Not sure exactly…I contacted Softube about it, but didn’t really get a full response.
Basically it seems like it really isn’t designed to be used as a generic Midi CC Controller from what I can tell.
You can put it in a generic CC mode via some trick as recommended by Softube (i forget exactly the steps)…but once I did that and tried to control say a Filter Cutoff via Midi Learn, the Console Controller would act very strange. It controlled it in a sense, but was only able to swing the filter to fully on then to fully off…weird stuff like that. The Midi Learn CC quickly flooded with mappings and it didn’t work.
Minimum that all the steinberg compressors/eq/limiters/deessers etc was mapped to the controller. That goes for the internal channel strip as well for the plugins that you drop in.
For some higher score they also should have a easy way to map plugin from other vendors like waves, fabfilter etc including a web site where users could share their mappings.
But Im not surprised, it seems to be very very hard for steinberg to accept that their users would like to have remote controllers. Someone there love their GUI and think it is the perfect solution.
one thing that concerns me. If for example you have 6 tracks and one console1 instance.
Then when you add a new track, track focus jumps to the track with Console 1 INSTEAD of newly created track
This is very irritating when you have big projects and console one is somewhere on the bottom. Then you add new track on top and the whole thing jumps down and you need to look for the newly created track.
Same happens when you delete the track. The selection goes not to the next track but jumps to some random one where Console 1 is loaded.
In case you already don’t know this…the CC121 maps to the Cubase channel. So grab one of those if you would like to have that.
(I bought the Console 1 because I want to use that for my channel, not the Cubase channel)
Also, you can get a X-Touch / MCU Pro or other Mackie compatible device. This maps automatically to every insert and parameter.
I have the MCU Pro, but I only use it for the volume faders not for every parameter on every insert. For me its quicker to use Console 1 for 80% of what I need in a mix, the bread and butter Filter/Transient Shape/EQ/Compression…and the rest of the 20% I do with a mouse which I don’t mind because those are specific tasks.
I’m happy with what Steinberg delivered. What would be cool for me regarding mixing would be Dual Mono option (like Logic X has), and some sort of additional Crosstalk/Summing Console emulation.
I have two MCU’s, CC121 and come CMC’s. CC121 was good for cubase 5, but all the new stuff they have added to the channel strip is not covered by this units. Nor do MCU’s or generic remotes or Panorama. Very basic stuff like highcut ,lowcut etc. However MCU at last handle the new 8 pluginslots for 9.5 otherwise it is very poorly maintained by Steinberg, and there is no better alternative at the moment.
Yeh I hear ya…they diffidently made it sound like it was going to be a bigger deal than it was.
I was also thinking it would have been more.
Haven’t tried it yet as Cubase 9.5 had a bug with Hardware FX Insert, but looks like they fixed that now so I might upgrade to get the panning. (and having more than 8 slots will come in handy on occasion)
How does Steinberg increase the very dated MCU protocol character limit?
How does Steinberg cause MCU to change channel banks? Example: highlight channel 1 in cubase, then highlight channel 12 in Cubase. While the channel is followed on MCU, there is no changing of channel banks. You have to manually change channel banks, when it should automatically change.
If there is a DAW that allows the above, I would love to hear about it.
Yeah-I don’t mean a generic midi controller that is made to play nice with Cubase. I mean a fully integrated professional product-Like the S3 is for Pro Tools. I’m not bashing the MCU, but there are enough work arounds that I would just spend most of my time on the keyboard and mouse. Have you looked at the integration of the Nuage? It’s a beautiful looking piece of kit.
1 I dont understand your question. What are the limitation?
2. channel bank interpretation is completely within cubase. The bank switch buttons sent from your MCU is midi note on events, that
is defined to be bank swtich buttons. The MCU has no state what so ever about banks.
S3 seems to be very nice. It is using the eucon protocol, but what can it do on cubase with it’s eucon protocol? It’s a bit to expensive to buy as try out. Im quite sure that the basic mixing works, but what about plugin control? And even if it work, I have learned that steinberg does not maintain the remotes, not even the ones made by Yamaha. Do they bother to maintain Nuage?
I’ve never used an S3. I’m not saying S3 is great with Cubase. it’s great with Pro Tools. Do you find that there is anything missing in the functionality of the Nuage that makes you say it’s not maintained? I’m sure a daily user could find things that they wish it did, but I haven’t seen another controller get even close to the level of true integration that the Nuage has.
No, im asking. But if they dont take care of their other products, what guarantees do you have that your 20.000$US investment
does not come obsolete over a night? Steinberg obviously don’t care for their low-end products so it is a very valid question.
I’m too busy right now to speculate and go back and forth about unknowns. “I’m” not looking to invest $20,000 on a Nuage. If you read, you will see I said that I hope that Steinberg will create a much cheaper version of a truly integrated controller-similar to the Avid S3 does for PT. If you are happy with your MCU-then great! I’m glad you found something that works well for you.
The S3 can control almost every single aspect of Cubase. Plugin control is probably better than with Pro Tools (because Pro Tools does not allow you to make custom plugin parameter maps). Only major downside is the fact that when you hide tracks in Cubase, they don’t get hidden on the controller. Apart from that it’s the best Cubase controller out there… …unless you have $20k for a Nuage/S6.
Yeah, I have heard people really like it. The track hiding issue is a deal breaker for me. I hope they sort it out-I know people have been asking for that for a long time. I would consider getting one then, but I did hear that the S3 is soon to be discontinued-I don’t know for a fact if that’s true though.
Yes, you can control everything in the channel strip, pre gain, HP/LP filters, Studio Sends, Quick Controls etc. You cannot however control the recently added inserts 9-16 -only the first 8.
