MIDI Device Manager - Is It Worth Bothering With?

Cubase
,
1

Hi folks

I’ve just started trying to setup an old hardware reverb unit (TC Electronic M3000) in Cubase 14 (Windows 11) using MIDI Device Manager (MDM), so that I can control the device from Cubase using MIDI commands.

The main Cubase Operation manual advised me to download a separate manual called “MIDI Devices”, which I did. I’ve started by just trying to do Program Changes on the hardware which has a built in MIDI monitor which helps me see what’s going on. So far I seem to have encountered what seems like quite a buggy interface in MDM. For examle I can’t seem to reliably select different MIDI channels for my created device by clicking on the relevent channel in MDM, even when I have loaded the relevant “panel”. I find sometimes I need to save it or fiddle around with changing views before it then decides to do what I expected. Also some items the manual describes like an “Edit Menu” appear to be missing.

Being new to this, I’m not totally sure whether I’m doing things wrong or that it is indeed the software which is the problem. I note the manual is dated Jan 7 2009, which makes me wonder how much attention this part of the software has received recently.

So before I spend yet more of my miserable existence on this onerous task, I wondered what experiences other people might have had with MDM. So my question is, should I bother with MDM or just stick to reaching around the back of my monitor and navigating the hardware menu-divey interface instead?

Many thanks!

2

Unfortunately, the Device Panels feature in Cubase has not seen any love from the developers in years. Yes, there are issues, and by modern standards it’s a very frustrating UI to work with, but when it does work, it does add a level of convenience when working with external MIDI gear.

I think you just have to weigh up the investment in time (and hair loss) against the resultant potential* advantages.

(* “potential” because it may not work, or you may lose your mind before getting a usable result)

1 Like
3

Thanks for your help. That kind of chimes with what I suspected. I might relegate this one to the “life’s too short” drawer.

Cheers :+1:

1 Like