Thank you ladies & gentlemen for letting me vent, but I’m just in a mood this evening. Why for the love of God Almighty won’t Yamaha/Steinberg give us a lousy 8 or 16 channel controller??? The CC121- nice, but 1 lousy fader. The Nuage- Real nice, but I don’t want to take a 2nd Mortgage out on my home to buy one. There are controllers out there, but nothing that I researched work seamlessly with Cubase or Nuendo. I’ve been using Cubase since the late 80’s (Atari) but get tempted to jump ship and go to perhaps… Studio One…which has the Faderport 16 fader controller. Isn’t Cubase one of the world’s most used Daw’s??? Why don’t we get the privilege of a dedicated reasonably-priced multi-fader controller for Cubase users??? What is the freakn’ use of having a corporate giant like Yamaha behind Steinberg, when they’ve done so little to improve the life of the average Cubase users via compatible hardware???
Thanks again for letting me vent…I feel better now.
I have an Avid Artist Mix which actually works quite well in Cubase. Maybe you can pick it up second hand for a good price.
The Presonus Faderport is rumoured to be quite good for Cubase also.
Actually my favourite Steinberg controller is the combination of CMC-AI, CMC-CH and CMC-TP. I actually prefer this over the CC121 since the buttons are bigger and nicer to press, and in total there are more programmable buttons. Since Steinberg stopped making these, they can be picked up REALLY cheap secondhand if you are lucky. These handy units combined with a nice fader surface like Artist Mix or Faderport 8 can be a really great combination.
I’ve only heard good things about the CC121, but it’s indeed basically Cubase’s Channel Settings window in hardware form along with some nice extras (transport controls, the ability to use track quick controls, control room integration, AI knob…).
I think an updated CC121 along with a new Yamaha controller similar to the Faderport series could be pretty interesting.
But note that as far as I know, the Faderport doesn’t actually have super tight integration or many exclusive features when used with SO… So basically any controller with a bunch of faders (like the ones mentioned by myhrik and beanstalk) would allow you to do almost all of the same things while using Cubase.
I actually use Avid Artist Control, but cannot control vsts like you can with the Mackie protocol…at least I can’t figure that out. The S3 is nice…as is the SSLNucleus2, but why oh why can’t the make a less expensive version without the audio section. I paid good money for an Antelope Orion32+ and don’t need another interface.
In my opinion, Console 1 looks amazing and I love that they integrated that. I for one would rather have the perfectly integrated workflow that the Console 1 delivers with its plugins (and in combination with the already amazing UAD plugins), than fiddling with a fader interface to try to make it work OK with a plugin it was never really designed for. I have had SOME luck in getting the Artist Mix to work with EQs in Pro Tools… And it sort of works… But takes so many button presses and so much brain-twisting just to perform a simple EQ operation, that I seldom bother doing it.
That being said, if Steinberg designed an updated CC121 or other hardware controller (like a continuation of the CMC series which I love) I would absolutely be interested in that too…
Also you could check out the newly released “NOB”, which maybe can be described as some intelligent version of the AI wheel on Steinberg’s CC121 and CMC-AI…?
CC121 could be great if steinberg updated their software for it. Actually it is the common problem for all controllers for steinberg cubase, if cubase does not have good support for contollers no one will be able to build a good one. Best so far seems to be avid, but they have abandon cubase it seems.
+1
Nektar is just too clunky and too big for my taste. The fader are not motorized so it’s not suitable for mixing.
Have CC121. Love deep integration with the motorized fader. But jog wheel jumps in 1/16 and it’s not possible to decrease the steps ormake it jog in frames. That very uncool.
No update since 2015.
So Steinberg give us at least a firmware update for cc 121. It’s still availible for buying why not some maintnance updates.
You can actually edit VSTi’s with Avid Artist Mix/Control. Like you, I had no idea this was possible when I first owned an Artist setup.
Here’s how to do it (from Avid’s documentation):
To access VSTi parameters on MC Control:
1 Select an instrument track.
2 From the top level knob set, press PAGE >.
3 Press the VSTi knob top.
Parameters for the instrument on the selected track are displayed and can be adjusted with the encoders.
To access VSTi parameters on MC Mix:
1 Select an instrument track.
2 Press and hold the INSERTS knob set selector until it blinks, then release.
Parameters for the instrument on the selected track are displayed and can be adjusted with the encoders.
A modular design, a 1 Motorfader module that could click on to the next Fader or 2,4 or 8 rotary knobs maybe even an OLED strip
Every module should have connectors on all sides so you could place them both horizontally and vertically, to make your own fully custom build mixing environment.
Some easy to use setup software that would recognize what is plugged in to what would make it a real contender in the controller marked.
You could start with a simple setup and grow it over time, or split it up if you want more controllers doing different things.
We use Mackie Control Pro with extender. Built like a tank and with options to control EQ, dynamics and vet plugins. Next to that we use TouchOSC on an iPad for extra controls like commands, channelstrip, surroundpanner, transport and control room. With theMackie extender you have 16 ALPS motorized faders. Not the most inexpensive option, but still way cheaper than a Nudge system.
That said, if Yamaha/Steinberg would ever release a scaled down (cheaper) version of the Nuage system with 16 faders, I would definitely be interested!
my view on controllers. Although nice to get hands on, none of them are practical for speed. I tried the eq one and several others in my time (started using Cubase in 1994 there about) and all are slower than using a keyboard and mouse… Well at least for me. Maybe when they are faster I will invest. However they get outdated extremely fast : ( so maybe not
What is the freakn’ use of having a corporate giant like Yamaha behind Steinberg, when they’ve done so little to improve the life of the average Cubase users via compatible hardware???
