Steinberg Cubase 4.0 Remote Control Devices

Remote Control Devices

Revision and Quality Control:
Cristina Bachmann, Heiko Bischoff, Marion Bröer, Sabine Pfeifer

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a commitment on the part
of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement
and may not be copied to other media except as specifically allowed in the License Agreement. No part of this publica­tion may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior written permission
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Release Date: October 19, 2007

© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH, 2007.

All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

5 Remote controlling Cubase

6 About this manual
6 Setting Up
7 Operations
8 The Generic Remote device
10 Track Quick Controls
10 The supported remote control devices

21 Index

4

Table of Contents

1

Remote controlling Cubase

About this manual

It is possible to control Cubase via MIDI. A large number of
MIDI control devices is supported. This manual describes
how to set up Cubase for remote control, and lists the sup­ported devices.

• There is also a Generic Remote Device option, allowing
you to use any MIDI controller to remote control Cubase.

How to set this up is described in the section “The Generic Remote de-

vice” on page 8.

Setting Up

Connecting the remote device

Connect the MIDI Out on the remote unit to a MIDI In on
your MIDI interface. Depending on the remote unit model,
you may also need to connect a MIDI Out on the interface
to a MIDI In on the remote unit (this is necessary if the re­mote unit features “feedback devices” such as indicators,
motorized faders, etc.).

If you will be recording MIDI tracks, you don’t want any
MIDI data from the remote unit to accidentally be recorded
as well. To avoid this, you should also make the following
setting:

1. Open the Device Setup dialog from the Devices menu.

2. Select “MIDI Port Setup” in the list to the left.

3. Check the table to the right and locate the MIDI input

to which you have connected the MIDI remote unit.

4. Deactivate the check box in the “In ’All MIDI Inputs’”
column for that input, so that the State column reads “In­active”.

5. Click OK to close the Device Setup dialog.

Now you have removed the remote unit input from the “All
MIDI Inputs” group. This means that you can record MIDI
tracks with the “All MIDI Inputs” port selected without risk­ing to record the data from the remote unit at the same time.

Selecting a remote device

1. Pull down the Devices menu and select Device Setup.

A dialog window opens with a list of device categories and devices shown
in the left part of the window.

2. If you can’t find the remote device you are looking for,
click on the plus sign in the top left corner and select the
device from the pop-up that appears.

The selected device is added to the Devices list.

• Note that it is possible to select more than one remote
device of the same type.

If you have more than one remote device of the same type, these will be
numbered in the Devices list. For example, to be able to use a Mackie
Control Extender, you must install a second Mackie control device.

3. Now select your MIDI control device model from the
Devices list.

Depending on the selected device, either a list of programmable function
commands or a blank panel is shown in the right half of the dialog window.

A JL Cooper MCS-3000 selected as remote control device.

4. Select the correct MIDI input from the pop-up menu.

If necessary, select the correct MIDI output from the pop-up menu.

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Remote controlling Cubase

5. Click OK to close the dialog.

You can now use the MIDI control device to move faders and knobs, ac­tivate Mute and Solo, etc. The exact parameter configuration depends on
which external MIDI control device you are using.

!

Sometimes communication between Cubase and a
remote device is interrupted or the handshaking pro­tocol fails to create a connection. To re-establish
communication with any device in the Devices list, se­lect it and click the Reset button in the Device Setup
dialog. Also, the “Send Reset Message to all Devices”
button at the top of the dialog will reset every device in
the Devices list.

you “grab and hold” a fader, or simply move it and release
it. Instead, you have to indicate that you have “released”
the control by stopping playback.

!

The above does not apply to the JLCooper MCS
3000 or any other remote control device with touch
sensitive controls. These devices will stop writing as
they have touch sensitive faders, which means that
they stop writing as soon as you release the fader.

!

This is only relevant when you are using a remote
control device in Touch mode and Write mode is
activated in the mixer.

Operations

Writing automation using remote controls

Automating the mixer in Touch mode using a remote control
device is done in the same way as when you operate on­screen controls in Write mode. However, when it comes to
replacing existing automation data, there is one important
difference:

• If you activate Write mode and move a control on the re­mote control device, all data for the corresponding para­meter is replaced from the position where you moved the
control, up until the position where playback is stopped!

In other words, as soon as you move a control in Write mode, it remains
“active” until you stop playback. The reason for this is explained below.

As a consequence, an additional precaution must be taken:

• Make sure you move only the controller you want to re­place!

In order to replace existing automation data for a control in
Touch mode, the computer needs to know how long the
user actually “grabbed” or used the control. When doing
this “on screen”, the program simply detects when the
mouse button is pressed and released. When you are us­ing an external remote control device, however, there is no
mouse button involved, and Cubase cannot tell whether

Assigning remote key commands

For some of the supported remote devices, you can as­sign any Cubase function (to which a key command can
be assigned) to generic buttons, wheels or other controls.
As of this writing, these devices are:

• JL Cooper MCS 3000

• JL Cooper CS-10

•Tascam US-428

• Yamaha 01x

• Yamaha DM 2000v2

• Yamaha DM 1000v2

•Radical SAC-2k

•Steinberg Houston

Proceed as follows:

1. Open the Device Setup dialog and select one of the
remote devices that support this feature.

On the right side of the window you will find a three column table. This is
where you assign commands.

2. Use the “Button” column to locate a remote device con­trol or button to which you wish to assign a Cubase func­tion.

3. Click in the “Category” column for the control, and se­lect one of the Cubase function categories from the pop­up menu that appears.

4. Click in the “Command” column, and select the desired
Cubase function from the pop-up menu that appears.

The available items on the pop-up menu depend on the selected category.

5. Click “Apply” when you are done.

The selected function is now assigned to the button or
control on the remote device.

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Remote controlling Cubase