Hi, I’m working on a simple MIDI Device Panel to control an external pedal board. The problem is that two of the three switch types (Momentary and Single Shot), do not behave as documented. For the momentary, I’m expecting to see one CC message with the Maximum value (127) upon press and one CC message with the Minimum value (0) upon release. The configuration is Min = 0, Max = 127, Default = 0, and then the mysterious variable ‘x’ is given for the CC value.
The MIDI Devices documentation states:
“Unlike faders, knobs and data entry objects, the switches can only send two values. Normally, hardware controls that function like Switches only respond to 0 and 127, or 0 and 64. The Min and Max values in the Parameter window correspond to the two alternate states (on/off) of the switch.”
What happens with both the Momentary and the Single shot is that the ‘x’ value initially starts at 0 and gets incremented with each button press. The message series looks something like this in the MIDI Output Monitor (tied to the output port of the interface):
Controller Value Value Value Channel Length Position Comment
108 1 - button press (msg 1 of 2)
108 2 - (msg 2 of 2)
108 2 - button release (msg 3)
rather than:
108 127 - button press (msg 1)
108 0 - button release (msg 2)
The only switch that seems to be working is the On / Off, which looks like this:
109 0 - button press (msg 1 of 2)
109 127 - (msg 2 of 2)
109 127 - button release (msg 3)
109 127 - button press (msg 1 of 2)
109 0 - (msg 2 of 2)
109 0 - button release (msg 3)
I’m running the latest patch of Cubase 14 on 64 bit Windows 10. Is the problem related to some corruption in my installation? or is it a known problem? or am I doing something wrong?
Here is an example Parameter definition for a momentary switch. Note that the ‘x’ value is slowly walking up as a counter of button presses.
I have been unable to find any documentation of what “Formulas” are built in - from the Parameter definition UI I infer that ‘channel’ and ‘x’ are built-in formulas. Is there a list and explanation somewhere? The ‘x’ formula seems to be a persistent counter of button presses.
Lastly, I see either three or four messages depending on whether I use the ‘x’ or a fixed value and the button type, not two as expected. I have a single MIDI interface active and there are no loops. The extraneous messages appear only from the Device Panel interface. I can output individual messages without corruption from a MIDI Event on a track.
Thank you for any comments / wisdom you might share.