LUA-Scripts for the Digital Audio Workstations Ardour and Harrison Mixbus
Mixer Strip Configuration
I usually use the same track colours for the same instruments and often have similar names for the tracks and buses. However, I find colouring the tracks quite time-consuming and therefore I have extended the LUA script Trackorganizer a little.
The colouring of tracks, busses, groups and VCAs can now be done automatically based on tags. In addition, the colours and their assignment can be configured. This configuration is saved in the config directory of the application in the file strip_config and is thus available to every session.
There are three scripts: Settings for Mixer Strip Configuration (strip-config-settings.lua), Mixer Strip Configuration (strip-config.lua) and Coloring Strip When Added (strip-add-coloring-hook.lua).
With the first script, you can define Named Colours, as well as specify tags with which the names of the tracks and buses are compared and which then assign the corresponding colour.
With the second script, the assignment can be carried out - either automatically or manually - and names and comments can be assigned.
With the third script, the coloring rules are applied to newly created strips. Remember that this script also relies on the settings file. Therefore, the settings script must be called at least once beforehand to save the configuration.
Settings Dialog
Here you can define the names, colors and matching tags. If no tags are defined, no automatic coloring will be applied
When you open the dialogue for the first time, a default configuration is loaded. You can then adapt this as you wish.
At the end of the dialogue there are always 5 empty lines that can be filled with further configurations.
If these are not sufficient, the dialogue can be saved and opened again. This makes 5 more lines available.
I have not found a way to add rows automatically. But since this configuration only has to be done once, it shouldn't bother too much.
Colors needs to be written as hex strings with 6 bytes: 1289af
You can open the color-picker in Ardour or Mixbus and copy it from there. Most Color-Pickers in the operating systems support this format as well. Most color pickers have a leading hash (#) in front of the six hex digits. You can copy the string as is, it will be automatically removed when you store the settings
Unfortunately, the LUA-Api does not support things like color pickers.
If a color is in a wrong format, an error message will be displayed and the wrong color is deleted.
Strip Configuration
Before the configuration
Configuration Dialog
Before the Dialog with the settings appears, you first will be asked if the colors should be assigned automatically.
If you answered with yes, all tracks are displayed with the already added colors or the newly matched colors. Of course you can change the colors afterwards.
If you answer with no, you can manually select the colors in the dropdown.
In the color-dropdowns you can find the
You can always stop the changes when cancelling the dialog.
Here I additionally have renamed "Mixbus 6" to "Reverb Effect" in the configuration.
After the configuration
After confirming the dialog with ok, all changes are applied. If a strip is renamed in the config dialogue, another attempt is made to assign a colour when saving if this behaviour was selected in the first dialogue.
All examples are from Mixbus, but this works of course in Ardour as well
Installation
Simply download the files or copy and paste the content of the files strip-config-settings.lua, strip-config.lua and strip-add-coloring-hook.lua from here: https://codeberg.org/dehnhardt/ardour-scripts/src/branch/main/scripts in your local Ardour or Mixbus script directory and enable them as usual.
More detailed
You first need to copy all three scripts in the users script-directory. The location is operating system dependent and can be found here: The Ardour Manual 1, paragraph “Managing Scripts"
Then start ardour and open Edit->Lua Scripts->Scrip Manager.
In the tab ‘Action Scripts’ select one Line ‘Action x’ (The first four lines will add the action to the 4 upper right buttons in the ardour main window).
Then select ‘Add/Set’ and in the ‘Shortcut’ drop down seach for ‘Mixer Strip Configuration’. (I would recommend a position on one of the first four lines)
Then click the Button ‘Add’. Repeat the same for ‘Settings for Mixer Strip Configuration’. You won’t need this cript so often, so you can use a position beginning with 5.
You can ‘Call’ the scripts right here.
Then swich to the ‘Action Hook’ tab, Click ‘New Hook’, select ‘Coloring Strip When Added Hook’ and click ‘add’ again.
New Ardour / Mixbus Versions
Simply copy the file strip_config from the config directory of the old version of the application into the config directory of the new version.
Disclaimer
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Licensed under the MIT-License.