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Nocturn's LED surrounds mean it can be used in low light conditions.

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Working with hardware controllers isn’t always a quick and easy process, and just setting one up to integrate smoothly with your sequencers, plug-ins and soft synths can be a time-consuming operation in itself.

Great concentration is often needed to keep track of which dials, buttons and sliders correspond to which filter cutoffs, compression ratio values, and so on.

Novation’s Automap technology was designed to offer a more intelligent way for controllers to interact with software. It debuted with Novation’s SL series, enabling the controllers to operate more intuitively by mapping plug-in/mixer parameters automatically.

Automap Universal then took things to the next level, being essentially a software ‘hub’ sitting between your plug-ins and the controller, adding integrated mapping/ learning functions to the plug-ins’ interfaces via its wrapper system.

Automap previously relied on LCD display strips on the controller to relay information to the user as to which controls were mapped to what, but with the all-new Automap Universal 2.0, the whole system basically resides in software. Furthermore, the LCD display is no longer necessary, which brings us to Novation’s latest controller, the sexy, bargain-priced Nocturn.

Overview

Out of the box, the Nocturn is compact, lightweight and uncluttered, yet eminently well constructed. Nine touch-sensitive, LED-encircled rotary dials and a DJ-style crossfader – also touch-sensitive – are ergonomically arranged for easy access, while eight red-illuminated rubber buttons deal with controlling switched parameters, and eight green ones provide access to various functions and displays.

Novation says that the Nocturn is so named because you can use it in the dark, and that’s certainly the case. After installing the Automap Universal 2.0 software and connecting the unit via USB (it’s bus-powered), you’re presented with the Plug-in Manager. Here you select and wrap effects and instruments from your plug-ins folder, creating additional ‘Automap-enabled’ versions that are ready to use with the controller.

In Automap parlance, any controllable entity is a ‘client’, so that’s any wrapped instruments and effects (VST, AU, RTAS and TDM formats are supported), compatible sequencer mixers (Sonar, Tracktion, Cubase and Nuendo), and the Automap MIDI Client, which is used for normal MIDI control and is handy with apps that don’t directly support Automap.

The biggest innovation with AU 2.0 is that controller assignments are displayed, assigned, edited and renamed via a novel ‘heads-up’ semi-transparent (but optionally opaque) GUI, which is summoned and dismissed with Nocturn’s View button. This displays a simple map of the device’s controls, with relevant mapping information beneath each.