I am creating this thread to make it perfectly clear what the problem is so it can be addressed, as that has not been done yet.
The Issue:
If you have more than one Mackie Control device, Cubase will assign 8 channels to each device, rather than allowing all devices to control all channels. While Mackie Control is an 8 channel protocol, it is possible to allow all devices to control all channels (it has been done on other DAWs).
I will give you an example of a simple way to reproduce the problem, though there are a nearly infinite number of ways you COULD show the same problem, others have mentioned various methods in this thread.
Here is an example method:
(REMEMBER: It does not have to be these two devices, it can be ANY two Mackie Control devices!)
- Create a song with 16+ tracks
- Connect a Presonus Faderport 1 and add it to device manager as a Mackie Control (as it must be used, it will not function in any other way)
- Connect a Roland FA-08 Keyboard and add the DAW CONTROL Midi channel to device manager as a Mackie Control (as it must be used, it will not function any other way)
- Attempt to scroll through all of the channels with the Faderport 1
The result will be that the Faderport 1 will not be able to access the last 8 channels, because the last 8 channels have been “assigned” to the FA-08 (even though the FA-08 is incapable of controlling those channels like the faderport is, the FA-08 uses Mackie Control primarily for Transport functions and a few others).
If you have a project with 30 tracks, the Faderport in this example will only be able to control channels 1-22 as the last 8 will be assigned to the FA-08.
There are a near infinity of ways to recreate the problem. If you have more than one Mackie Control device (of which there are hundreds), and one or more than one of those devices need to be able to control all channels, then you will encounter this problem. There are many situations where this could occur, essentially, any time someone tries to use a control surface as well as a Midi controller, piano or other device which also uses Mackie Control.
There is no way around this problem, 8 channels will always be assigned to each device, and there is no way for one device to control channels which “belong” to another device. Considering how many different devices use Mackie Control, its really unacceptable for Cubase to be so limited in this way. I understand the Mackie Control is an imperfect protocol, but it is an industry standard and others have made it work. There is no reason Steinberg cannot.
Please Upvote so Steinberg will know to fix this issue.
Thank you
For the sake of completeness, I will add my system hardware, though I have confirmed this problem exists on other systems, so this should be irrelevant.
Cubase 11 Elements
Windows 10 64 bit
Ryzen 1700X 4c/8t at 4.00 GHz
32 GB RAM
Using only m.2 NVME SSD drives
Focusrite Clarett 4Pre USB
Roland FA-08 Keyboard
Roland TD-12 Digital Drums
Arturia Keylab Essential 61
Presonus Faderport 1
Nektar Panorama P1