i have a Tascam US-2400. motorised faders. rotary encoders,
works perfectly with Cubase from C5 to C-10.
spaceman
To follow up on my previous post, installed 10 last night. Mackie MCU continues to work great.
+1
I sold all my Artist Mix units, never regret.
It has one issue: the labeling does not match the functionality in Cubase.
I would guess they just have not got round to officially certifying C10 as being supported but I can assure you itās working flawlessly for me (with an Avid S3 and Artist Control).
RE: the iPad app, I had crashing issues with this initially -the same issue experienced by quite a few people whereby there would be a crash when you have more than 32 (I think!) tracks. Solved it by updating to latest versions of everything and changing my router. 100% stable since then although I donāt use it as Iām not a huge fan of it.
As for whoever said that Eucon doesnāt support features newer than SX1? That is complete nonsense and you clearly are NOT familiar with Eucon.
Eucon is very very good with Cubase (actually better than with Pro Tools in some ways). It is without doubt the best option aside from the very expensive Nuage. The only serious downsides are:
- you cannot hide tracks on the control surface.
- you can get small errors in volume when you select a track by touching the fader. This may or may not be a serious issue for you depending on your working methods.
The low character limit on MCU based controllers alone is a show stopper for me. Navigating a very large session when all the track names/parameters are so abbreviated is far too much like hard work in my opinion and ruins the whole point of a control surface.
Avid Artist Mix, Avid Artist Control (discontinued) or Avid S3 are the best options right now. Steinberg developed Eucon with Euphonix. Euphonix was bought out by Avid who have the rights to Eucon in the hardware now but as I think that Steinberg still own the Eucon protocol and lease it to Avid from what Iāve read online which would explain why the integration with Cubase and Eucon is tight. Iām putting the Artist mix units in my next studio. Using Mackie control right now, the integration not as tight as you would want it but does basic faders, mutes and transports, itās the plugin control that could be better on Mackie Control.
I actually looked at the S3 before buying the MCU. This Sweetwater video was one of the things I reviewed:
I like the fact that the S3 has 16 versus 8 faders. Iām not sure I understand the comment about low character limit on the MCU as from what I can see, the LCDs on the S3 have the same character width (perhaps youāre thinking of the HUI protocol which is indeed more limited), but I might be missing something. However, in terms of overall functionality, my impression was that the two units do about 95% of the same things, just in different ways. The S3 has the extra 5% but most of that seems to be bells and whistles.
The S3 is $5000. The MCU (which also appears to be a much more robust build quality) is $1100. Thatās a pretty significant price difference, but Iām not really seeing $4000 worth of additional functionality in the S3.
For those of you who own the S3, what does it bring to the party that the MCU lacks, and that you felt was worth the extra money?
I wish that I had that confidence. Cubase 8 was released about 2 years after avid bought euphonix. 2 years is the normal warranty period within eu. Have they made any statement or commitments for other DAWās than avidās own in modern time?
RE: The character limit, it is my understanding (having owned a Mackie Control Pro) that the protocol is only able to show 6 characters per track (be that a track name or a parameter name). Eucon is CAPABLE of displaying 24 characters (possibly more) although it is dependent on which characters are used. Typically on an S3 you will see around 10-11 characters before it gets abbreviated. Try running a 100+ track session where every track has an easily identifiable name using 6 characters or less. Then factor in the colour coded LEDs of an S3 and you can find what you are looking for waaaay quicker than MCU. I could be wrong here but I donāt believe the colour coded LEDs on MCU controllers (e.g. Behringer X Touch) actually work when running Cubase?
RE: Build quality, personally I think the S3 is very well built (although yes, it is quite expensive). I think some people are put off because itās made of plastic but actually it looks/feels pretty nice IMO. I twice returned my Mackie Control Pro because the screen printing on the front panel started to rub off after a month or two. Mackie Control Pro is the only MCU Iāve had hands on experience with but I think the Avid S3 100% looks/feels better quality.
As for your comment āthe two units do about 95% of the same thingsā -yes, this is true and you could more or less say the same thing about any controller on the market from a $200 entry level unit right up to a $50k Avid S6. They do the same things but itās all in the small details of how well they do them.
Admittedly it has been quite a few years since I personally used/owned MCU so itās possible there have been developments Iām not aware of but Eucon is quite simply a better/deeper protocol than MCU IMO.
Iāve got an Avid Artist Mix and it works great with Cubase, including 10. On Windows. Just sayingā¦
Also, even if Cubase entirely dropped Eucon support, it still works as a Mackie MCU or HUI controller if needed. Youād lose some functionality compared to Eucon if that were to happen, but then still no worse than any other MCU or HUI controller. So not sure any of the fear is justified.
No help but Yamaha used to have the perfect solution with its 01X which had exactly what you are asking for unfortunately they just dropped support of it and left the owners of them well and truly up the creek. Still miss mine which I assume someone is now using as a door stop.
Maybe youāre just a natural worrier. I can tell you that Eucon works on every version of Cubase in the last 5 years or so because I have been using it daily. Anyway, itās actually more a question of STEINBERG supporting it. Avid own/develop the protocol. Then itās up to DAW manufacturers like Steinberg to implement the protocol into their software (which of course they have done). The Steinberg āEucon Adaptorā was updated with Cubase 8.5, 9 and 9.5 -clearly it IS an active and supported product whatever that web page says.
The web page you referred to actually uses the word āQualifiedā not āSupportedā. It would not be Avid that provided āsupportā for Eucon issues with Cubase. It would be Steinberg. Avid I guess would support issues with installing Eucon software itself but NOT issues involving itās use with Cubase. They would just say āgo and talk to Steinbergā.
Yeah, it works out to 8 characters per channel on the MCU. These days I make a living as a programmer and in the early days of C / Windows coding there was a common naming convention known as Hungarian Notation (which people either loved or despised). Coming from that mindset Iām at least accustomed to cryptic acronyms for names, but itās certainly something I wish was better on the MCU protocol. Colors would also be awesome. A lot of the X-Touch marketing images showed multi-colored LCDs, but the unit was actually monochrome. The Mackie MCU never even nodded to colors, so it is what it is.
I admit that plastic stuff is a subconscious and perhaps unjustified turn off as it seems like cheap quality, even if thatās not truly the case. The X-Touch was plastic and it really did feel cheap (wiggly faders, clumsy jog wheel, etc.). Honestly, itās probably a holdover from my youth, when all plastic stuff really was cheap. That said, Iāve been happy with the quality of the MCU I got, and from a purely aesthetic perspective it fits in nicely, as my mixer is a Yamaha TF5 and both have a brush metal finish. So, it almost looks like they belong together.
I also looked at the SSL Nucleus, which is in roughly the same price range as the S3. Admittedly Iām a bit of an SSL fanboy (16 channels of SSL pres, Waves SSL plugins, etc.) because I like the sound, so I was particularly interested in this unit. However, I didnāt need all the built in audio interface capabilities (which the S3 also has) and it ultimately came down to the same consideration as the S3. For a grand, maybe two, Iād consider it. At $5000, thereās just not enough bang for the buck for me to justify the purchase. In fairness, to compare the Nucleus / S3 to the MCU price-wise, it should be an MCU + one extender so that each has 16 channels. That would put the MCU closer to $2000 but even then itās less than half the price for a set of faders and knobs.
In fact, I didnāt buy any MCU extenders, due to another contributing factor in my purchase. I have an Argosy console that starts with the mixer on the left. The center section is a 19" component designed to hold the computer keyboard and monitor, and the MCU fit perfectly in that space. The right section contains a few patch bays. So, neither the extender nor the Nucleus / S3 would fit in the center section. Honestly, that probably saved me three grand as I really was considering the SSL. So, as it turns out, the MCU just happens to be the perfect fit for my particular environment. And I think about that anytime Iām daydreaming about having a large format SSL / Neve type mixer. With the DAW / control surface approach, my chair never leaves the sweet spot. The mixer is left of the zone, but itās not used for mixing - itās used for tracking (and is the audio interface). So, million dollar studio dreams aside, Iām quite happy with the setup.
I also agree with you about the fact that everything from $200 entry level control surfaces up to the $5000 range all do the same basics. I could have just bought a Presonus FaderPort, which many people love, for $100 and had the same basics, but I spent ten times that on the Mackie to do less bank switching and get few more details. You spent five times the price of the Mackie for the same reason. All of which speaks to the OPās question. There are a lot of options out there for control surfaces. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and they live at different price points, but if you want to do as little mixing as possible with a keyboard and mouse, they all get the job done.
āStudio on a Budgetā ?
Behringer X-Touch is definitely the way to go.
Flame on, Iāve been a Behringer supporter for years.
Behringer Control2USB is also a worthwhile investment.
For the new users reading, you donāt need to buy the most expensive āeverythingā to achieve amazing results. Learn the software, learn how audio is processed, follow some basic practices and never stop striving to learn more. There is a lot of amazing information available on all these subjects, available for free, via YouTube.
Chris, Can yopu walk me through this? I have a Mackie MCU (Midi Only Version) but for the life of me I canāt get it to work with Cubase 10. I am using an MAudio Midisport Uno USB. Worked fine on Cubase 7. When I upgraded canāt see it in the software.
Thanks,
Bill
Hey, Bill.
I donāt know if it makes a difference, but my MCU is connected via USB. I did whatever installation when I was running 9.0 and 10 just inherited it. Youāre coming from 7, so thatās one difference.
At the risk of asking the dumb questions, is the Midisport operating properly for all other midi operations (i.e. is the problem really the midisport or the mcu)? And when you say that you canāt see it in the software, do you mean the MCU or the Midisport, and where specifically do you not see it (what menu / feature, etc.)?
Iāll have to do some research to see how I originally installed it, happy to help if I can.
Hereās a screen shot of my MCU setup. Will try to help more when youāve had a chance to answer the questions in my previous post.
I still use my Steinberg Houston with Cubase 1o and windows 10 with no issues or problems.
only thing is you need to have it connected via midi cables instead of usb but it still works exactly the same.
I wish Steinberg would release a updated version though so it could have a more modern look and style but If you want one check out ebay they usually pop up on there for around Ā£200-Ā£300
I had a early version MCU and 2 extenders for many years. (I had a C4 too, but Steinberg stopped supporting that many versions ago) Got tired of the various limitations and having to constantly fix the faders that would stick and jitter. I took a leap of faith and bought a Slate Raven about 2 years ago. It has not been a smooth transition by any means, the learning curve was not insignificant and some of the Cubase updates would cause problems until Slate caught up. But I have to say that Iām finally very happy with it and its working on 10 really well. (Also 9.5, 9, and 8.5!) Their customer support is far better than Steinbergās - you can do a screen share and work through problems within a day or two in most instances. Plus their Batch Command feature - which is basically a complex programmable macro system - is a game changer for complex repetitive tasks. It is not flawless, but for me, I canāt imagine going back to a moving faders system at this point.
Nektar P1 - why do the donkey work when they have done all the mappings to plugins etc. Absolutely awesome.
Hi Chris,
When you say MCU, are you talking about the older MCUās or the Pro that is out now? I just bought an older MCU (MIDI connection, not USB) and I am now thinking I need to upgrade my MAC and my version of Cubase.
I dread to think that I have just shelled out for something that wonāt work if I have to upgrade everything else around it?
Thanks,
Michael