I’m working on setting up my MIDI configuration in Cubase and face a limitation that I hope to find some solutions for. I want to transform multiple CC messages to other values within my Cubase tracks, and I identified that MIDI inserts with transformers could be a potential solution.
However, I’ve noticed that I can only use up to four transformers per track due to the limited slots in MIDI inserts. Since each transformer seems to allow only one transformation from one CC to another, this effectively limits me to transforming up to four different CC messages per track.
Am I understanding the capabilities of the transformers correctly? Is each transformer indeed limited to just one operation, or is there a way to configure a single transformer to handle multiple CC message transformations?
I would really appreciate any guidance on how to manage multiple CC transformations more efficiently within Cubase, or if there’s something I’m missing about how transformers can be used.
Thank you for your suggestion. I’ve tried it , but it seems it doesn’t fit my use case.
Although your method allows for up to four transformations per MIDI clip, my setup involves a MIDI keyboard with about 12 different MIDI notes that need transforming. Following your advice, I would end up with three separate MIDI tracks, each handling four transformations.
Let’s simplify the example: Suppose I want to transform the notes A4 to G4 to make them A0 to G0, leaving all other MIDI notes unchanged. The issue arises when I route these three MIDI tracks to a single instrument, say a Kontakt instrument, which I plan to play live.
The main problem is managing the simultaneous transformations live. If I press A4, one MIDI track will convert it to A0, but the other two MIDI tracks will still output A4 because their transformations are set for other notes. So, even though one MIDI track correctly transforms the note, the others continue to output the original note, which isn’t the desired result.
Additionally, since all three MIDI tracks are active, the notes that aren’t transformed will be played three times over, effectively tripling the volume in the instrument. I confirmed this in practice, and the volume becomes much louder.
Unless I’ve overlooked something, this setup doesn’t seem ideal for live play, especially when trying to manage multiple transformations dynamically.
P.S. Just for clarity, in my explanation above I mentioned needing three tracks, but that was to simplify the discussion by omitting details about note-offs. In reality, I would need six tracks to also handle the note-off messages for each transformation. This detail isn’t central to our main discussion but thought it’s worth mentioning to explain why I initially said three tracks instead of six.
Thank you for your reply. Here is a detailed explanation of my situation and what I aim to achieve.
The idea behind this is to use the pads of my controller to be mapped from all the notes from C-2 to B0. The pads on my controller are not ordered, which is why I need this full remapping. Although I initially mentioned needing only 12 remappings, my final goal is to completely remap the controller, which involves all its 36 MIDI notes (in total 72: 36 NoteON and 36 NoteOFF).
Explanation of Nomenclature:
The following nomenclature is used in the list of transformations to indicate what I am transforming:
NOTEON or NOTEOFF indicates whether the MIDI message is a note-on or note-off event.
C-1/CH13 indicates the note C in octave -1 on channel 13. (Example)
TO C-2/CH1 indicates the transformation to note C in octave -2 on channel 1. (Example)
List of Transformations:
These are the transformations I want to apply. To read it, you can follow the nomenclature explained above.
(Each line correpsond to a single transformation)
My controller doesn’t allow for easy remapping through its software, so my only option is to intercept and change the incoming MIDI messages, which is what I’m trying to do.
Final Decision:
Never mind, I will go with a third-party Bome MIDI Translator editor as it might solve my issue more effciently. I think Cubase can’t solve this directly.
Stepping back a bit - when we’re asking what you are trying to accomplish, that’s a fairly high level question about the goal you want to achieve. But when reading your last post, it is more a detailed description of how you want to achieve the goal - the nuts & bolts of implementation.
We’re asking about the goal because we (speaking for Steve too, and why not) suspect you are making something more complicated than it needs to be. But we can’t really tell because we don’t know what you are trying to accomplish.
Reading between the lines it sounds like you have a Pad Controller with 36 Pads. Probably arranged in a 6x6 grid?
I’ve no idea what you mean by this. Typically a Pad Controller would have the upper left Pad assigned to MIDI Note# 0 (C-2) and the lower right Pad to MIDI Note# 35 (B0). And pressing a Pad generates a Note-On message & releasing a Note-Off.
How does your Controller differ from this?
Also does your Controller have a brandname? Maybe someone’s already built what you need. Folks here tend to share
Thanks for answering! To address your points directly:
Controller Mapping Goals:
I want to reassign the MIDI notes on my Xone K2 controller. It’s not set up in a traditional 6x6 grid as you suggested—instead, it’s somewhat irregular, which complicates things for my use.
Order of Pads:
You mentioned typical Pad Controllers have an orderly assignment from C-2 upwards. Mine differs in that the initial assignment is not in any fully logical order , thus the need to remap them completely.
Here are the initial and desired mappings visually:
To clarify further, the initial bottom line goes from C-1 to D#-1, but then the second line above it jumps to C0 instead of continuing from D#-1. This pattern indicates that a simple pitch transposition won’t work, thus necessitating a complete reassignment of notes. This loops back to my initial point about the limitations with MIDI CC transformations in Cubase for this specific use case, leading me to use Bome MIDI Translator for this purpose as it’s not easily achievable within Cubase.
Of course, I’ve looked into whether anyone in the forum has remapped this controller, but as far as I know no one has shared anything directly similar to my specific remapping for the Xone K2.
