Question about Icon Platform M with Cubase

Cubase
1

Hi,
I have been searching for a decent easy to install, does what it says on the box controller for controlling MIDI CCs in Cubase.
I came across the Icon Platform range. Looks good looks easy to set up. However, from a utube video, I saw them set up CC’s and they were using the CC’s that ‘nelong’ to the track, rather than the key editor Ccs. This is important because the track CCs do not move with parts - so if you have say a volume change for a part at bar 9, then move the part to bar 15, the volume change stays at bar 9.

This would be a deal breaker.

Is it possible to set up the Icon so it reads and writes part CC’s as seen in Cubase’s Key Editor?

thank you

2

Hi,

Icon Platform M is not MIDI Controller (the one, you are searching for), this is more DAW Controller. Unfortunately the sellers are mixing those two terms together, because any DAW Controller can be used as MIDI Controller and vice versa.

But the main purpose of the DAW Controller is to control the DAW (mostly the Mix). The main purpose of the MIDI Controller is to send plain MIDI data to the track.

The Icon Platform M is using Mackie Control Protocol. This means, the faders are not sending MIDI CCs values, but PitchBend values. Specifically:

  • Fader 1: PitchBend Channel 1.
  • Fader 2: PitchBend Channel 2.
  • Fader 3: PitchBend Channel 3.
  • etc.

This is, how is the Mackie Control Protocol specified.

Moreover the encoders are not sending MIDI CCs the common way. By Mackie Control Specification, they are sending only Increment/Decrement value (0 if you turn left and 64 if you turn right, or something like this; and the values are increasing, if you turn faster). So if you would stay with this settings, you could control MIDI CCs the common way.

I’m not Icon Platform M user and I haven’t read the Owners Manual, but it’s likely, there is some kind of Controller Mode, which would behave the way you expect, so it would sent common MIDI CCs. But, to make it really useful, you would need to send the MIDI CC values back to the Icon Platform M (to get advantage of the motorised faders). Which is not really an easy setup.

And there is one more mistake in your presumption:

The MIDI CCs always move with the MIDI Parts, if you record them as common MIDI CCs. If you would move the MIDI Notes in the Key Editor (not the whole part), you can decide, if the MIDI CCs should follow, or not. But the very same is truth for the automation. You can always enable/disable the Automation Follows Notes. So even if you would record the common Volume automation track, you can decide then, if you want to move the automation data while moving the MIDI Part or not.