So ive been watching some Junkie XL youtube videos on his channel and noticed that he is experiencing some performance issues with Cubase 8.
Episode 1: Template Setup and Workstation Layout - Studio Time with Junkie XL
If you skip through the video upto 7min 30sec where it is a close up shot of Cubase 8 and the Transport bar.
He has 2x CMC controllers connected and you can see the MIDI Out Signal constantly spiking which is the exact same symptom I had with my CMC-CH controller.
Ive never seen any other piece of equipment cause this issue besides the CMC Controllers, im glad I discovered I am not the only one experiencing the issue.
Not to mention the CMC controllers were discontinued fairly shortly after release.
My CMC-CH controller touch fader broke within a week and the Pan pot was tight on half a turn out of the box.
This is just a interesting observation, and is more evidence that Steinberg has not been prioritising stability, performance and quality control for a while now.
We need a very stable program before we need new features.
Can you please provide a little more technical information ? Saying this is how they work without a manual reference is not very convincing to me.
I have never seen any other control surface or midi device connected to cubase ever cause this continuous MIDI Out signal spiking, what exactly is it sending MIDI signal out too ? why does it need to stay clocked ?
Just seems like a un-optimised product to me. I opened up my controller with a screwdriver and there are 2 manual solders on the usb and pan pot there is excessive amounts of flux residue left over and the solders are large blobs (excessive solder) just poor production line and quality control as usual. Id be better off re-soldering it myself.
However that thread you have provided seems to be pretty inconclusive. Some people are saying this is what all Control Surfaces do, others saying not.
I don’t claim to be a Einstein on how Control Surfaces work but I thought it was just MIDI assignments and MIDI signals, no other signal types that I am aware of etc. and I can’t think of any technical reason as to why it would need to seemingly MIDI clock itself to the system like this while not changing any parameters, unless someone with more brains can explain it a little more logical to me.
Is this how Control Surfaces behave in other DAWs too ? Spiking the MIDI Out continuously ?
I have not seen every MIDI device in the world connected to Cubase, but I have certainly seen my fair share of MIDI gadgets, synths etc. I have never noticed the continuous MIDI Out signal spiking with any other equipment.
However , I was watching some videos on the Mackie MCU Control Surface and there does seem to be some MIDI Out Signal spiking. Its a little bit hard to see with all the video editing but I did notice it. But at the end of the video there doesnt seem to be any MIDI Out spiking on the Transport Bar, so I havn’t reached a conclusion yet.
Nobody wants a continuously spiking Transport Bar, simply annoying and distracting. It would be really nice if this issue could be fixed, but I am willing to be understandable if this is truly how they operate.
Heres a better Mackie MCU Control Surface with Cubase video, there is no noticeable MIDI Out Signal spiking on the Transport Bar. However it does seem to continuously start spiking when he starts to change parameters but it seems to stop once he is finished.
It is how Yamaha implemented it, it’s just a “keep alive” ping the CMC units send out.
I have learned to ignore it but it is nothing to worry about.
And yes very few if any controllers do that anymore, although I have owned some keyboards that did.
thankyou very much for your contribution to my threads, greatly appreciated and fun.
I could understand continuous MIDI Out signal spiking if the Control Surface needs to do that while keeping in sync with the transport playback position etc…
But continuously spiking while not playing back and not changing any parameters just seems a bit “odd”.
I did another a test with my CMC-CH controller as follows:
Cubase Pro 8.5
(1) With a fresh Empty project opened and not doing anything, I disconnected the CMC-CH controller USB cable to see what would happen.
Yes I know this is not the correct way to disconnect devices and every action has a re-action, so some kind of issue was to be expected, but these were the results:
The MIDI Out signal still continuously was spiking even after I had disconnected the controller. It also seemingly made Cubase Pro 8.5 unresponsive when trying to exit the application as it froze, I had to force quit.
Just a interesting observation that may or may not reveal some potential functionality / performance issues.
Anyhow I will just believe you for now that this is how they work. Thanks for your time and resources.
but it is nothing to worry about.