Rogue MIDI data

Steinberg Lounge
1

I don’t know where in the forum to post this because I don’t know if it is hardware or software related…


I have an issue with my MIDI control surface and Cubase. The control surface is an older Mackie MCU and 2 extenders. The issue surfaces on the MCU, not the extenders and in cubase. Here is what happens:

Mackie MCU:
mackie shifts into something different… The jog turns to scrub, all the transport buttons light up, the faders will either go into studio sends or aux, quick control mode where I always have them in normal mode with the panner eing the panner. I hear random relay clicks every so often.

Cubase 6.5:
Random markers added, sometimes a window pops up asking to revert to a previous saved version, the mixer window gui goes wonky… the channel heights go random, sometimes cubase states a serious problem has occurred.


Troubleshooting I have done:
-Eliminated all midi devices except the ones the MCU and extenders are attached to.
-Replaced the power supply to the MCU
-Reloaded the OS on the MCU
-Created empty project with 3 midi tracks to record the midi data coming from the mackie and can see the rogue data. The rogue data looks like what you would see if you slammed your arm down on a keyboard. The midi send to the MCU is still connected (broadcasting the min/sec or bars/beats.
-Removed MCU ports from the “in all ports” so nothing else could communicate with it.

The trouble is this only happens when connected to Cubase. All seems good in ProTools. I called Mackie tech support and they have no record of this particular problem with the MCU version I have and unfortunately parts are not available for them either (was going to order the entire logic board assy to rule it out)

The last thing I am going to do tonight is to try it on a different midi ports and see what happens.

Has anyone ever come across a problem like this? Any Ideas on what else to check?

TIA

2

Something weird going on in the generic remote perhaps?

3

Sounds like you need to Use System Timestamp.

4

Thanks for the responses.

The midi time stamp had been enabled. What I did, regrettably, is to trash my preferences. This is the second time this year I have had to do that. What a pain…

Anyway, I rebuilt the remotes in cubase (there is a template for the MCU included with Cubase) and started re-assigning my key commands. I had 3 days of sessions and the mixer hasn’t gone wonky. I guess something in cubase was doing it… Time will tell.

5

I set up Prefs and everything else how I want it and back up the App Data folder. :exclamation:

6

Ya know, I do have a backup of the whole system :sunglasses:

Thanks for reminding me!