Getting started with control surfaces (N00B thread)

Cubase
1

Hi guys, I’m new to cubase and control surfaces (but have prior, early-gen MIDI experience). So I’m using cubase to run midi sequences to external hardware, and I have several control surface options that I want to start using. But I’m having trouble getting started.

Can someone point me to the best docs/videos/etc. to match my initial “use cases”?

The first one: My main sound module is a Yamaha Motif Rack XS. A very tedious task with doing cover tunes is matching up the best patch for the parts. What I want to do is have a “setup” profile on one of my control stations so I can turn a knob and have it send a program change on the set MIDI channel, which cubase will then forward on the proper midi channel to the Motif.

I have several choices of control surfaces to choose from right now:
-Novation Launch Control XL (8 ‘tracks’, each with 3 pots, a slider, and 2 buttons)
-M Audio Axiom 61 (9 sliders, 8 knobs)
-Steinberg CMC-FD (got it free with Cubase, but doesn’t have a lot; just 4 soft sliders, a shift button, and 4 channel/bank buttons).
(I also have a keyboard version Motif XS-6 out in the “studio”, but I plan on leaving that out there and doing all the up-front programming in my home office).

SO, I’m thinking the Launch Control would be best for this job. Can someone tell me if what I want to do is feasible? Maybe set up 16 of the pots to correspond to 16 midi channels to send out to the motif so I can scroll through patches while the sequence is running? Another question is around possibly using the control station to change the MSBlLSB (bank select) on the motif. Unfortunately, I have to use match to match the bank select (MSB*128+LSB) in order to set the bank in the cubase track (e.g. my Drum Voice Preset Bankis 8096). I don’t know if there would be any feasible way to set up something to switch between the 16 different banks on the Motif, in which some are in a consecutive range, but others are not.

Thanks guys. Appreciate the help! I want to “learn to fish”, so pointing me to what would be the best resources for this would be awesome! (Oh, and if anyone can validate that I can in fact accomplish what I’m looking for, that too would be great!!)

Step 2 (for performance time) would be setting up the pots to send MIDI volume control on each channel (so I’d have what amounts to a little mixer for all the MIDI data). But I’m getting ahead of myself!!

2

Welp, I still would love to be pointed to tutorials, but my first ‘use case’ is now obsolete. :slight_smile: I figured out I can set up the Motif as a “Midi Instrument” and select the patches by name (but sadly I haven’t figured out how to add the user bank elements to the pulldown yet).

So I guess midi volume and transport controls are my big ‘wants’ for control surfaces at this time.

Since I’m not using Cubase for recording, nor “creating” live- just using it for show control and playing MIDI tracks for a lame cover duo/trio/quattro (not sure how many we’ll end up with!)- does anybody have any suggestions about good ways to use control surfaces? I’m sure as I progress I’ll probably think of some things, but there’s probably useful stuff to use it for that I’ll never think of on my own…

thanks!

3

You can easily set up just about any midi controller to send program change data to your synth.
Have a look at the behringer BCR2000 you get a lot of knobs for your money , many knob overlays available for synths and it actually shows you the parameter values using leds. Something you dont get that on he launchcontrol i think, it seems to be really focused on use with ableton and quite expensive

With a custom case it can also look great http://i.imgur.com/fnB8Wnl.jpg

Choosing a controller all depends on your whishes :slight_smile:
Do you need moving faders, knobs, a keyboard?

4

The Panorama series have amazingly deep integration with Cubase and 3rd party plugs. Worth looking at as it will save you a load of hassle as they are ready to roll straight out the box.