Why can’t I use the Quick Controls before clicking Options Reset Controllers in standalone ou plugin mode? This means that I will lose any custom MIDI Learning Settings.
Hi
Does anyone have any experience with Quick Controls in Halion 5 and external midi controller?
I might be misunderstanding the question, but CC conflicts can be an issue sometimes when working with remote maps in a DAW. There may be several methods to address this, but this is a personal approach that has saved me much trouble-shooting and grief over the years.
First note that Halion can have the QC set driven directly by MIDI CC events in a MIDI part, or on MIDI Instrument track ‘controller lanes’,
or you can directly control them via VST protocols on the VST plugin controller lanes.
This can be a bit confusing to say the least…as one method is stored right there in a MIDI part, or on controller lanes that live on a MIDI or Instrument track, while the other is done in controller lanes on the VSTi track itself (The track that shows Halion is loaded, and lists its assigned output ports and VST controller lanes). One can snap the QC set to H5, and such automations will show up down in the Halion VST track, but you’ll also notice there are many pages of choices, as well as a method to go into the plugin’s VST assignments and remap them to your heart’s content.
If you want to automate H5 via VST, it’s an extremely powerful way to do it. You can get to almost every little parameter in the Halion Engine that way. The scope of these possibilities is far too broad to try to cover here in this thread, but the potential does exist! This sort of automation is done in the VST track for Halion 5 itself, and Quick Controls can be assigned to them on an as need basis.
Personally, I keep it simple most of the time, and drive Halion 5 parameters using MIDI CC events right inside the MIDI Part on controller lanes, and more or less ignore the QC stuff when working with Halion 5. I’ve built an H5 preset on my MPK2 with this stuff mapped out so I can record right into MIDI tracks for H5 live, and not be bothered with linking QC.
If you’re like me, then you’ll probably want to use your QC set for way more things than moving a few knobs in Halion. So, make sure your Quick Controls (QC) map is using a device and/or CC messages that are not conflicting with your other remote maps, or with a loaded VSTi. You can get to this map in the Cubase “Devices/Device Setup” menu.
Notice you can choose what MIDI port Cubase will listen for these QC events.
One way to sort out CC conflicts is to take advantage of multiple ports if your controller offers them.
Example:
My Akai MPK2 has two ports over USB (an A and a B, as well as some other drivers that can be used to access the DIN ports on the MPK2). When ever I want to send messages through an armed DAW track to a VSTi or external Synth, I’ll make sure my MPK2 controller is sending its CC messages over the A port. In turn I’ll make sure the MIDI track(s) that need added isolation are set to get user input specifically from my MPK2 port A (rather than ALL MIDI Inputs).
When I want to work with Cubase Remote and Quick Control Maps, I have the MPK2 send CC messages over the B port. I’ve got to be sure that I don’t have different maps listening for the same CC events over the same device/port/channel at the same time, or they could conflict and be a nightmare to trouble shoot and sort out. So I personally keep a spread-sheet handy and jot down CC events that are in use…and empty ones are fair game for new assignments 
Another method is to simply make sure your QC maps are using CC messages/channels that nothing else uses. If your controller does NOT have multiple MIDI ports accessible for creating a bit of isolation, then reserve and have your QC map use a range of CC events and/or channels that your VSTi/Synths do not use. In the case of only having a single port to work with, in my experience, confusion and conflicts can be avoided if I first disarm tracks from ‘recording/monitoring’ when using a QC, and instead write the data to a track ‘controller lane’ (Read lights up green, and write lights up red, when red is lit up one can make adjustments while the DAW is playing).
For me, ‘isolation’ via MIDI port comes in handy for my big Cubase ‘generic remote maps’ as well. I keep all Cubase remote control events on a different MIDI port from anything intended to control a VSTi or external synth directly. ‘Generic Remote Maps’ can be as large as you like, and can be used to trigger pretty much any Cubase command/option via remote MIDI events. You can even activate and use multiple Generic Maps all at the same time. Again, it’s quite useful to keep MIDI events intended to drive Cubase directly isolated and separate from events that are intended to control a VSTi/Synth directly. This is why many (if not most) keyboard and MPC controllers out there give you more than one ‘MIDI port’ to work with.
Once you’ve got your QC map set up in ‘isolation’ it becomes easy to snap any of your quick controls to any track lane you like. You can do this through the “Quick Controls” tab in the “Track Inspector”. From here you’d simply toggle the track’s QC set on and off as needed.
You can import the VST’s standard setup, or you can build your own for each of your 8 assigned QC CC events. You’re not limited to H5 stuff either…you could also have a QC control the aux send, or something in an FX plugin, and the list goes on.
In short…keeping your QC and Generic Remote maps as ‘isolated’ and unique as possible will help avoid creating a CC conflict by mistake. Your 8 Quick controls are there for easily snapping the same set of sliders/knobs, or whatever to anything you like in Cubase.
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Thanks, but I’m using in standalone, don’t conflicts with another vsti.
Do you have any other tip?
In stand alone mode…by default, the Quick Controls use the CC events listed above. Keeping up with what events belong to which Halion slot is done by channel.
So, if you want to isolate a QC for a specific instrument send it over the same channel that the Halion instrument slot is set for.
In cases where you’re layering several slots/instruments over the same MIDI channel…you might need to ‘learn’ a different CC for the Quick Controls in each slot. By ‘learn’, I mean to right click the knob you wish to control and move the slider you want to control it.
Sometimes it’s better to bypass the Quick Controls and learn a CC event to the actual program parameter you want to change via remote in the patch itself.
I.E. I often like to set up a legato envelope on CC68…so when I stomp a pedal the attack length of the amp envelope(s) change, and when I let the pedal up, they snap back to my original attack. In this case it’s clearly better to just learn the CC60 directly to the parameters in the program itself, and bypass the QC system.
I.E. With lead monophonic synth programs I like to build a ‘portamento’ control…if I stomp a pedal it adds portamento, while giving me a knob or slider to adjust the portamento time. Again, it just makes sense to do this in the program itself rather than via Quick Controls.
I.E. If I wanted a temporary ‘echo’ effect to toggle on and off with the push a button on my Controller…I might just go into the program tree and ‘learn’ the control directly to the ‘enable/disable’ icon in the effect chain for this FX.
Don’t forget, I’m pretty sure that if you spend time making such changes, you’ll need to save the multi setup as a preset for it to be remembered next time you load that preset. If you tweak individual programs you might also want to export a copy of the program as well so it’s easy to load it into other Multi setups in the future.
I just want to use my MIDI keyboard controller knobs to control Halion in standalone mode, Halion does not respond to CC # 74,71,73 controls … if I do not click on the Option → MIDI Controller → Reset to Factory
Quick Controls working only if I click on Option - MIDI Controllers - Reset to Factory, I change the patches but don´t respond.
I found that only channels 1 and 2 are filtered, the others works.