Every MIDI controller I’ve ever used has one problem. If everything works properly, it only tells the host, whether it’s Cubase, the virtual instruments that Cubase is hosting, etc, what’s their position (whether it’s a knob, a fader or something else) when you’re moving it. When it’s still, it doesn’t send anything.
That’s a problem sometimes, like when both CC1 and CC11 were set to the highest, and you load a new instrument that you can barely hear, then you start moving the faders down, and if it is one instrument that has a lot of volume, like Tom Holkenborg Brass or similar, then it jumps from barely audible to neighbors coming at me with pitches and forks.
So, first question, which based on what I searched so far is a no, but, is there a way to set Cubase to always ask the MIDI controller (if it allows this) to have a constant knowledge of how high or low the fader or knob is, or if this is not possible, are there MIDI controllers with faders that actually send that to the host?
Imagine something basic, like in an old stereo, the volume knob. The stereo always knows what position that knob is in. There’s no chance that you load another record or CD and suddenly it plays really loud. It might if the media is recorded that way, but the output volume is the same as long as that knob is not moved.
I think this is called ‘soft takeover’. My Panorama P1 lets one move the faders until they hit the current position in the DAW, after that you can change the values by moving the fader - no loud jumps, but you have to move the fader a bit before it’s ‘active’. Works really well, I find. That’s in Cubase, I might add. Other DAWs have the option for soft takeover.
As to my knowledge this is not possible due to the design of the MIDI 1.0 protocol.
There is simply no method to query another device (except for requesting SysEx dumps).
That might change with MIDI 2.0, though. Not quite sure.
With MIDI 1.0 there is also the danger of sending too much data on a port. The data transmission is very slow and a midi port can get clogged easily.
If your midi fader has touch sensitivity the closest you can do is to touch the fader and cubase can know the position. To do this is a workaround and have to use external softwares and stuff.
If you are interested can outline how to do it.
I have it set up so that everytime i record a midi part, i touch the fader so that those CC data are in the midi file.
I think this is doable if you’re using a Midi Remote program like TouchOSC as intermediary between the DAW controller and Cubase.
I have a setup like this:
DAW Controller with Faders -(connected to)- Tablet running TouchOSC ←→ Cubase
In my setup TouchOSC receives the signals from the controller and then sends them to cubase. In TouchOSC it would be possible to program an object that sends the last known Input from the DAW controller to Cubase every 0.1 seconds (or whatever other time interval you want).
That being said, I’m not really sure if this is a good solution to the problem you’re describing. (I think this will lead to you accidentally recording CCs that you don’t want to record at that moment). And this is a lot of work to set up and programm…
I use this setup primarily because I use the tablet running TouchOSC as a kind of display screen for my DAW controller that displays Track Names/ Colors/ Panning etc.
No Pauly, much simpler than that. While it would be cool to have one of those, I would have no space for it. I just would like a way for the host to know at each point in time what are the current values of the two faders. If I left CC1 at 56 and CC1 at 60, and then I move to another track that has another instrument, I would like for that instrument to know that the current values are 56 and 60, not something else.
Of course the exception would be if I click on another track, start playing it, and it already has CC1 and 11 automation
Yes, I actually have TouchOSC and I think it’s an amazing program. I even have the computer version that makes creating these presets better, and I had created a lot of them for different uses.
But eventually I got a Sparrow 4x100. It takes less space than my iPad, but also it’s a bit hard to move your fingers up the faders in the iPad, or even down sometimes. At one point, my fingers would get kinda stuck on the glass and I would have to stop and redo that part. But it’s a great software for anyone who has even an old iPad (I was using it with my 2015 iPad Air) and some space on the desk for it.
I kept thinking about this and I wanted to ask you guys something that is not specifically about the faders, but to what you mention here, that with MIDI 1.0 there’s a danger of sending too much data on a port and it can get clogged easily.
I often wonder if having all instrument tracks set to channel 01 is the same as distributing them among all 16 channels, for example, setting track 1 to channel 01, track 2 to channel 02 and so on, and then repeat after track 16.
Would taking the extra work of doing it that way give any advantage when it comes to speed on large projects? Obviously it takes some extra work to setup because while some engines allow you to set to Omni by default, at least SINE player doesn’t allow that, so each instrument has to be changed manually.
Cubases internally works slightly different with MIDI information in order to overcome some of the many weaknesses of MIDI 1.0.
The issue becomes real as soon as you send out of Cubase to a midi port. I have been able to overload my midi interface (I have two different ones), which in return made Cubase rather unresponsive.
This won’t happen when you send notes and controllers anytime soon. You might experience some timing issues with external midi devices but nothing bad.
However, I can simulate your feature request of a constant stream of midi controller messages. One fader might still work, a second fader already can be problematic. Eight or 16 faders - it’s goodbye.
Additional info: Sending a midi controller message takes ~0.92ms. If you repeat the same message, just with different values it can go down to ~0.61ms. When having more than one item sending, it will never go down, it will stay at 0.92ms.
If you have 16 parameters constantly sending their status it would take ~15ms for just one status report. Compare that to the latency of your audio interface.
…..”Is there a MIDI controller with faders that sends their position continuosly to Cubase?….
Wouldn’t this be via eucon? Which means Cubendo+Avid s1 etc?
No. There are no controllers that work like that for the simple reason that would be a terrible idea . As I mentioned above, the way controllers, including Eucon, reflect the DAW upon load, is via bi-directional communication.
If the OP has many MIDI devices connected via physical MIDI cables, then, yes, the speed of the physical MIDI spec might be a limitation for him. However, I’m not sure he’s talking about connecting many MIDI devices. Even if he was, these days most MIDI devices use USB, where transmission speed is not an issue.
That might be true.
On the other hand I have an Akai MPKmini and if I sync it to Cubase’s midi clock its timing is worse than a synth from the 90’s connected via 5-pin to a Midex8.
No unfortunately this isn’t solving the problem.
OP originally wants to control Midi-CC values with the faders. But you can’t bind a Midi-CC in the Midi Remote Tab, the option just doesn’t exist.
There are some work around with Virtual Midi Ports that people use to still have their Midi-Remote device send Midi-CC values, but that is only possible as input. There is no way to get Cubase to output the current CC1-value of an Instrument track, to an outside device.
As far as I know faders, that move or “pick-up” are impossible for Midi-CCs with Cubase.
Hmmm. Okay, I see what you mean (not just the mixer).
Just had a quick look and the mapping tool has a ‘send to hardware’ option. Trouble is, I’ll need to switch the P1 firmware back to a ‘normal’ MIDI controller to then try and use it for pickup/soft takeover. When I use it with FL Studio it does do soft takeover - i.e. no jumps in volume. Appreciate that doesn’t help other than I know the controller works properly.
I’ll need to make the changes to the P1 and post back, see what happens.
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