Slaving Pro Tools on mac to Cubase on PC:VideoSlave Software

Cubase
#1

Hello,

In an attempt to work around the quicktime issue on pcs, I am attempting to Cubase on my PC as a master and use a slaved mac to run pro tools and host video. Has anyone tried this? Additionally, do I need a midi over lan program to sync the two DAWs, I know Windows does not natively have a midi protocol, or is Cubase able to natively send midi over lan?

Finally, does anyone have any experience with Video Slave 2, or any like products for pc? Supposedly it is more efficient than hosting video in a DAW and syncing everything up. http://www.non-lethal-applications.com/products/video-slave-2-0

#2

So I have a lot of indirect experience with this. What that means is I haven’t set it up myself but I’ve worked on a lot of rigs that have this setup already.

Here is the long and short of it. You can sync PT to Cubase but it doesn’t work nearly as well as syncing PT to PT or Cubase to Cubase. You have to use a combination of MMC and MTC and there are a lot of posts about how to set that up.

You also don’t need MIDI over LAN but you do need some sort of midi connection either over LAN or using an old fashioned midi cable.

That being said it’s not great, you have to constantly go in and out of external sync mode in cubase which isn’t the end of the world but it could be better.

That being said, I have use Video Slave 2 on a mac running cubase at the same time. It definitely works and is easier to setup than using the PT option. That being said there are some drawbacks. For one, you can’t rewire the audio back into Cubase which means the only way to control the audio out of VideoSlave 2 is with an external mixer or your mouse.

It also can really tax your GPU. We had to end up getting a more robust graphics card to handle three computer screens running VS2. One for the sequencer, one for the mixer, and one for a TV that VS2 full screened to.

I’ve personally emailed them asking for Rewire support and they said it was something they were looking into but haven’t implemented it yet.

Hope that helps!

#3

I currently downloaded Rtpmidi to send midi commands over lan. Windows does not have a way to send midi data, either mtc or mmc etc, without something like this or ipMidi.

I am currently having some issues setting it up so that it will playback and move through the timeline on both computers when I make adjustments in Cubase. Additionally, the audio from cubase does not play if it is sending commands to Pro Tools on the Mac. Unfortunately I have only been able to get it to start playback in Pro Tools.

I am currently brain fried when it comes to figuring out MMC and MTC commands. Would you happen to know of any links or sources that I can check out regarding this topic?

Thanks for the comment.

#4

This might get you started but really you should google the matter.

https://www.steinberg.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=181&t=38385

There are lots of posts on this forum as well as Gear Slutz about how to do this, but when I tried a couple months ago, I never really got it going the way I wanted it to. But I only tried more as an experiment rather than I need this to work now as I’m quite happy with putting video in Cubase.

#5

Unfortunately my Master computer is a PC, so no quicktime.

When I set it up, do I want to be using Midi Timecode (source my Focusrite on my master) or do I want to just use internal timecode?

The other big question is: Is there a way to get Cubase to playback like normal while transmitting the information? As of now I have to hit (t) to do anything in protools and wiggle it around, but the playback in cubase does not happen.

#6

These are questions that I cannot answer unfortunately…

If you do figure out a solution let me know!

#7

It doesnt seem to make a difference if I use internal clock or mtc. The only downside is the mac that I was loaned does not have smpte code so stuff isnt exactly in sync, but it is only like 0:00.020 off. I just wish that when cubase is syncing I would not lose the ability for playback or sound from cubase :frowning:

#8

Ok, so I got it working. For some reason Pro Tools would not be going “online” in order to be listening to mtc data. I kept getting an error message saying, “cannot go online while countoff mode is enabled.” So I scoured the manual and found nothing. I recently just looked at the midi control to see it… yup. After that I was able to click go online and whenever I play or stop cubase (not in external sync) pro tools will follow it, so I have video and audio! Now, the only thing I cannot find is how to get it to scrub without putting cubase into external sync. This is not an issue seeing as everything works, and if I want to see exactly where that midi not is by moving my cursor in pro tools, I can just hit (t) scrub, (t), and move on with my life. Hope this helps people!!!