Hi
Is there a way to prevent Cubase from outputting the aftertouch messages when using Mackie Control?
Thanks
Could you explain that a little more clearly, please? (that reads like Cubase is outputting aftertouch messages to somewhere, but I suspect that isn’t what you mean 
)
What happens is this. I use a BCR2000 in Mackie Emulation Mode. When I use the Mackie Control in Midi Devices, and I hit play, the Midi Activity indicator on the transport window shows output. I tested for the output and it is aftertouch messages being sent on the midi out channel setup for the Mackie Control. I suspect that this is data that the Mackie Control would use to display the meters for the channels. This happens whenever Cubase outputs audio.
When I remove the Mackie Control, I do not have this happening.
I can understand why this is happening, I just want to know if I can disable the “feature”.
Well you can indeed filter out aftertouch from the incoming MIDI to the selected MIDI track… Open the MIDI track’s Input Transformer (the “crooked arrow” icon in the Inspector)… If you choose “Global” instead of “Local”, then that Input Transformer setting will be available for all tracks…
Upper section…
Type is___ Equal___Aftertouch
Lower section (leave empty)
Mode = “Filter”
(Don’t forget to activate the current module )
(although I am surprised that the BCR is permanently sending out aftertouch messages 
)
I’m sorry if I wasn’t clear. It is not the BCR2000 sending the aftertouch messages. It is Cubase sending those messages out to the BCR.
[EDITED] I don’t actually have a Mackie Control-compatible external unit, but I have just activated the Mackie Control Device, so now at least I know what you are talking about …
Yes, if the Mackie needs to receive feedback from the Steinberg device, then I, too, see that it is sending a stream of MIDI data (although it wasn’t aftertouch here).
So long as the Mackie isn’t also routed to the input of a MIDI track, then this is doing no harm (that MIDI data that worries you is going only to the Mackie, nowhere else 
)
If you don’t need the feedback from the Steinberg device, just change its output to “not connected”.
i appreciate that this is a very old thread, but it’s something that I’ve been looking into lately and this post came up in a google search.
I have a Tascam US-2400 controller and I noticed that the LED rings around the encoders would flicker and glitch randomly (and quite distractingly) during playback in Cubase 10.5. I monitored the MIDI output using LoopMIDI and MIDI-OX and discovered the Channel Aftertouch data that GMan mentions. It is indeed for the meters, as the Meter Mode on my controller no longer works when it’s filtered out. Meter Mode is pointless on the US-2400 anyway, so no problem there. I also found a lot of data being transmitted on channel 16. Different sorts of Sustain data mostly. This is maybe for controllers with time displays? I filtered that out too, using MIDI-OX. The result is no more flickering LEDs, which is nice.
I wonder if anyone knows of a way to tell Cubase not to send that data when using Mackie Control, other than adding virtual MIDI ports and third party filters as I have done.
Time to refresh this old thread…
This is absolutely nuts, and I would say it’s a bug in Cubase. As you say, this is for the Meter Mode, and a Mackie Control protocol description I have found says this:
“Only transmit peak levels. This approach ensures that MIDI bandwidth takes only a fraction of that required by implementations where the current level (and peak level) is transmitted constantly.”
If I trigger an extremely short pulse of a sawtooth oscillator, Cubase spends about 9 seconds (!) sending over 8.000 (!) Channel Aftertouch messages of which about the last 3.000 messages say “peak level 0”. 
Hi,
You can setup, what do you want to see on the rings around the V-Pots on the Mackie Control hardware. By default the currently controlled values are shown.
But you can change it to see the meters levels.
Yes, I can change to see the meters levels with a considerable delay, since Cubase floods the Midi channel to the extent that it takes 9 seconds to send the levels that existed in Cubase for just a fraction of a second.
This thread isn’t about what I can do on the Mackie side, it’s about Cubase sending a massive amount of unnecessary information. What is, for instance, the point in sending 3.000 consecutive identical messages saying that the level is 0?
As stated in earlier posts, the messages from Cubase overload the device in such a way that the LEDs just flicker. And when using Midi middleware ( as I do), it sometimes shuts down the midi port due to overload and suspected midi loops.
Hi,
Isn’t it specified by Mackie Control protocol, Cubase must to send these data?
As I mentioned above, from a protocol spec:
OK, so Cubase only sends peak levels, but for Christ’s sake, only send a single message for a single peak level! That way, you can send the levels in real-time instead of getting an extreme backlog due to the flooding. Sending over 3.000 identical messages for a single peak level makes no sense.
This is what it looks like: CubaseMackieAftertouch - YouTube
I must admit I mistook the numbers in the midi list for instances but it is actually time. So it isn’t 3.000 identical messages, but 300. Still doesn’t make sense to me, especially since it isn’t even close to real-time.
Hi,
This is because the meters have much higher resolution. So the real value changes. But the MIDI resolution is much lower.
So if I understand you right, you would expect, Cubase sends the value to MIDI only in case of the change of the MIDI value, right?
Yes. I can’t see that anything else makes any logical sense. And it also conforms with what I think is the intent with the protocol spec, saying, “This approach ensures that MIDI bandwidth takes only a fraction of that required by implementations where the current level (and peak level) is transmitted constantly.”
Hi,
Thank you for clarification. I would add the feature-request tag, if you don’t mind.
Great, thanks. 
Ah yes, that would be a possible explanation as to why one of my LoopMIDI ports occasionally mutes itself. I’ve just got used to a routine now… start LoopMIDI, start MIDI-OX, start Cubase.
Even though I haven’t noticed any performance issues (I don’t curently send MIDI out to anything apart from my controllers) - it would certaily be good if there were an option to limit the sending of some, if not all of this data within Cubase.