Metagrid with Cubase: You need to check this out.

Keep in mind, the more buttons you fit in one scene, the longer it takes you to learn or remember where all the buttons are assuming you want to be fast. I’m out of town at the moment but I think most of my scenes are 64 slots. My project page scene has over 100, but I’m also still learning it because it has a large amount of slots.

Also organizing the buttons using color and icons in a logical way the way you think is important.

So for myself the size…12 or 10 is not so important.

Having a severe cash flow problem at the moment, while I would like to try this, buying a new ipad is out of the question.

But I see on cex (UK 2nd hand store) , I can buy the following.(with a 24 month warranty)

Ipad 1 32GB Wifi £75
Ipad 2 16GB Wifi £155
Ipad 2 32GB Wifi £165
Ipad 3 16GB Wifi £175
Ipad 3 32GB Wifi £200
Ipad 4 16GB wifi £215
Ipad 4 32GB Wifi £230
Ipad Air 1 32GB Wifi £240
Ipad Air 2 16GB Wifi £265
Ipad Air 2 64GB Wifi £300
Ipad (2017) 32GB Wifi A grade £300
Ipad (2017) 32GB Wifi B grade £270

etc etc

All the above are B grade except for the one labeled A grade. They also have C grade versions of all of them cheaper.

A grade - Product in mint/new condition with original box and all original accessories.
B grade - Product in good condition with all essential accessories. No box required.
C grade - Product in poor condition and fully working with all essential accessories. No box required.

If I want to use the ipad just for music, ie Metagrid and maybe a few of the synths, would going for an ipad 3 or 4 be a good choice, or am I likely to be buying something that new software wont be able to run on? I presume going for the 1 and 2 versions is not a wise choice?

For the next few weeks finding £200 will be hard, but probably doable :slight_smile:

Many thanks

I did exactly the same thing & bought a used iPad Air 2 64GB WiFi in fair condition. Works fine.

OT, I know, but . . .

I use Shift/Alt and the “open channel” button (on right just above master fader) on my MCU to do this.
And then Shift with the “open channel” button again closes them.
Last window positions for the VSTs are remembered, also.

hUGH

Way OT but since you said that, I had to look at the MCU and yes, missing on the QconPro is all 4 modifiers. Therefore I don’t think that is possible on the QconPro. That is a definite advantage worth noting for those comparing MCU type controllers. Thanks for the tip.

I’m assuming you first have to focus the channel in order to open all VST’s on any given channel with the MCU?
Using Work Spaces I don’t need to focus a channel. For instance channel 1 might be focused but on channel 2, I decide to make a change on the 4th of 5 VST inserts. With Work Spaces I use a KC to show all 5 VST’s on channel 2 then make necessary parameter adjustments while channel 1 is still highlighted.

I’m very interested in this now!

I would also like to hear more people’s opinion on the size of iPad - I’ll be buying either the 10.5 or the 12.9 inch version, but can’t decide on which. Ideally I would have two 10.5’s, like I see in some of their demo videos (the less going to different menus/pages the better for workflow for me), but iPads are so overpriced that I can’t rationalize two at this point. The 12.9 just might be too big, I dunno. Would like to hear more thoughts on that!

I’ve been looking at a second hand older iPad for a second one as it doesn’t appear to need the latest iOS.

Thanks Steve for letting me know what the app was earlier on your facebook page. amazing track as always.

Just wondering, does anyone have any screen shots of how they’ve laid out their scenes?
I’m basically customising it now with all my odd shortcuts i.e. fixed lengths, velocity, dissolve parts, audio pitch bend, fades etc.
Has anyone made the most ergonmic page of shortcuts EVAHHHH?

I know its all subjective but i think its a good idea to share. Will post mine up when i’ve fgured out what i want on my main scene :smiley:
thx again steve.

FYI to all: I bought a refurbished 12.9 from eBay, and it’s amazing with Metagrid. Highly recommend the largest size you can get!

Scenes and lay-outs sort of follow the foundation of Cubase for me. That means a scene for the project page…sort of home base. One for midi drum/key editing and other midi stuff. One for processing. One for workspaces. One for my 3 mix consoles. One for automation and markers and importing opening closing updating files. But again depending on your objectives, yours could be very differrnt.

Typing this on my newly purchased iPad Air 2 (well new to me)

Will be buying Metagrid in the next few days (once I’ve worked out how to use the iPad properly) :grinning:

Here’s my main page, but I guess everyone’s needs will vary.

Yep, neat app. There’s a few others out there that do similar stuff. Definitely check out Lemur too.

As a passion project and labor of love, I’ve spent the last year and a half coding my own iOS control surface app (and macOS server module) that basically distills the best features of MCU/HUI, Lemur/TouchOSC, and macro trigger apps like Metagrid into a single interface, fully configurable, with seamless zero-config network presence detection, controlling multiple DAWs and system/app/window commands/whatever you can dream up on the same machine and/or multiple machines on the network, and seamlessly scalable across as many iPads as you care to line up on your desk. I have 10 iPads running it simultaneously. Long story. Don’t ask.

I just got tired of a billion different protocols, standards, dodgy connections (MCU/HUI, anyone?), flakiness, needing dedicated hardware for each function (faders, MIDI CC input, pads, etc.) or having to switch between iPad apps which, again, all control just one app at a time or serve one function at a time. This has replaced 100% of my controller hardware except my MIDI keyboard.

Does metagrid work in portrait / vertical mode ?

No. It’s all orientated in landscape.

ok Cheers, back to TouchOSC and MidiStroke it is then ;-(

When I first got Metagrid I put some effort into figuring out what buttons I wanted on the main page & how to lay them out.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to try doing the exact opposite. I created a blank page called Temp and now as I’m working whenever (almost) I do something where having it on a Metagrid Button would be useful, I’ll stop and make that Button in Temp. Often this can result in making several related Buttons at the same time - if you are making a Disable All Solo button it just makes sense to do Mute & Listen at the same time. I group stuff the best I can in the remaining empty space, but the layout is basically wherever it fits. Eventually I’ll copy the buttons into layouts that make more sense.

What I’ve found interesting is that a bunch of these buttons are not items I even thought of including on my first ‘designed’ page. Turns out that the tasks I actually perform are not the same as the tasks I think I perform.

Can someone who has Metagrid check and see if all of the Score… Key Commands are missing. The only ones I can find are to Open the Score Editor. Nothing beyond that.

I’m out of town or I could easily check. Bump this in a day if no one else replies.

With Metagrid, and considering how flexible Cubase is and how it’s used so differently by so many users, I’m guessing there will be very many set-up methods.

For myself, and at this point in time, the most obvious Metagrid control problem is really Cubase problem since Cubase still to this day has no focus manager, especially important for users of large and multiple video screens.

With that said, my Metagrid organizational set-up pretty much follows Cubase. I designed separate scenes for project page, midi pages, mix console, audio processing, etc and then combined a few features such as workspaces and automation in a single scene. Of course, I do end up with some duplicate buttons existing in multiple scenes such as undo/redo, copy/paste/delete, cycle on/off etc, but try to keep the duplicates to a minimum.

For $14 Metagrid is a tool I would have paid much more for and it really has become the “center” of my workflow…even in Wavelab. It’s like going a level above the Logical Editor, Key Commands, and Micros.

I started a new thread for folks who have Metagrid to discuss the nuts & bolts of using it with Cubase.