’ and ‘EQ2’
Another test mode
Hidden Commands
press + …
now you’re able to control the current funtion of the rotary control panorama with the faders.
(The rotary and fader swap funtion)
It works also with + while the “fx send X” is activated
then you can control the Aux-Sends with your Faders. (It’s really good for making Submixes for e.g. the singer pre cubase 4.5 (For another method for versions 4.5 and up see later in this post).
Or + while “inserts” is selected, then you can control the insert-FX parameters of the selectet channel with the faders…
“Shift”+“Undo” - “Edit”, “History”
“Shift”+“Save” - “File”, “Save New Version”
“Shift”+“Motors” - Fader/Encoder flip
“Shift”+“Bank Left” - one Channel Shift Left
“Shift”+“Bank Right” - one Channel Shift Right
“Shift”+“Rewind” - “Transport”, “Return to Zero”
“Shift”+“Forward” - “Transport”, “Goto End”
“Shift”+“Play” - Cycle on/off
New in SX3/ C4
Jog - Turn scrub while positioning on/off
“Shift”+“EQ” - EQ variant display (all parameter of one eq band in the
display + eq bypass)
operational changes for N2/SX2
- 8 parameter per plugin
- exchange parameter name and value for accessed parameter only in the
display - show all input and output busses with (Bus fader bank), scroll
through all of them - edit MIDI inserts on MIDI channels
From C4.5
Control room
[Dyn/User1]: Studio Send for selected channel (I use with an 8 stem submix system and fader reverse for fast even user controled headphone mixes)
• Page 01 – Level
• Page 02 – Enable
• Page 03 – Pre/Post
• Page 04 – Pan Left/Right
[User2]: Instrument for selected channel (Instrument
tracks and MIDI track to VSTi from the Rack)
• Page 1 – Select instrument
• Page 2-n – Instrument parameter
Fader Set Section:
• [Shift]+[FX Send1]: Studio Send 1
• [Shift]+[FX Send2]: Studio Send 2
• [Shift]+[FX Send3]: Studio Send 3
• [Shift]+[FX Send4]: Studio Send 4
• Page 1 – Level
• Page 2 – Enable
• Page 3 – Pre/Post
• Page 4 – Pan Left/Right
Best Wishes
Hippo