Cubase 12 Generic Remote Discontinued?!

Why would Steinberg discontinue Generic Remote when I can’t do the same thing (or at least as easily) with MIDI Remotes for my setup? (and many other composers’ setups)

I realized I can technically do pretty much everything but for highly customizable controllers like Metagrid and Elgato StreamDeck, it’s just so cumbersome.

For example, I use a StreamDeck XL. I don’t want to add buttons to the MIDI remote because I do all the “interface” setup through the StreamDeck app. The issue is that in the StreamDeck I have macros set up in ways that can’t be done in Cubase. So all I need is a list of commands like Generic Remote. In MIDI Remote, I have to send a MIDI signal for Cubase to “learn” and then I can assign stuff. But with StreamDeck I can’t send a MIDI signal “just to learn” because some of these are macros and it turns into a disorganized mess in MIDI Remotes. I just want to assign commands from CC1 all the way up to CC127, in order and then just do the setup in StreamDeck as to which buttons I will assign them to.

MIDI Remotes doesn’t even let me edit the Item Properties to the right (Message, Channel, CC#). That’s kind of ridiculous.

I don’t know if that makes sense. Does anyone have any thoughts? Is there an easier way to do this with MIDI Remotes that I just don’t understand how to do yet?

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I’m pretty sure it will be…eventually. But not anytime soon. I suppose “eventually” and “soon” is all relative.

Perhaps not until the Generic Remote is redundant with what can be achieved with Midi Remote.

Dear @Matthias_Quellmann & @david_molina & Cubase Community

Can you confirm that “Generic Remote” is actually already discontinued in Cubase 12? Or is that an unconfirmed concern?

To me and I suspect many users that would be a big disadvantage. I, for instance, have a well-setup and established workflow with external controllers & Generic Remote, which I don’t wish to replace anytime soon. (I’m very open to extend it with the new possibilities though, but not replace it!)

Thanks for your feedback & all the best

Generic remote is still there.

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@oqion Thanks for confirming Generic Remote still being there! Phew.

@david_molina Oh! This does not look good :frowning:

All the best to both of you & thanks for the effort replying!

I guess the title was misleading. I wasn’t saying it HAS been discontinued. I meant it will be discontinued.

Thanks for clarifying! And above all for raising this to awareness.

@Matthias_Quellmann Is there a timeline of when Generic Remote will be removed? With a maintenance update 12.x, or with a full update of Cubase (13, 14…)? I assume many studios have productive workflows with Generic Remote.

Thanks and all the best

I’ve been messing with MIDI Remotes all morning and it simply doesn’t make sense and is super cumbersome for controllers most composers use like Metagrid (iPad apps) and StreamDeck. I really hope they don’t get rid of it or at least merge them so that we can at least continue with our controller setup.

As it is, it would throw a huge wrench into my setup and many other composers I know as well!

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The new MIDI Remote API is just the beginning. Of course we are aware that there are many devices and use cases where the Generic Remote is still needed. We won’t discontinue the Generic Remote before we are 100% sure that the MIDI Remote can compensate for it.

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@david_molina I agree, there are also many with an Open Stage Control setup (https://openstagecontrol.ammd.net/) for which I’m unsure how well that would work with the new MIDI Remote API.

(Nonetheless I highly appreciate the efforts of Steinberg of advancing the possibilities of remote control and thinking forward)

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@Matthias_Quellmann Thank you for taking the time to reply, highly appreciated!

Is there technical documentation on the MIDI Remote API publicly available (for not-yet C12 owners)?

As it stands, “API” to me is even more than a MIDI Controller Surface Editor, do we get to even programmatically interact with Cubase’s MIDI Remote API? (via Python or any other modern language)? :smiley: :nerd_face:

Hi Matthias, this doesn´t look very good, I have a lot of generic remote use here (also use dtouch that uses heavily), it´s a bit scary to think that it will be replaced, sometimes functions and parameters are left behind when porting to the new system.

Can we please ask you to reconsider this move and see if both systems can coexist?

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Frankly, while I’ll have a bit of work to move over to the new remote, I do not hope for Steinberg to make them work side-by-side. That would mean they would have to support it, even while users know there won’t be any more improvements or “bug fixes” for it.

Tear the bandage off fast is the best way. :wink:

I have no problem in moving over, but there is a history of non asked changes that never got back to the previous stage of usabillity, so I am a bit frightened about loosing functions.

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Have you seen the new remote yet?

I am in no need of the broken Generic Remote. If the new gizmo can do what the old did and work properly Im for it

fair enough, just some old prejudice based in previous behaviour. Will wait and see.

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I said I’ve been messing with it all morning.

I have absolutely no issue with changes. I have always adopted the new version of Cubase the same day. My issue will be if they leave behind something that so many of us need in favor of something that is more limited.

Many of us composers have spent many, many hours building generic remotes for complex setups. I just don’t want to have to go through all that again just to rebuild it in a new more cumbersome system (cumbersome for our type of setups. For existing physical controllers the new system works great.)

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