Push 2 / Nuendo & Cubase Bridge — Free, Open-Source Controller Integration

Steinberg Lounge
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Hi everyone,

I’d like to share a project I’ve been working on: Push 2 / Nuendo Bridge, a free and open-source application that turns the Ableton Push 2 into a full-featured controller for Steinberg Nuendo 15 and Cubase.

It runs as a lightweight macOS menu bar app and gives you mixer control (volume, pan, mute, solo, monitor, record arm), send levels, insert management with plugin parameter control, Quick Controls, transport (play, stop, record, cycle, metronome), automation modes, touchstrip (pitch bend, mod wheel, or volume fader), note input with drum and chromatic modes, note repeat, scale selection, Control Room volume, and more — all with visual feedback on the Push 2 display including track colors, VU metering, and track names. Read the User Guide to know more.

I already have ideas for new features, feel free to add your own! Let me know how it works for you. Current version is 1.0.1.

:globe_with_meridians: Website: push2bridge.kaikuaudio.com :package: GitHub: github.com/mbourque-mix/Push2Nuendo-Bridge

A few things worth knowing before you dive in:

I’m not a programmer. This entire project was built with the help of AI (Claude), so there are very likely rough edges, suboptimal code, and bugs I haven’t caught. It works well for my own workflow, but your mileage may vary.

The bridge has only been tested on macOS. Windows is not tested at all — it may work with some adaptation (you’d need loopMIDI for virtual MIDI ports), but I can’t guarantee anything on that front.

I also want to be upfront: I’m not in a position to offer in-depth technical support. I’ll do my best to answer questions when I can, but I can’t commit to troubleshooting individual setups. If you run into issues, the GitHub Issues page is the best place to report them.

Known limitations and bugs:

  • The bridge may occasionally lose sync with Nuendo, requiring a Stop/Start from the menu bar or a full app restart.

  • The Nuendo MIDI Remote script sometimes needs to be reloaded manually (via Scripting Tools → Reload Scripts), especially after long sessions or waking from sleep.

  • Maximum of 127 tracks, due to the 7-bit MIDI CC range used for track indexing.

  • Adding, deleting, moving, or renaming tracks while the bridge is running can cause temporary display glitches. A manual rescan (Shift + 7th lower row button) usually fixes it.

  • Input and Output bus tracks (including Stereo Out) may display incorrect names or parameters and may show in the wrong order — this is a limitation of Steinberg’s MIDI Remote API. It is recommended to hide them from the MixConsole view.

  • It will only work with Push 2. I don’t have access to a Push 3 the the layout isn’t exactly the same, it’s fair to think it will not work.

Want to contribute?

The project is GPL-3.0 licensed and open to contributions on GitHub. If you’re a developer (or just someone more code-savvy than me), pull requests, bug reports, and suggestions are very welcome. There’s a CONTRIBUTING.md and a DCO in the repo.

Thanks for reading, and I hope some of you find this useful!

2 Likes
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Amazing. I’ll subscribe to stay in the loop on this.

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thanks for your effort. i can not contribute as i am not a programmer and 2nd I have windows.

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We need it for Windows OS

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It should work on Windows, I just don’t have a Windows machine to test it. I asked Claude to generate a more detailed Windows Installation Guide. It is not necessarily straight forward, but not that complicated. Without being a programmer (which I’m not!), if someone’s welling to give it a try and tell me how it worked out! Also, AI is your best friend if you need help, just give it the files and ask how to make it work.

Push2_Nuendo_Bridge_Windows_Installation_Guide.pdf (20.6 KB)

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Hey @mbourque,
I haven’t been able to try the app yet, but I just wanted to say how exciting this project already looks. What you’ve built has huge potential for Cubase/Push 2 users, and it’s clear you’ve put real passion into it. I hope you keep developing it — the community would love to see this grow, and your work could become something truly special for a lot of us on both macOS and Windows. Keep going, you’re onto something well desired.

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Thanks for your kind words!
I’ve done it to fit my needs, the Push is a stunning controller, well engineered, and to have the possibility to use it with Cubase/Nuendo is definitely a must. I really like that the Control Room has now physical controls. And the AI knob, so useful.
Since I’ve not written a single line of code, I’ve decided to distribute it with a GPLv3 license to ensure that development could continue without me if I was to be unable to do it. Still, it took some time to prompt my needs to Claude, to test, re-prompt, re-test, etc… Surprisingly, it was not that complicated. I did the same exercise 6 months ago and it was a no go. The new AI models are quite impressive. This kind of project would not have been profitable from a business point a view. I really appreciate the fact that AI gives power to develop the tools some people need, even if it’s very specific and not mainstream.

My next steps are to have a MIDI CC page, to be able to adjust CC on the fly, like expression or volume. Also, I’d like to explore the possibility to create a plugin mapper. Right now, in Inserts mode (the Browse button), you can access the plugin parameters, but the parameters are in whatever order the manufacturer has decided to list them. It would be nice to be able to create a map that will always load with its associated plugin. It may take some time to program so maybe this feature will not be available soon. Also, I’d like to have a page for the Cubase’s channel strip, but I’m not sure if the informations are available from the MIDI Remote Mapping. I wish Steinberg will make a SDK to access more advanced functions from the software, as Avid did with Protools.

I’m really curious to see if someone could try it on Windows, to see how it goes. Someone told me he was able to build the bridge for Mac Intel, from the code I’ve published, which is a good news (the current bridge app is Silicon only)!

Push 2 are kind of cheap on Marketplace (around 400$ CAD). With this bridge, it can easily be the cheapest advanced controller for Cubase and Nuendo.

3 Likes
Need a script , anyone have a yamaha dm200 script for remote
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Push 2 / Nuendo & Cubase Bridge — v1.0.2 Update

v1.0.2 is now available on GitHub with a good number of new features:

Setup Page (Setup button) — a new tabbed settings interface directly on the Push 2 display, including Aftertouch Mode selection (Polyphonic, Channel, or Off), Velocity Curve presets (Linear, Logarithmic, Exponential, S-Curve, Fixed) with visual graphs, and adjustable Fixed Velocity value via encoder (synced with the Accent button).

MIDI CC Controller (Shift+Note) — 8 assignable CC faders with value bars, CC number editing, and on/off toggle.

Mixer shortcuts — Mute/Solo/Monitor/Rec now available on Device and Inserts pages (lower row buttons 5–8 on the selected track). Double press upper row in Mix mode opens Edit Channel Settings. Long press upper row in Inserts opens the plugin UI without entering parameter mode. Clear Monitor / Clear Rec (Shift+Mute/Solo in Mon/Rec mode) clears all monitors or rec arms across all tracks.

About Page — displays Bridge version and JS Script version.

Windows Installation Guide — a step-by-step PDF covering Python setup, loopMIDI, libusb/Zadig, and running the bridge from source. Windows support is still experimental and untested on my end, but this should help anyone willing to try.

Full details and download:

https://github.com/mbourque-mix/Push2Nuendo-Bridge

2 Likes