I just got myself a Steinberg CMC-PD, lovely little thing… but i’m struggling to properly assign that rotary controller to properly control my Master (control room) volume (… I can get it to turn the volume up but when i turn the knob left, the volume goes to zero… is there some trick to this that I am missing?
thanks!
Hm. I don’t have the PD controller, but I do have a QC controller, and if I use the MIDI mode, I managed to assign one of the eight rotary knobs to control my control room channel fader. I had to set up a generic device in the device setup, and assign it to the QC MIDI port #1. Then I assigned my first rotary control to the Cubase control room volume. Works like a charm.
Forgive my ignorance of the PD but are you using it in MIDI mode? I think the rotary controller is “hard wired” to control something else in it’s “Cubase only” mode isn’t it? In any case, you could try it that way instead and see if it works, just as a troubleshooting thing…
Have some patience with me… I’m just spit-ballin’ 
yes, the PD is hard wired to do something, so i have to remove it from the device manager each time i load cubase…
i setup a generic remote and am using that for the knob, it seems to send on midi chan 60. but strange results… turning in 1 direction is fine but the other pulls the fader straight to 0
Uhg…
i setup a generic remote and am using that for the knob, it seems to send on midi chan 60. but strange results… turning in 1 direction is fine but the other pulls the fader straight to 0
I just don’t know. According to the CMC MIDI implementation charts, It IS indeed on CC 60 on the CMC PD port 2 (as I’m sure you’ve already surmised). It may be worth a question to Steinberg support. I wonder if it would act the same way when hooked up to a DAW besides Cubase. It’s possible that the Cubase extensions of the Tools for CMC are interfering with the rotary encoder messages (even though you’ve removed the device from the device manager). I would be curious to know if the encoder works properly when connected to say… Ableton or Reaper.
good plan i’ll give that a try
Ok… after further study of the CMC PD MIDI implementation chart, I think you might be screw–er… out of luck…
Here’s what I would do to test it:
1.) Open an empty project
2.) Add a MIDI track to the project.
3.) Set the MIDI track input to “CMC PD Device Port 2”
4.) Record enable (or monitor) the MIDI track.
5.) Put a MIDI Monitor Insert in the MIDI inserts for the MIDI track.
6.) Go to that MIDI Monitor and turn it on (Power button in the plug in).
7.) Move your PD encoder and see what messages it’s sending.
8.) Try the same thing with “CMC PD Device Port 1”
The implementation chart is a bit incomplete when it comes to the PD controller, but the bottom line is that (on device port 2) it’s not sending incremental changes on the CC60 when you move the encoder counter clockwise. It MAY be doing it when you move it clockwise, though. The chart does not indicate that ANY information is being sent on Device port 1, but it’s possible that there is something there–hence you checking with the MIDI monitor.
In any case, it doesn’t look like the encoder itself is meant to be used in a generic MIDI setting–it looks like it’s set to output specific things that are inline with how Cubase wants to see them. And because of that, I suspect you’ll run into the same behavior with the encoder in any other DAW environment. It looks like only the pads themselves are really meant to be used outside of Cubase in a MIDI compatible way.
Again, since I don’t have the PD controller, I don’t know for sure. But try the above. Unless the controller is sending incremental CC messages on Port #1 for example (which the implementation chart does NOT indicate) I think you won’t be able to use it for the purpose you want.
Again, my CMC-QC works perfectly for this, but it has a dedicated “generic” MIDI mode specifically for the 8 encoders, and they send incremental control change messages as they should on the appropriate port when the QC is in MIDI mode. If you try to use the OTHER port (which is the dedicated Cubase specific messages), the encoders will only sent a “0” when you move the encoder Clock wise, and a “65” when you move it counterclockwise (this has to do with the lighting messages for the encoders on the QC). Your PD controller is probably doing slightly different, but similarly wacky things even though there is no light on its encoder.
thanks for such a detailed response!
I tried what you suggested, and turning right gets a value of 1 and turning left gets a value of 65…
also it only registers on the port2, nothing registers at all on port1… might just have to live with it
Yep. That’s consistent with what it tells me on the MIDI implantation chart. I think you’re stuck with it, because the MIDI output is likely hardwired into the CMC controller. I don’t think they ever intended the rotary knob to control anything other than patch / list selection in Cubase.
Sorry we couldn’t make it work.
Thanks anyways … i’ll learn to live with it …
I suppose this is why they added this feature as a default to the CMC-AI - I find it very handy, and that it will control practically any element (be it rotary, linear or even switch) you point the mouse at is also extremely useful.
Do you have a CMC-AI yeah? does it work on non vst3.0 plugins?