Steinberg Cubase Essential - 4.0 Mackie Control and Cubase Essential

Mackie Control and Cubase Essential

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of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH. The software described by this document is subject to a License Agreement
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Release Date: January 30, 2008

© Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH 2008.

All rights reserved.

Table of Contents

5 Introduction

6 The Steinberg layout for Mackie Control
7 About Mackie Control XT

8 Basic mixing

9 About this chapter
9 Selecting which channels to control
9 Using the faders
10 Rec/Rdy
10 Mute and Solo
10 Using the Select buttons
10 A note about automation

11 Control strip assignment

12 About this chapter
12 Basic procedures
14 About the symbols used in this chapter
15 Selected Channel: EQ
15 Selected Channel: FX Send
16 Selected Channel: Inserts
17 Selected Channel: Instruments
17 Fader Set: Pan
18 Global: Send Effects
18 Global: Master Effects
19 Global: Instruments

20 Transport control

21 About this chapter
21 The transport controls
21 Working with markers
22 Switching the time display

23 Other functions

24 About this chapter
24 Project functions
24 Edit functions
24 Working with windows
25 Function keys
25 Cursor keys
25 Showing level meters in the parameter display

26 Index

4

Table of Contents

1

Introduction

The Steinberg layout for Mackie Control

This chapter describes the Steinberg-specific layout for
Mackie Control, and also provides information regarding
the Mackie Control XT 8 channel extender unit.

Display section

Function keys
F1 to F8

Fader Groups
section

An overlay is included with your Mackie Control that shows
all Steinberg-specific key assignments for this device. The
overlay can be placed over the top right part of Mackie
Control, above the transport controls. These key assign­ments are used to remote control Cubase Essential.

You can also order this overlay from Mackie. Contact your
hardware dealer for details.

The following figure shows the Steinberg overlay for
Mackie Control.

Action Keys
section

!

Please note that we will refer to the key assignments
of the Steinberg overlay throughout this manual, i.e.
the original key labels replaced by this overlay are not
used.

The Shift button

Markers section

About the Shift button

In the Action Keys section, to the right in the second row
of buttons, you will find the Shift button. The Shift button is
always used in combination with another button to extend
that button’s functionality. Pressing the Shift button alone
has no effect.

6

Introduction

About Mackie Control XT

Mackie Control XT 8 channel extender units are also sup­ported. All faders and encoder/displays are combined into
one continuous surface. The following applies:

• When the encoder section is used to display the data
for one channel (channel strip mode, or for plug-ins), the
parameters are presented over the encoder section of all
devices, from left to right.

• Fader bank navigation and encoder section assignment
is controlled by the Mackie Control unit.

• For each Mackie Control and Mackie Control XT unit, a
new device needs to be added in the Device Setup.

For each device select the appropriate MIDI ports.

• In the Device List, the top-most device represents the
right-most channels, and vice versa.

Please make sure that the used MIDI ports are deactivated in the “All
MIDI Inputs” device.

7

Introduction

2

Basic mixing

About this chapter

This chapter describes how to work with the faders and
the rows of buttons above them (Solo, Mute, Select and
Rec), and how to select which channels are affected by
the fader settings.

Selecting which channels to control

Mackie Control’s fader section controls eight different
channels in Cubase Essential (plus the master level, which
has its own fader). You select which channels to control
with the aid of the Fader Banks section of Mackie Control.

The Fader Banks section

Using the controls in the Fader Banks section

In the Fader Banks section, press the left or right Bank
button to switch from one set of eight channels to the
next. For example, if you are currently controlling Mixer
channels 1 to 8, pressing the right Bank button will switch
to the next eight channels, i.e. channels 9 to 16. To go
back to the previous eight channels, press the left Bank
button.

Selects the
previous eight
channels.

Selects the
next eight
channels.

• If you press the left or right Channel button in the Fader
Banks section, the fader assignment will shift in steps of
one channel instead.

Let’s say the faders currently control audio channels 9-16. If you press
the left Channel button, the faders will shift one step to the left and con­trol audio channels 8-15.

• Pressing the Flip button in the Fader Banks section
switches the parameter assignment between the faders
and the V-Pots, i.e. what was controlled with a fader is
now controlled with the corresponding V-Pot and vice
versa.

• Press the Edit button in the Fader Banks section to
open an editor for the current selection.

• Hold down Shift and press Edit to close the currently
active window.

Using the faders

The faders of Mackie Control are used for hands-on level
control and mixing, and allow precise adjustments of the
corresponding channel levels in Cubase Essential. Since
the faders are motorized, they will move to reflect any level
automation you have created in your projects. The faders
will also move when you select a new set of eight chan­nels to control, instantly jumping to reflect the current lev­els of the eight channels.

• The faders are also touch sensitive, which means that
as soon as you move a fader manually, the motors are
“overridden”.

In other words, if you have automated level changes, you can grab a
fader at any time, overriding the automation – just as you can click and
hold a moving fader on screen with the mouse.

• Even though the faders are very quiet, there may be sit­uations when you want absolute silence – e.g. when mix­ing an extremely soft and subtle piece of music. If that is
the case, you can disable the motors by clicking the Mo­tors button in the Action Keys section.

When you are finished, click the Motors button again. The fader motors
are enabled again, and the faders will instantly move to reflect the current
levels.

!

Turning the motors off does not affect the automa­tion in Cubase Essential – all automation data saved
in your project is played back as usual.

9

Basic mixing