Can Cubase 11 generate 'mouse-clicks' and apply them to plugins?

Cubase
21

Hey owenc,

Thanks so much for taking the time to send that detailed description!

I gave it a try and it worked like a charm, although only for Steinberg VIs (I tried Retrologue, Padshop, Halion, and Groove Agent).

Unfortunately I don’t really use these much anymore, except for Groove Agent which I use fairly often to reinforce Addictive Drums tracks.

However your concept gave me the idea to configure two pads on my Novation Launchpad Mini to switch to the next/prev kit. This works really well with Groove Agent and is vastly superior to hovering my mouse precisely over those tiny arrows on the GA GUI to accomplish the same thing. Using the Launchpad I can just rest a finger on one of the pads and cycle through the kits while fully concentrating on the music.

I also tried this with FX plugins and had some success. All of the Steinberg and Plugin Alliance plugins (that I own) worked. Initially I assumed that it was because presets appear in the Preset Managers for the plugins from both of these companies. Recalling that this is also true for all my Waves’ plugins, I tried those as well. Surprisingly none of those worked. So I’m not really sure what’s going on here. Also surprising is that you can change presets for both the VI and FX plugins on the same track (although only for the GUI that’s currently open).

Anyway, I’m going to play around a bit more to see what else I can do with this functionality. Ultimately I’d like to be able to transfer as many functions as possible from my mouse to the Launchpad.

Thanks again for the inspiration…

1 Like
22

Probably because of the Waves Shell wrapper for their plugins. But that’s just a guess.

2 Likes
23

@BaseCu
Happy to help!

If you are inclined at all and working in Windows, I’d encourage you to look into Autohotkey, If you’re not familiar with it already, it’s a very accessible programming environment that can be as simple or complicated as you want, according to your programming experience. I don’t have any programming experience, but I’ve been able to create some very useful scripts to help with my workflow (ie. AI Knob style function, render finish detection then email me so I get a notification that it’s done, macro to help me populate marker names when organizing stems, even a secondary contextual menu, some really cool stuff if you’re super-nerd like me!).

In your case, with the inconsistent preset navigation, a pseudo AI knob function where you tell autohotkey where in the VST GUI to click. Best case scenario here is there is a bit of mouse cursor flicker if you want to keep the original mouse position, because you’re essentially activating a macro to move the cursor to VST GUI button, click, then move back to original position.

This is easiest with keystrokes. It can be done with midi because someone created a midi framework for AHK a few years ago. It works and is well documented , but requires a fair bit of tinkering.

2 Likes
24

Yes, I think you’re right. I forgot that Waves uses those Shell wrappers.

25

owenc,

I switched to Cubase after struggling with Sonar for years. Most of my studio time was spent trying to get things working. In desperation I decided to switch DAWs and have been using Cubase ever since. All the functionality that I needed was already there and fully working. So, when I read “… but requires a fair bit of tinkering” it reminds me of those dark Sonar days. :weary:

But thanks for the suggestion (and I’m glad it’s working for you!).

My strategy was to get a Launchpad Mini and program all 64 buttons with the functions I use most often; especially those that require many mouse-clicks.

I’ve arranged the rows as follows:

Tools (Select, Range, Draw,…)
DOP (Fade In, Fade, Out, Gain,…)
Buttons (M, S, L,…)
Editors (Project Editor, Mixer, Score,…)
Visibility (Show All, Show Select, Show Data,…)
Setup (Project Assistant, Project Setup, Audio Config,…)
Mixer (Meter Bridge, Pre, Ins,…)
Project (e, VI GUI, Chords,… Export)

Using these in conjunction with keyboard shortcuts have really sped things up for me. And, most importantly, it works using only native Steinberg functionality.

Cheers…

2 Likes
26

Hi, what program did you do this with?

Please can you upload your file here?

27

Hi,

Please can you upload your Autohotkey file here? I think many would benefit. Thanks!