Alphatrack CC7

Cubase
#1

Hi,

Posted this in the alphatrack forums but perhaps you can help here!

As you can see from these two screenshots AlphaTrack’s fader records cc7 to the volume automation lane. This data does show up in the key editor but it I am not able to edit it from within the key editor -

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/bobulusbillman/Screenshot2011-02-11at210248.png

How can I get the volume automation date from Alphatrack to show up like this in the key editor?

http://i475.photobucket.com/albums/rr111/bobulusbillman/Screenshot2011-02-11at210437.png

This would allow me to keep all automation within the MIDI region rather than on a separate volume automation track.
Thanks

#2

This applies to any external MIDI controller.

Problem: you record automation and it appears in Cubase on an automation track, however you want to see the actual MIDI controller events in the MIDI track, not on a separate automation track.

Solution: Select the MIDI part, solo the track it’s on, make sure the “R” for Read Enable of automation is selected, Shift-G (Transport->Loop Selection), then from the MIDI menu, select “Merge MIDI in loop”.

Are you sure you really want to do this? You lose a lot of flexibility as the controller events are now mixed in with note events. If all you want to do is have them in a MIDI file then this happens automatically when you create a MIDI file from your project via the File menu, Export -> MIDI File.

The other disadvantage is that you now have to switch off “R” (read automation) for that track because the MIDI device is receiving the “printed” controller information contained in the track itself. This means that if you use MIDI controllers with e.g. motorised faders they will not respond.

I have to admit I can conceive of no case where doing this offers any advantage … but there you go.

#3

This applies to any external MIDI controller

Ah but my peavey external MIDI controller will record cc7 into the midi part! Perhaps it’s something to do with Alphatrack being set up as a remote device?

#4

That’s precisely it … you can of course record (merge) onto your existing track if you select the AlphaTrack as the MIDI input, however the AT actually sends pitch-bend data from it’s fader – the AT driver then translates that into automation data, and that’s why it’s important to exclude the AT from “All Inputs” in Cubase’s preferences.

Your Peavey is just sending regular CC7 volume control. The AT on the other hand uses MIDI, but in a non-conventional manner, to communicate with its own driver, which interfaces with Cubase as a remote device. The reason it uses PB is because the resolution is much greater … you can get “zipper noise” with simpler controllers that use only CC7 with 128 levels of resolution. Using PB and translating it gives you a resolution of 16383, and because it’s not actually used as pitch-bend, you’ve got much smoother control.

You could e.g. uninstall the AT driver (so that Cubase doesn’t respond to it as a remote device), then select the AT as the MIDI input to a track, and use the input Transformer to create a stream of CC7 0-127 from the PB data bytes 2 and 3. But why bother, when the technique I showed you above achieves the same end result?

I don’t mean to be disrespectful but I think you might be missing the big picture how of automation works in Cubase … it’s far more flexible and powerful than just using MIDI CCs. For my part, maybe I’m slow but I still can’t see why it would be preferable to have the CC7’s in the track itself.