Using a Soundboard as a Midi Expression Controller?

Dorico
1

Hey all - apologies for asking SO, so many questions on here as of late. Just a quick bit of appreciation - the question is below! A huge thank you to those of you who have provided excellent answers to all of my questions thus far, particularly Dan Spreadbury! It’s been incredibly helpful to have you all as a tool at my disposal and you’ve all made my life much easier. I do have several music degrees, but I haven’t delved particularly deeply into these topics before, and you’re making that transition much simpler on my mind, saving me from hours of experimentation to solve problems!

SO, my question - I’m looking for a MIDI expression controller. I have my eyes set on the Korg nanokontrol as my first jump into the physical hardware side of things, and right now I’ve been trying an app on my phone although I’m not a huge fan of the “feeling” of using a virtual slider on my phone versus a real one.
I do own a usb soundboard/audio interface, and I’m hoping that I can actually use that in the mean time, before I can get my hands on the nanokontrol. I’m a teacher, so don’t get any paychecks for another couple weeks.

The board is a Behringer Xenyx x1222USB, and it connects to my computer similarly to how my MIDI keyboard works (which is a Yamaha, although I don’t think that matters much in this context).
I just set it up (haven’t used it in a while) and have it connected now to my computer. I’m running into a few issues - first, my computer isn’t recognizing it as a “midi” device, although it is connected in exactly the same way as my keyboard. Second, once I do get it connected and recognized, I’m not sure how (or even if I am able to) program it to control MIDI CCs as an expression controller. I do have 8 faders, but without dedicated software available for programming the board on my computer, I’m not sure if it is possible to program them. Would it be possible to do a “midi record” to set up the automation in order to connect it to the CCs? I’m at a loss.

Any help is of course greatly appreciated!

2

Dorico doesn’t have direct support for external control surfaces as yet, unfortunately. It doesn’t support anything like the Mackie HUI protocol, or Cubase’s new MIDI Remote functionality. It’s definitely something we want to work on, because there’s a lot of potential for improving workflow in certain areas with these kinds of controllers, but I can’t say when it’s something we’ll get to.

3

Does that mean external controllers like the nanokontrol will or will not work? Just curious!

4

Its buttons will probably work to some degree because you can bind commands to specific MIDI messages, but rotary controls and faders won’t work, and transport controls may well not work.

5

Interesting. I’m able to use an app to control midi CCs right now, would that use some different sort of protocol?

6

Provided what you’re looking for is the ability to record MIDI CC data into Dorico using the rotaries/faders, that should work, but if you’re looking for e.g. adjusting Mixer faders, that won’t work.

7

Excellent - in theory it should work for what I’m looking to do then. All I really want to use it for is for recording MIDI CC data, not for mixing. But in that case, I’m wondering - in the mean time, before I’m able to get my hands on a nanokontrol2, do you think the xenyx 1222usb would work for recording MIDI CC data as well?

My Mac isn’t necessarily recognizing it - it is currently reading as two “USB Audio Codex”, one with two in and one with two out. I’m not entirely sure what that means. It connects with a “digital” cable (like a printer cable) to my device, which is the same as my MIDI Keyboard. But I’m assuming that due to it being recognized as a “usb audio codex” and not necessarily a MIDI device I’m not able to use it to record CC data? Not sure if you have any experience with that…

8

Dorico is only looking for MIDI devices, so provided it shows up as a MIDI input device in the list on the Play page of Preferences, it should work fine, provided its rotaries/faders are sending MIDI CC data.