Out of curiosity, what features would you like to see in a hardware controller that are not already implemented in the new midi remote framework? The way I see it, it would be more useful if Steinberg evolves the MR further (it’s already great for my personal workflow) than getting again into the hardware arena.
Which they don’t seem to have ever had any real commercial success doing. And that’s not saying they haven’t made some good stuff - I’ll very much miss my AI & QC units when they bite the dust. But selling hardware and selling software are pretty different and I don’t think hardware is in Steinberg’s DNA.
I think they should leverage their corporate siblings. Yamaha Instruments or Line 6 both have the expertise & experience to build great controllers for the general market but also integrated seamlessly with the full range of Steinberg products.
I agree, sure. However, I must note that the MIDI Remote can actually go pretty deep, and if some updates eventually come, it will go even deeper, making it almost trivial to have great integration with quite a few controllers out there. But yeah, having a Yamaha it may go even deeper by inside knowledge, no question about that. By the way, have you checked the integration with the new Montage M? I haven’t and curious to know how it goes.
True. At the same time, Novation built its flagship SL MK3 for seamless integration with Ableton Live. Now, here’s a detail: using midi remote one can always have similar level of integration, by not relying anymore to manufacturers, as long as they do provide some technical specifications. Novation, thankfully, did that. The reason I’m mentioning this, and just to get back to the conversation, is that I somehow think that Steinberg, by introducing this new way of dealing with controllers, seems to have made a decision, towards strictly software solutions. And in my personal opinion, this is actually great
Good point. Based of what you have said I think the only real option would be akin to what pro tools has developed where their hardware is literally bringing in a new software to pair with the studio session >
Sure. I don’t know how the SKI Remote is currently evolving, but eventually we could have iPads and Androids in a perfect pair with our controllers. As a side note, we can always have our tablets as a second monitor and guide it to load useful views. I do use this approach for some FX UIs I love to see while controlling them.
He mentions that this will be coming to Steinberg DAWs next, that will be really interesting and looks like it could tick a lot of boxes for me.
Does anyone know much more about it? I really like their transparent mappings in the past, so i’m curious if they’ll chose to go the MIDI Remote API route or not as this could open up a lot of options with the colouring options and display.
Was in NAMM 2023 as well. Was supposed to be out sometime near September, but they had some issues. The “problem” with Nektar is that they do pretty deep integrations, but on their own closed way. This means that whatever they do will most probably be great, however trying to alter it using the midi remote will involve a lot of reverse engineering and even then taking advantage of the display may not be possible at all. I failed with the Panorama P6 (I did ask them for sysex details, they kindly refused to give, perfectly understandable and acceptable, so I didn’t really bother to get deeper with reverse) just as an example.
Have you ever came across midiView? It’s a pretty nice midi monitor that can be inserted between your hardware and cubase. I find it very usefull for debugging/reverse-engineering. Its major limitation is you can only use it for one port at a time.
But it could be used to sniff the ouptut from cubase and still send to you controller so you could reverse engineer the sysex stream.
Thank you for your help my friend, really appreciated.
Yes, I do have it and occasionally use it, I even have my own viewer, plus usb sniffers and other tools.
It’s my fault because the way I wrote about sysexes, it’s obvious I must be referring to midi, though I actually meant to write about system messages over usb. Sorry for the confusion.
All right, so you mean Nektar devices use system messages outside of MIDI protocol? That’s a shame I don’t understand brand trying to impede people using their devices in a creative way…
I remind you that before the new midi remote, there was not that much of interest on custom manipulations, because most of the time exotic implementations were needed, when it comes to displays and stuff. Now, I’m not convinced that a company should really expose its system architecture, especially in cases like Nektartech, since the guys there are doing an incredible job with DAW integrations. At the end of the day, let’s not forget that we can always have completely customizable tablets/monitors complimented our setups
According to that NAMM video he’s refers to some sort of command or control centre that runs in the background and speaks to the DAW, and then their hardware speaks to that. So perhaps that’s what @m.c refers to with the original Panorama hardware - only this time round that layer is given a more formal identity?
It certainly should offer some a great off-the-shelf experience if they’re putting the leg work in to pair it up with each supported host plus throw in some third party mappings. Personally, i’m really hoping it goes through the MIDI Remote so we can customise it, even if that’s only within the mapping assistant. We shall find out in the coming months I guess.
I’m certainly very excited for it and hoping for a few more videos to come out of NAMM.
The coloured insert slots, and the option to limit automation to the motorised fader to prevent accidental changes, and fine control toggle all have me intrigued too. It’s great to see a company who aren’t happy to just piggy back MCU.
Yeah, that looks super interesting. I wonder how long it takes them to integrate with a new DAW? I like they’re using the large display rather than a bunch of small ones scattered about. Seems very well thought out ergonomically. I bet (hope?) those knobs feel a lot more solid than on my X-Touch.
Can’t tell exactly when this blog update was posted, but seems they are still on the case; obviously taking longer than they originally thought… " Support for Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo is in development and we are making good progress." Panorama CS12 form - Nektar Technology, Inc
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This is the unit I am most interested in of late (price/features).
