Virtual Faders & Scene Morph: Smooth Transitions Between Banks
Eight faders your device might not physically have — and a way to glide between whole mixes instead of jumping.
Virtual Faders: Eight Faders Inside the Device
The eight Virtual Faders in the web configurator — each fader's channel and CC are set once and apply to every bank.
https://youtube.com/shorts/tXDlHceZvno?si=fWSNdFK2rEYL-tVf
A Virtual Fader is a fader that lives in the device's memory rather than under your finger. Every ParksTool device gets eight of them — even compact models with no physical faders at all, like the 1ES2K.
Each Virtual Fader has a fixed channel + CC number that you set once and applies everywhere. What changes is the value, which is stored per bank. In other words:
- The routing (Channel 1 / CC 7, Channel 1 / CC 10, …) is global — VF #1 always means the same thing.
- The position of all eight is saved separately in each bank.
That makes a bank a scene: a complete snapshot of eight mixer positions. Switch banks and all eight values are sent to your DAW at once — one key press reconfigures volume, EQ, sends and pan together.
Scene Morph: Glide Instead of Jump
Virtual Fader values stream to your DAW; with morph time they glide between scenes instead of jumping.
Here's the part that makes it musical. When you switch from one scene to another, the values don't have to snap to their new positions. With per-bank Morph Time, the device interpolates smoothly from the old scene to the new one, streaming the intermediate CC values to your DAW so volumes and effects glide rather than jump.
The morph time is set per bank, so each transition can have its own character:
- 0 ms — instant jump. Fast set changes.
- 50–100 ms — instant to the ear, but avoids clicks and pops. A safe default.
- 250–500 ms — a smooth fade inside a song.
- 1000–3000 ms — slow build-ups and transitions between songs in a live set.
- Several seconds — gradual, ambient shifts.
How to Set It Up
- Open the Configurator tab in ParksTool Uploader, or config.parkstool.com.
- In the Virtual Fader card, set the channel and CC for each of the eight faders.
- Under Global Variables → BANK FLAGS, enable Broadcast on Bank Change so a scene is sent automatically when you switch banks.
- For each bank, drag the eight fader values to build that scene.
- Set the Morph Time for each bank — type a value in milliseconds or pick a preset.
Full details are in the manual's Scene Workflow section.
Where It Shines
- Live performance — map a scene per song; one key press crossfades the whole mix into the next song over your chosen morph time.
- DJ-style sets — four banks, four moods, smooth transitions between them.
- Studio — store verse / chorus / bridge mixes as scenes and glide between them.
- Faderless devices — get eight motorized-feeling scene faders on a device with none.
Getting It
Virtual Faders and per-bank morph are part of the Scene workflow introduced in the 9.5 firmware series. Update with the latest ParksTool Uploader from the releases page — connect your device, press Auto Update, and the Configurator opens when it's done.
Take a screenshot of your configuration before a large firmware jump. If settings look off afterward, do a Reset Local Defaults + Default Global Reset in the configurator.
Building scenes with ParksTool? Tell us how you use it — many of our features start as a user email.