Midi controllers - generic remote

[kornilioswayout]

Good evening every one,

I have been a Cubase user from day one. I even bought the first Cubase midi sequencer with graphic editor on a disk in Amsterdam for the commodore 64, imagine that!

I had great fun in using Cubase in the past.

There is one main issue with the Cubase Daw that has frustrated me for a very long time to a point, that I have stopped using Cubase, and that is using midi controllers.

I have several controllers and using midi controllers gives a superb advantage to my workflow, being able to control all parameters in my DAW from any controller in my setup.

Today every DAW on the market has a learn button, which enables you to select a knob or fader on the screen and move the relevant slider or knob on your controller, and thats it, the fader moves from your controller.

I don’t understand why I need to setup a generic remote device for each of my controllers in such an advanced DAW as Cubase to use it, which most of the time doesn’t even work properly. it is very complicated and time consuming and not at all user friendly destroying my creativity spending hours to set it up and confirming its functionality. If you don’t export your setup, the next time you load your song, nothing is working and you have to set it up all over again… I remember posting this topic already several times on the web without any response. All videos on the internet only explain how to add a generic midi remote device.

I would very much appreciate any comments on this topic or similar user experiences.

My suggestion to Steinberg is to finally implement the learn feature for faders and knobs on the screen just like all the other Daw’s today and make our life easier and forget about adding generic remote midi devices to control the on screen parameters.

I love Cubase as is it the most advanced DAW to this day with superb plugins and editors capabilities.

Dear Steinberg, please respond to my feedback and I encourage user opinions on this topic.

have a good one in 2021 and kind regards,

Kornilios

[Dr.Strangelove]

hi @kornilioswayout

welcome to the forum - and thanks for a great first post.

Like you I go all the way back with Steinberg, to the very beginning.

Steinberg have promised some improvements to the the ‘remote’ functions - they were supposed to be included in v11 but weren’t ready.

MIDI Remote API / Official Statement

Rumour has it that we are working on a new MIDI Remote API. Usually we are not talking about our development roadmap, unreleased products or projects that are still under construction. But I guess we should make an exception from our policy here. So, yes, we are working on a new MIDI Remote API that will allow deeper integration, a more convenient setup workflow for external MIDI controllers and more flexibility for manufactures to integrate their hardware. This is a huge project though and re…

hopefully we’ll some improvement soon

[kornilioswayout]

Hello Dr. Strangelove, thanks for your swift reply and feedback

glad to see I am not the only one struggling with this issue in Cubase

It is good thing we got the conversation going

have a good evening!

kind regards,
Kornilios

[Nico5]

@kornilioswayout T- thanks for your post and I share some of your frustrations with the limitations of Cubase midi control.

For over a year now, I’ve been deep diving into in Cubase midi control (both Quick Controls and Generic Remote) programming with a variety of hardware midi controllers (I have over 10 dedicated midi controllers in my collection, of which 4 are currently connected).

Quick Controls are very cool, but the difference between Track Quick Controls and VST Quick Controls is confusing for anyone starting out (took me quite a while to fully understand what’s going on there).

Still not being able to remotely control page changes in the VST Quick Controls is downright maddening.

The Generic Control is powerful but very tedious to configure (I’ve been resorting to a lot of XML file editing with Visual Studio Code, to make some mass changes faster).

@Dr.Strangelove Thanks for the reference to the post indicating that there may be improvements coming.

I just hope whatever Steinberg is cooking up will improve the bi-directional capabilities of Quick Controls and the Generic Remote because it hooks into VST automation, rather than just midi. And that’s important, since VST automation is bi-directional, while midi automation in many (most?) plugins is single directional.

Quite a few of the better midi controllers with endless rotary dials/knobs, LED lit buttons and motorized or touch-strip faders will not only send midi, but also receive midi - thus allowing the remote to be perfectly in sync with the currently active software settings. So you don’t have to worry about jumps or turning the remote until “pick-up” takes effect. – And to me that is the magic sauce of full superiority of software over hardware.

Side note: I’m not immune to the appeal of (vintage) hardware (and I have a few items), but that’s the emotions of the conversation piece collector in me, not the emotions of the music maker.

Cubase has a lot of power for remote control. But some critical missing pieces and the lack of continuous development in that area for so many years has been quite frustrating.