Over the years, I’ve used the Blue Cat Audio’s PatchWork and Reason Studios’ Combinator. I’ve found them both to be handy tools for making custom plugin automation macro surfaces.
Cubase has quick controls and Midi remote mapping functions. It would be great if we could create midi remote map surfaces without requiring an external midihardwaredevice.
This would give us the ability to create our own plugin macro surfaces/layouts like you can with Patchwork or Combinator to improve with workflow without the need for external hardware.
Cubase MIDI Remote allows you to create devices that don’t have a real-world hardware equivalent. For example, you could create a fictional controller interface for testing purposes:
You can only do that using the API (making it a Pro only feature). With just MIDI Remote, you can’t even create a surface mapping that’s not tied to MIDI ports in the settings because you have to select an input and output port in the settings, otherwise, the “Activate MIDI Control Surface” button remains grayed out:
You probably mean the MIDI Controller Surface Editor. I use only the Pro version, it has that option. For the MIDI connections, I use virtual ports in the case described.
Thanks — I may not have been clear. I’m aware MIDI Remote can use virtual MIDI ports. What I’m asking for is slightly different: a native, internal macro surface that doesn’t rely on MIDI at all — something more like Blue Cat PatchWork macros, Reason Combinator, or Ableton Racks macros.
In other words, a way to build reusable, visual macro control panels inside of Cubase 14/15 Pro that are device-centric rather than controller-centric, without external or virtual MIDI routing that can be controlled with the computer mouse or keyboard.
