I have Cubase Elements 10.5 and I just got an Alesis V25 midi controller.
After plugging it in, the keyboard is playing whatever instrument I load so that seems ok. But I don’t know how to map knobs, switches, and pads to different things in Cubase. How is this done?
For example, can I assign a knob to master volume fader in Cubase? Can I assign a particular effect like delay to a knob for a particular track? I see in the Alesis software that the knobs and switches have unique cc numbers. I am guessing that I need to tell Cubase that a particular function must be assigned to a specific cc number, but I don’t know how to do that.
You have to install the driver for the alesis v25 and select it in cubase as a remote control device (under studio setup/remote control).
There is an excellent user manual for the Alesis V25 and in addition you can download an editor for it.
Did you ever have a look into these sources of information?
Highly recommended.
If nothing in the default setup of your controller does what you need i would recommend you assign knobs to the quick controls (also under studio Setup/remote control) and the Generic Remote might be your last resort.
Please dont get me wrong: It is highly recommended to read the manual of your product and also read the chapter “remote controlling cubase” in the cubase manual. From this point it would be so much easier to help you here in the forum.
I have already installed the V25 drivers and followed instructions on its setup.
In Cubase, I followed the instructions here (MIDI Port Setup Page) and now it is showing an active input.
However, I am still having trouble trying to map things to the knobs and buttons.
I am not QUITE sure, but this behaviour could have to do with the little “monitor” button on your track (the brownish one with the little speaker).
I would try the following: Go to program settings and under VST search for monitoring - active “tape machine style”.
Plus: To make the V25 work as your remote controller for cubase, you will have to activate it from the “remote control” list of the studio setup. But that should not be related to the problem you are describing.
What you did is a good step.
With the step you have taken you have prepared the Track Quick Controls . Now you can use the “learn” function. Just press “learn” (as you see in the picture of your last post) and then move the control/knob of your desire on your V25. Do that for all the 8 quick controls.
Then close the window.
From this point on you can open the quick control section in the track inspector and assign any track (or insert) paramenter to any of the 8 quick controls. These settings are “per track”, in other words you can decide per track which 8 paramenters you want to control with the quick controls.
Thanks, I clicked ‘Learn’ and I am having some success using Quick Controls. Now that I know it works, I just need to read about how to do it properly. Thanks for your help.
Maybe you can tell me something else. How do you record live using quick controls? For example, I want to have a phaser effect assigned to a knob, and then to hit Record and turn the knob so that the phaser effect changes in real time and is recorded.
Just to give an update, I am still finding the Quick Controls very tricky to use. I have assigned knobs 1-4 as address 20-23 as in the above screenshot. What I find is that for any given channel, the quick control parameters are set and can’t seem to be changed.
For example, I am using a Synth VST and the QC for knob 1 is called “Easy 1”. I cannot seem to assign anything else to knob 1. I have tried changing all kinds of settings, but knob 1 is always assigned to “Easy 1”. I can remove the ‘20’ address from Knob 1 but then nothing is assigned to it. Do I need to know the address of each individual parameter so I can assign it to a specific knob? What if I want to assign Master Volume to Knob 1 in a track? How is it possible?
Also, can Cubase commands be assigned to knobs and switches? I would like to have a switch assigned to so I can play and stop as I would on the laptop keyboard. How can this be achieved?
Concerning quick controls: When you assign the controller numbers to quick controls (in the studio setup tab for track quick controls or vst quick controls) you dont have to have any idea about what parameters you want to control later. This assignment only establishes the connection between your external midi controller and the respective eight quick control slots.
In a later step you assign parameters to the quick control slots. This is not influenced at all by the controller numbers you assigned in the first step (of course only if you dont route the midi from the controller to a track or instrument at the same time directly). For track quick controls you can absolutely easily assign or reassign any available paramter on the channel/track to any of the quick controls. This is also true in cases where an automatic assignment happens. The later is true if you use vst instruments. Their parameters are automatically distributed to the vst quick controls and at the same time to the track quick controls of the respective track/channel. You can change this assignment by mouse at any time for track quick cnotrols! For VSTi Quick controls you use the remote controller editor to modify the assignment of parameters of the vsti to the vst quick controls.
At no point in time would you have to touch the controller number assignments to change the affected paramenters!
And concering recording live: If you want to record the parameter changes you can use write automation on the respective track. Simply enable “W” (and of course “R”, otherwise the recorded automation will not be included in playback).
Note the following: Automation always works for the selected parameter. That means in other words that the automation lanes will be kept even if you change the quick control assignments to control a different paramenter later.
For controlling stop and play and others you either have to use the standard Cubase control mechanism that your external midi device offers OR set up a generic remote and assign the relevant commands there. In this case - using the external device as well for quick controls and a generic remote you have to take care to not have identical controller numbers assigned to different commands/quick controls at the same time.
Heh, I was just yesterday goofing around assigning the knobs on my Axiom 25 as quick controls. Quite nice.
I like the quick control’s “pick-up” functionality - it helps a lot in avoid “jumping” parameters. On the axiom, I decided to program the knobs with CC’s 102-109, just to keep them away from known CC’s.
I’m getting my E-mu E4K out of storage in a few weeks and am looking forward to trying out midi control assigning. Unless anyone can tell me it won’t work with this keyboard (I note Elien mentioned drivers, and have seen XMIDI drivers…is this in the right direction?), I look forward to reading the manual(s).
some devices that are connected via USB to the computer dont require extra drivers. If the vendor of the device offers a driver (E-mu in this case) then you should for sure use this one. Sometimes they come together with Editor software, but this is also not a must.
Most vendors have quite ok documentation of how to use their device together with certain DAWs, Cubase usually among those.
Since I am not a genius I just can encourage you, you will for sure master the integration of the EMu with Cubase!
The E4K is pre-USB (SCSI), so this will be interesting. The manual is sadly lacking on information on assigning the controllers to an external synth or DAW. They’re easy to assign to internal sounds, and I seem to recall they transmitted CCs over MIDI, so I just need to get my head around that (plus taking on board the info in this thread and the Cubase manual).
I could, of course, just buy a controller, but would love to reintegrate the E4K into my studio, as it has the best keyboard of any non-piano I’ve played.
Looks like the E4K has a standard 5 pin midi interface - you just need a midi interface for the PC. There’s lots to choose from - i use a 5 port box from motu. There are DIN to USB midi cables that are handy and class-compliant so they don’t require special drivers - just plug and go.
