Advanced Setup: MIDI CCs (Control Changes)
Clicking on the "C700 [?]" text at the top left of the plugin will reveal the following list of numbers and associated effects, most of which will be discussed or referenced individually later in section D:
CC 1: Modulation Depth
CC 5: Portamento Rate
CC 6: Data Entry (LSB)
CC 7: Volume
CC 10: Pan
CC 11: Expression
CC 38: Data Entry (MSB)
CC 55: Channel Limit
CC 56: Channel Priority
CC 57: Release Priority
CC 64: Damper
CC 65: Portamento Enable
CC 72: SR2 (5bit)
CC 73: AR (4bit)
CC 75: DR (3bit)
CC 76: Vibrato Rate
CC 77: Vibrato Depth
CC 80: SL (3bit)
CC 82: SR1 (5bit)
CC 84: Portamento Control
CC 91: Echo Enable
CC 92: Pitch Modulation On
CC 93: Noise On
CC 120: All Sound Off
CC 121: Reset All Controller
CC 126: Mono Mode On
CC 127: Poly Mode On
What do those mean?
Each of these numbers is a "MIDI Control Change" or CC for short – put simply, CCs are parameters that you can automate or assign values to using MIDI. Your 16 MIDI channels should have assignable knobs or values for these controllers; check your DAW's manual if you can't find this. The listed number (such as 1 for Modulation Depth) is referred to as the "CC number", and it can be assigned a value between 0 and 127. For effects that are simply off/on, values 0-63 represent "off" and 64-127 represent "on". Other effects will similarly map their minimum and maximum values proportionately to the 0-127 scale if they do not already use that scale.
MIDI CCs are assigned and controlled on individual MIDI channels, which generally means they will affect only that one channel. If you're making a template file for your future C700 exploits, it may be useful to set these up to be used if desired. Below are examples for FL Studio and Ableton Live. Here is a CC map for Reaper with custom names set for each CC.
Do I have to?
In most cases*, using CCs is only necessary if you want to automate or change that particular setting somewhere within your song. As we'll be covering in the rest of this guide, most of these settings are available to utilize within the C700 interface – just not automatable (i.e. changeable within the song) through any other means. Note also that any automation of these parameters will not be reflected visually in C700's interface.
* CC#1 (Modulation Depth), which controls automatic vibrato, is an exception to this. Its effect is only available as a MIDI CC, though vibrato can be programmed manually with channel pitch too.
If you want automation control for more than volume/panning/pitch (which are generally built into your DAW to control already), you will have to get comfortable with MIDI CCs. They will offer you finer control over your work.