How to Assign an Encoder to Change BPM in Cubase Without Opening Transport Panel?

Hey everyone,
I wanna find a way to change the BPM of my project using a rotary encoder on my MIDI controller. The idea is to avoid manually typing the value or using the keyboard by directly assigning the encoder to control the project/session BPM.

To be clear, what I want is an easy way to adjust the overall project BPM while working, without relying on the mouse or keyboard. Currently, I have to click on the transport panel and manually change the BPM value there. What I’d like is to skip those steps entirely, so that simply turning the encoder on my MIDI controller can raise or lower the session’s BPM in real time.

I m not sure to if it’s possible to assign this directly in Cubase. I’ve explored the Project Logical Editor and MIDI REMOTE SECTION but couldn’t find an action that adjusts the BPM up or down by increments.

Does anyone know how to map a knob/encoder to change the session’s BPM directly ? Maybe there’s a way to automate this through MIDI Remote, Logical Editor, or Macros that I haven’t discovered yet?

Thanks.

Hi,

I’m afraid it’s not possible.

By using the Mapping Assistant, you can call the Enter Tempo, then you have to type the value.

In the MIDI Remote API, you can call the
setTempoBPM(activeMapping : [ActiveMapping], tempoBPM : number)

But then you have to enter the value again.

In the Tempo Track Editor, there is the Tempo Recording option, where you get a slider and you can record the tempo changes in realtime. But you cannot assign this slider to a Remote Device, as far as I know.

Using the mapping assistant, it is not possible as @Martin.Jirsak mentioned.

Using scripting, it is doable, please have a look at this post if interested:

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Man, what are the odds that somebody would ask twice in 10 days for that feature? Good on ya, as always, m.c.

Btw, not to change the subject, but in regards to the C64 in your comment on that other thread, the original Commodore 64 company is back and making new machines again! I don’t want to hijack the thread, otherwise I’d post a link.

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But this is useless in practice since you don’t hear the Tempo changes in realtime while you move the slider - at least last I checked.

Concerning the tempo track, with MIDI Remote we can achieve realtime interaction, but the result I got, partially due to implementing it using additional macros required (apart from setting the tempo) was not satisfying.
Here’s a video demonstrating the pauses involved:

There’s no audio on the video, right? What did it sound like?

Full of interrupts due to the macros involved.

But even if we forget about recording BPM, and just trigger BPM changes, I still hear interrupts, VSTs getting out of sync. I have to guess this is mostly because of my underpowered by today’s standards PC.

When I move the slider with a mouse during playback 1) it plays back at the starting Tempo and doesn’t change until I stop recording the Tempo, then it will follow the changes 2) The new Tempo Events aren’t created at the current Cursor position and are instead created later on the Timeline.

Well, here using a remote, I suppose that the bpm is written at cursor position, though since I do this while in playback, I’m not sure whether this is accurate.
I recall you have a nanoKontrol. I can create a small remote just for this functionality and then maybe we get more accurate conclusions than the ones I’ve got. It may depend on our systems’ specs.

Thanks @m.c ,I’ll try your approach :wink: