I’ve been a loyal Softube customer for years, but I’ve since decided that using as many stock plugins as possible is the ticket to stability in Cubase. But I love the idea of a physical control surface.
I was surprised to learn, then, that the Console 1 MK 2 actually works amazingly well in the undocumented midi mode. Not only are most of the buttons mappable in Midi Remote, they also offer LED feedback out of the box. I’m not quite sure why it works like this - the encoders are endless, but map as Absolute encoders and nevertheless still provide proper LED feedback when I switch tracks.
The only downside is that the encoders by default send midi values in increments of 3 unless the “fine adjust” button is held down. For now, I have it held down with a guitar capo, but I’d love suggestions on how to hack this into a permanent solution.
Anyway I’ll report here as I play around more with this.
Hi @GPnicolett, do you have the Console 1 Fader as well? I’d love to know whether the Fader can also work “out of the box” with MIDI remote, especially as there are likely to be some bargains to be had on the originals now that the mk.III is out.
I only tried this briefly but yes the Fader Mk1 did map to faders, but I abandoned the effort when I realized that midi remote does not support fader visibility configurations.
Thank you. So if you select a config with e.g. only MIDI tracks, the “Fader” doesn’t sync up properly, is that right? That sounds like a bit of a dealbreaker (until I can afford the Mk III, anyway) - thanks @GPnicolett .
I don’t know if track type selection works with the midi remote, but mix configs currently don’t sync with any implementation of midi remote due to API limitations, which should mean MK3’s beta midi remote doesn’t allow this either. AFAIK theonly way to get this functionality are if you use Softube’s plugin and/or Mackie Control. But the universe being what it is, if you use Mackie you give up track follow on selection, which Midi Remote DOES support.
When I use an 8 fader control surface, I expect to be able to call up any combination of 8 faders I want, not simply whatever 8 faders happen to be in chronological order together in my session.
This is interesting - I’d been thinking about getting a Fader as an upgrade on my CMC-FDs, but it sounds like even the Mk III might be a downgrade. I might be getting mixed up on terminology though.
I use channel visibility configurations extensively (I had to look up the term) - I was just using MIDI tracks as a hypothetical example, but typically I have configurations mapped to a wireless numeric keypad for drums tracks, bass tracks, guitar, keys etc, plus group tracks as a collective.
The CMC series cope with this pretty well in that moving up or down a track takes you to the next “selectable” channel, unless there’s a folder track in between, in which case it’s in limbo until you move again. But now I’m doubting myself on whether the CMC-FDs work properly… I’m going to have to test it. I’m hoping it works (it’s all native Steinberg obviously), especially if newer third party solutions don’t.
Hey Greg, can you attach the midi remote map to this thread? I’d love to play around with this. Love Softube stuff but never really got along with the need to insert the plugin on every channel. I liked the fader more, but same issue there and the transport buttons were never sorted. I hope they implement the same midi remote possibilities as the MK III. P.S. the guitar capo idea is genius! Wonder if it could be solved in a more elegant way (without knowing coding).
Midi remote attached! I don’t have time to document all the features but it basically attempts to map to the Channel Strip plugins. It’s a work in progress. Sadly, I ran into a bug where I cannot duplicate pages, which slowed me down.
Track Select buttons are used thusly:
1-4 control pages 1-4, which have different plugin and control assignments, but most are on page 1. Note, controls will be listed as “missing” until the plugins are actually loaded on a channel (wish they would make it possible to just instantiate the plugin from the control surface, bah)
5-8 activate EQ bands 1-4
17-20 control various compressor toggles when compressor is loaded
Otherwise the marked controllers generally do what they’re labeled on the Console 1 to do!
You can explore the rest yourself and customize as needed. I didn’t do any coding here, just used the midi remote GUI editor.
As for forcing down the fine adjust knob…guitar capo worked but I ended up opening the unit and placing a thin plastic shim between the physical button and the intermediate button, thereby forcing the button to stay “down.” Luckily this persists even on reboot, and with this simple mod you’re back to getting full 1 point increments on all controls.
Thanks for posting this. When I first tried doing this there were some options missing but it seems like you have all the major bases covered in your template. Cubendo’ s plugins are so good I also want to stick with them. Kudos to you for having the guts to crack open the C1. Where there is a will there is a way.
Oh man, I am so tempted by this. I bought a Qube Audio Mobi One specifically to control the stock channel strip plugins.… I really like it but it doesn’t have LED feedback.
The Mobi has 6 button-controlled modes that you can use for completely different setups, plugins etc; I’m thinking you could use the track buttons on the Console 1 for the same and more.
It doesn’t help that I’ve seen a console 1 mk.1 on eBay for £175. Now I’m wondering whether I can fit both in my workflow / life…
Yeah console 1 in midi remote ends up giving you a similar feel to mobi one. And yes the track selection and/or using the “bank” buttons to switch to different pages allow for different plugin configurations.
Like with the mobi one, the fact that I have to still open the channel strip to load the plugin is a workflow killer. Being able to just load it from the control surface at the click of a button would be so much smoother, but at least the eq is always loaded and ready to go (which is mostly what I use this for anyway).
The huge surprise remains the LED feedback. I can only assume this is some feature of the Console 1 hardware itself where it can receive an absolute midi value and then map those onto its own endless encoders. Brilliant.
@GPnicolett I’ve started to add the channel strip plugins into my template ready loaded but bypassed - I’m hoping that’s not consuming too much processing power.
I’ve pre-added to group tracks and ‘lead’ instruments (including vocals) so that I can undo the bypass to activate.
This is nice! when I was about to try this with my console 1 mk2, here you are! For me, I am trying to set some knobs for Quick Control with Midi Remote, so I can control some 3rd party plugins (just got Sonnox EQ and Dynamics). I knew it would work as generic midi controller but your post gave me confirmation. I all along, thought it would not behave well. Thanks!
last note: so, I shall not open the… Softube console 1 display app right…? I should keep it closed right?
Softube have lately released the function MIDI Modules that allow Mk III to control third party plugins. But it seems not to be working with Mk II - I don’t see the MIDI CC option in the list of plugins in Console 1 GUI that Todd Urban presents here Softube Console 1 MIDI Modules, 3rd Party Plug ins, and Studio Logo Update
I just bought the SSL Channel Strip 2 and Bus Compressor and I would love to control those plugins from my Mk II. So maybe Midi Remote is a solution.
I’m worried about one thing though: If I use the Console 1 GUI on my tracks with all the Softube plugins and at the same time activate GPnicolett’s Midi remote template, would that cause problems? Or is there a way to shift between those two modes of control?
And now that I’ve reopened this old thread: Have you developed your Midi remote template any further, GPnicolett? Any chance of getting an updated one?
Or maybe JohnShin:
has developed a nice solution to control third party plugins?
I’m not a scripter and was just using the GUI; this would initially work fine, but after reloading a project with the midi remote it became impossible to duplicate “pages” without corrupting the midi remote template (some sort of undocumented bug). I hit that issue building it out three times and then gave up.
Combined with the frequent disconnects and other crashes, I’ve decided MIDI Remote is not for me for the time being, and completely removed it from my workflows. I do still run the Console 1 as a Generic Remote, which works great. The only caveat there is that Generic Remote never got access to the pre-gain section in the EQ.
For me, I am trying to set some knobs for Quick Control with Midi Remote, so I can control some 3rd party plugins (just got Sonnox EQ and Dynamics). I knew it would work as generic midi controller but your post gave me confirmation. I all along, thought it would not behave well. Thanks!