pre-Pro Mackie MCU with Cubase 12?

I have tried everything to get my old pre-Pro pre-USB Mackie MCU to work with Cubase 12 with no luck. (Everything works except the faders) I am curious if ANYONE has ever gotten one of these to work, or if I am barking up the wrong tree. (My MCU works fine with Sonar but I just purchased Cubase 12 and need it to work with my surface…)

It should have the same MIDI messages as the USB version that is MIDI over USB. What is not working with the faders? Does cubase not respond? Does the motors not work?

Cubase fader response is erratic. If I move a fader on the mackie, the Cubase fader initially responds, but then after a second or so, Cubase suddenly moves both faders back to where they were initially. Or sometimes, Cubase will wait a few seconds and then start nudging the Mackie fader back, little by little as if to taunt me. And sometimes, I will move a fader up all the way, and Cubase will immediately move it back down, just a little bit. This happens whether I am playing a track or just moving the fader with no playing - so it is not a hidden automation track. In Sonar, the faders are perfect - never any nonsensical moving. And if I have an automation track in Sonar, the faders on the mackie follow the automation perfectly.

I will also note that I tried using COMPATIBILITY MODE for the surface on Cubase, it might have helped a little, but I still get the problems. I also tried changing from my RME ASIO audio drivers to the GENERIC LOW LATENCY driver - still had the fader problem. I also have ALL MIDI INS unchecked, and that made no difference. And I disabled the Microsoft synth in win10, that also made no difference (I have no other midi devices) My RME Fireface 800 has all the most updated drivers and firmware. It seems like an intractable problem with Cubase… One thing I have not tried yet is to change cables - which seems like an unlikely fix since the cables I have work fine with Sonar - but I will give that a try out of desperation later today…

I seem little bit that you have a flooding issue.What midi interface do you use? I would suggest that you try a other midi interface. RME usually do very good stuff so it is a long shot but at least you can rule that part out. Something like Miditech Midilink mini – Thomann Ireland or borrow something.

Good idea… But what is “flooding”?

On usb there is a bandwith limitation on 12, 480, 5000 mb/s on real hardware there is 31 kbit/s. So the slowest usb-midi is about 400 times faster. If there is a flow that is above the hardware limitation there is flooding since it is impossible that it can handle it. It is supposed to be flow control so that cubase is not sending to much data and cubase than can (or should) prioritize its messages. If it still continue to send the hardware-driver will drop data and it will looks erratic and random.

Interesting! Here is another clue I didnt mention before: If I move the fader on Cubase with my mouse, the Mackie fader goes up and down in sync with the Cubase fader perfectly EXCEPT: When the Cubase fader is up all the way (+6db), the fader on the mackie does not go up all the way - it only goes to +6 (matching Cubase fader). But the Mackie can go to +10. (higher than the Cubase can reflect) I thought maybe things would work if I restricted the Mackie fader motion to be less than 6, but problems persist even if I dont go above 6. I found a Cubase PROJECT setting for VOLUME MAX of the faders, but Cubase only allows +6 or +12. So I wonder if it could be an issue of calibration mismatch??? But why then would Cubase work fine with Mackie Pro MCU which also goes to +10?

I am waiting for a Cubase tech to call me today - but is today a holiday for USA as well as Germany at Steinberg?

USB version of MCU also goes to +10 dB. (with the 12dB cubase limit) I guess that is about matching the hardware scale or something. AVID controllers go to +12dB in cubase.