Tascam US-428 User Manual

US-428 Control Surface Environment

This environment links the US-428’s mixer-like MIDI control
surface to Logic’s Audio mixing environment.

Features

•

Up to four banks of 8 audio channels each

•

Volume and pan for each audio channel

•

Global master volume

•

Four parametric EQ inserts for each audio channel

•

Four Aux send levels for each audio channel

•

Four Aux bus return levels for each bank

•

Mute and solo grouping across all banks

•

Mute and solo ‘flip’ function for each bank

•

Full memory of all parameters when switching banks

•

Null mode for aligning sliders to bank volume memory

Overview

Tascam’s US-428 has three independently functioning units: a 2-port
USB MIDI interface, a 4x2 USB audio interface, and a MIDI control
surface with its own (third) USB MIDI port. This environment affects
only the US-428 control surface; you are free to use (or not use) the

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audio and MIDI interfaces in any way you wish. In particular, the
Logic Audio objects you link to the US-428 control surface via this
environment can be assigned to any combination of devices for which
you have installed audio drivers. This environment also does not use
either of the US-428’s two USB MIDI interface ports—those ports are
free to service other MIDI devices.

What It Is And Is Not

Although the US-428 control surface looks suspiciously like a mixer it
has no audio functionality aside from its input trim controls, line &
phone output levels, and input monitoring switch & level. All other
controls send MIDI messages to a dedicated USB MIDI port. (This is
in addition to and separate from the two MIDI ports of the US-428’s
MIDI interface.)

The control surface does not use the standard MIDI controller mes­sages associated with mixing (e.g. controller 7 for volume, controller
10 for pan, etc.) and it sends all messages on MIDI channel 16. Fur­thermore, the control surface LEDs are not directly controlled by the
control surface buttons and knobs; they can only be turned on and off
by MIDI SysEx messages sent to the control surface’s dedicated MIDI
port. Therefore, incoming MIDI must be translated, routed, and in
order to control more than eight audio channels, must be remem­bered on a bank-by-bank basis. Also appropriate SysEx messages
must be generated and routed back to the US-428 to control its LEDs.
These are the reasons for this environment.

This environment is an interim solution until dedicated support for
the US-428 can be integrated into Logic. There are some limitations
to what can be accomplished in the environment and some further
restrictions dictated by the desire for simplicity and ease of use. Here
is a list of things to be aware of:

•

There is no provision for remotely controlling an audio track’s record sta­tus from the environment. Therefore, so as not to waste those pretty, red
record LEDs, they are used to indicate a track’s solo status. (See section
below.)

•

There is no provision for controlling Logic’s transport from the Environ­ment except for stopping playback. Therefore, the Transport buttons and
LEDs (except for STOP) have been converted to MIDI messages and
routed back through the Environment’s Pysical Input to control Logic’s
Transport via MIDI Remote commands.

•

This environment treats the US-428 as the master and Logic’s Audio
objects as the slaves. On-screen changes will not be reflected in this envi­ronment’s bank memory and will therefore throw those settings out of
alignment with the US-428. Bottom line: use the 428, not the mouse.

•

Automation (see section below) requires a little extra effort and is
‘destructive’ of the US-428’s initial settings. (I.e. once you’ve recorded a
pass you must return to the initial settings manually.)

•

The four bands of EQ controls are routed to control up to four EQ inserts in
Logic’s Audio objects. The EQ select buttons select these inserts from the
top down. For the selected strip and EQ band, the SET button turns the EQ
on and off.

•

The Master slider functions globally and sends out the same value through
all banks simultaneously. This is intended for simultaneous control of a
separate master Audio object for each bank or control of Logic’s new over ­all master Audio object through one bank. The idea is that grabbing the
Master slider will control the audio output no matter where you are. (Note:

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this is not the same as grabbing the US-428’s Line Out knob which ser­vices only the 428’s USB audio interface.)

Getting Started

USB Setup

Environment Modules

I will assume the US-428 USB drivers are installed and working prop­erly on your system. The US-428 manual contains detailed instruc­tions for this on both the PC and the Mac.

There are three modules (i.e. Environment Macros) in this environ­ment: ‘From US-428’, ‘US-428 Bank’, and ‘To US-428’. The ‘From US­428’ module receives all incoming MIDI messages; the ‘US-428 Bank’
modules (you can have up to four of them) convert and route the
messages to Logic’s Audio objects; and the ‘To US-428’ module reacts
to the messages by sending SysEx back to the US-428 to control its
LEDs. The basic hookup for a single bank is shown above on page 1.

The incoming USB outlet serving the US-428 Control Port is cabled
directly from the Physical Input object on the Clicks & Ports Environ­ment Layer into the ‘From US-428’ module. This captures all incoming
MIDI from the control surface and incidentally prevents it from reach­ing the main MIDI stream into Logic’s sequencer where it could
potentially wreak havoc.

On the Mac you must use OMS for US-428 MIDI input and output
via USB. Once you have set up the US-428 ports in your OMS setup,
you can assign these to whatever Physical Input port you wish using
Logic’s Preferences/OMS Input Connections window.

On the PC, ensure the US-428 Control Surface Port driver is
installed as indicated in the US-428 documentation.

Cabling

Outlets of the ‘From US-428’ module should be cabled to each of the
‘US-428 Bank’ modules as well as to the ‘To US-428’ module. The
order of cabling doesn’t matter.

Each of the ‘US-428 Bank’ modules should be cabled to the ‘To US­428’ module as well as to its own Channel Splitter object. Also each of
these modules should have a different bank setting. (You can create
new ‘US-428 Bank’ modules simply by Option-dragging or copy/past­ing an existing one. You can set the bank using the menu which dis­plays “Bank 1” in the illustration.)

Although the Bank modules react to different incoming data from
the US-428 (determined by their bank setting and the bank selected
on the US-428), they all send out identical information. You route
that information to the correct Audio objects for each bank by cabling
the outputs of the Channel Splitter into Audio objects whose MIDI
channel matches the Channel Splitter’s outlet.

Because Audio objects have both a parameter named “Cha” and one
named “MIDI Cha”, this can be confusing. You use the “Cha” parame­ter to select how the Audio object behaves (e.g. Track, Input, Bus,
etc.) and which device (i.e. audio driver) it serves. You use the MIDI
channel to select what MIDI messages the object responds to. When
you change an Audio objects “Cha” setting, this will automatically
change the “MIDI Cha” setting. Bottom Line: first set the “Cha” then
set the “MIDI cha”.

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The ‘US-428 Bank’ modules use MIDI channels 1-8 for the 8 chan­nel strips on the US-428. They use channel 12 for the US-428’s Mas­ter Slider and they use channels 13 thru 16 for the Bus Returns. You
can assign any Audio objects to any bank as long as you use these
channel assignments. (I.e. cable the outlets 1-8 of the Channel Split­ter to the 8 Audio objects corresponding to channel strips 1-8; cable
outlet 12 of the Channel Splitter to the Audio object you want to
respond to the Master Slider; and cable outlets 13-16 of the Channel
Splitter to the bus return Audio objects. Ensure, of course, that each
of these Audio objects has a matching “MIDI Cha” setting.)

Finally, the ‘To US-428’ module should be cabled to a Port or Instru­ment object whose output is set to the US-428 Control Port. This is
what controls the US-428 LEDs—no cable, no pretty flashing lights
and you’ll get completely lost.

If everything is hooked up properly, you should be able to click the
button in the ‘To US-428’ module labeled “Flash” to toggle all the US­428 LEDs on and back off. After you’ve turned them all off, press the
US-428’s left BANK button. Now the “HIGH”, “AUX 1”, “SELECT” for
strip 1, and right “BANK” LEDs should be lit.

Basic Operation

In this section we’ll use the US-428 as a one-bank track mixer. The
example song named “US428 8x2.lso” is set up this way. It includes
Audio objects for eight playback tracks, one Audio object assigned as
a master, and four Audio objects assigned as bus returns. The track
objects should be assigned to MIDI channels 1 through 8; the master
to MIDI channel 12; and the bus returns to MIDI channels 13 through

16. All objects should be using the same audio output. (The Audio
objects are set to ASIO for use with the US-428 audio interface. To
use it this way, choose the US-428 ASIO driver in Logic’s Audio Hard­ware & Drivers... ASIO Setup.)

The Controls

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The US-428 has three kinds of controls: sliders, knobs, and buttons.
Each sends out a different MIDI controller message on MIDI channel

16. The sliders send out continuous values over the MIDI data range
0-127 with the slider position indicating the value. The knobs send
out value 1 when turned clockwise and value 127 when turned coun­terclockwise. The buttons send out value 127 when pressed and value
0 when released.

The environment must keep track of values for all mixing parame­ters and use the input from the US-428 controls to change these val­ues. In one-bank operation, each slider will always reflect the
corresponding Audio object’s level. (We’ll deal with multiple banks in
the next section.) The knobs have no indicator—you can just think of
them as raising or lowering the corresponding Audio object parameter
value. The mute and solo buttons, of course, toggle an Audio object’s
mute and solo status. The rest of the buttons are used to select which
Audio object and which of its parameters is affected. (E.g. the Select
buttons determine which Audio object has its pan and EQ affected by
the US-428 PAN and EQ knobs.)

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The first time that you use any US-428 control after setting up the
US-428 environment, the corresponding Audio object parameter will
most likely jump to a new value. Thereafter, until you change cabling
or use the on-screen controls, the US-428 and the Audio object will
stay in sync. (In multi-bank operation, the sliders will get out of sync
when changing banks, but we’ll see how to deal with this in the next
section.)

Channel Strips

Mute & Solo

Each US-428 channel strip corresponds to one Audio object. (The one
cabled from the same numbered outlet of the Channel Splitter serving
the US-428 Bank module.) Each channel strip has individual controls
for volume, mute, and solo. There are shared controls for pan, four
EQ bands (gain, frequency, and Q), and four aux sends. The SELECT
buttons determine to which channel strip the shared controls apply.
(E.g. to set the pan position of channel strip 3, first press SELECT
button number 3 then twiddle the pan knob.)

Mute and solo are treated as separate modes on the US-428. The
SOLO button to the right of the eight MUTE buttons, toggles between
these modes; when its yellow LED is on, the US-428 is in solo mode.
In mute mode, the MUTE buttons toggle muting for the individual
Audio objects corresponding to the channel strips, whereas in solo
mode, the mute buttons toggle soloing. Mute status is indicated by
the yellow LED above the MUTE button and solo status is indicated by
the red, ‘REC’, LED below the mute button.

If you have no solos turned on (i.e. no red LEDs) then the SOLO
button acts like a mute-group toggle. When its yellow LED is off , mut­ing is turned on and when the LED is on, muting is off. (This may
seem confusing, but it is because the button is labeled “SOLO”.) Con­versely, if you have no mutes turned on, then the SOLO button acts
like a solo-group toggle—in this case lit is on and dark is off.

If you have some mutes and some solos turned on, then the SOLO
button toggles between the mutes-group and the solos-group. This
can be used in any number of ways. For example if you have the
same strip muted and soloed, toggling the SOLO button will alternate
between hearing just that track and hearing everything but that
track.

EQ bands

Note that the solo & mute groups include all channel strips in all
banks. As an added feature, the REC button will toggle the solo/mute
status of all strips in the current bank. Only the solos are toggled in
solo mode and only the mutes in mute mode.

Logic’s Audio objects offer four bands of built in EQ. (This is separate
from the effects inserts which might also be used for plug-in EQ
effects like Logic’s ‘Fat EQ’.) The US-428’s EQ controls are set up to
control these built in EQ bands. The switches in the EQ section deter­mine which Audio object EQ band is affected by the knobs—the top
button (labeled “HIGH”) selects the top EQ insert, etc. (This is of
course, all subject to the channel strip SELECT buttons.)

You need to select the EQ type for each of the four built in EQ
inserts. Thereafter, rely on the US-428 to control their on/off status
(use the SET button) as well as their parameter settings. Y ou are free
to leave an insert empty or choose an EQ type with fewer parameters

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(e.g. a shelf without Q); the corresponding controls on the US-428
will just be ignored.

Aux Sends

Bus Returns

Locators & Stop

Logic supports up to eight aux busses per Audio object, but the US­428 can only control the top four. The control is on a slot-position
basis meaning you can assign the top four slots to any busses you
wish (and not necessarily the same ones for each Audio object).

You change the aux send amount for a bus by first pressing one of
the US-428’s AUX buttons then rotating the data wheel. As with EQ,
be sure you have selected the desired channel strip, first.

Unlike Aux and EQ, there are not separate bus return controls for
each channel strip. (This wouldn’t make much sense.) Instead there
are four bus return controls per bank. These actually send MIDI vol­ume messages to channels 13 through 16. T ypically you will cable the
corresponding outlets from the Channel Splitter to the Return Audio
objects for busses 1 through 4, but you could actually use these
channels to control any Audio object’s volume.

Like the Aux sends, the Returns are controlled by the data wheel,
but this time you use the buttons labeled “ASGN” and “F1-3” to select
the four returns. The channel SELECT buttons have no effect.

The two LOCATE buttons are used to jump between Logic markers.
They step between 1 and 127—use the right button to increment (i.e.
jump to the right) and the left button to decrement. The right button
has no effect once you’ve reached the last marker, but the US-428
environment has no way of knowing this and keeps incrementing to
the limit of 127. Therefore, if you keep hitting the right button after
reaching the rightmost marker, you will have to hit the left button a
similar number of times to start moving to the left.

Banks

The STOP button will stop Logic playing. The other Transport but­tons are converted to MIDI controller messages and sent back to the
Physical Input for use in setting up remote key commands to control
Logic’s Transport. (Of course, you can set these remote commands to
do anything you want.) All the MIDI controller messages are on MIDI
channel 1. Here are the MIDI controller messages sent by these but­tons and the intended key command assignments:

Transport Button MIDI Controller Remote Command

Rew 105 Rewind
Fwd 106 Forward
Play 108 Play

Record 109 Record

Advanced Operation

The example song named, “US428 4+12x2.lso” contains the two­bank setup used in this section.

Creating a new bank is as simple as copying the US-428 Bank module
and changing its bank number. Once you have a new bank, you need
to create a new Channel-Splitter and cable it to the new Audio objects

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served by this bank. Y ou make the other cable connections exactly as
with the first bank.

You change banks by pressing the US-428’s right and left BANK but­tons. Only the right LED lights when you are in bank 1. (This indicates
that only the right BANK button is active.) In banks 2 and 3, both
LEDs light, and in bank 4 only the left LED lights. Each time you
change banks, channel strip 1, aux 1, and the high EQ band are
selected. The mute and solo LEDs change to reflect the status of the
new bank.

Because each bank has its own memories, all the knobs will auto­matically update the correct value for the current bank. This is
because the knobs actually just increment and decrement the
remembered value. However, the sliders send an absolute value and
this will not match the remembered value after a bank change. This is
the purpose of the NULL button.

When you press the NULL button its LED lights to indicate null mode
and the slider values are not sent to the Audio objects. Instead they
are compared with the bank memories and the select and record
LEDs light to indicate which direction to move the slider to get it to
match the remembered value. You must move the slider first to get
one of the LEDs to light. After that, move the slider in the indicated
direction until both lights are out. (If both lights come on as can
sometimes happen when the sliders are moved quickly, move the
slider back and forth more slowly until one of them goes out.) Once
each of the sliders is aligned, turn null mode off. Needless-to-say, if
you’re just going to edit some other parameter, aligning the sliders is
not necessary.

Alternate setups

Automation

As mentioned above, you can use the channel strips for any Audio
object you wish. In the example song, “US-428 4+12x2.lso”, the last
four strips of bank 2 control Audio objects assigned to inputs 1
through 4. This setup is well suited to the US-428, giving you control
of its four audio inputs plus 12 channels strips for track playback to
its stereo output.

As mentioned above, automation is destructive and requires a bit of
fiddling around. Still you can use the US-428 effectively to record
changes in any mixer parameters.

The fiddling around part involves changing the cable from the US­428 Bank module to the Channel Splitter. It must be cabled to the
Environment’s Sequencer Input on the Clicks & Ports Layer instead.
Then the Channel Splitter must be selected as the recording track
instrument. You can install a switch to do this and all the example
songs have such a switch.

The MIDI output (i.e. the MIDI messages used for mixing) of any
US-428 control you change will now be recorded (if Logic is recording,
of course). The controls of the Audio objects connected to the Chan­nel Splitter will then follow the same path each time the automation is
played back.

It is highly recommended that you put Logic in record/pause mode
at the position the automation is to start and slightly wiggle each of
the US-428 controls that you intend to use before recording automa-

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tion. This way , the automation tr ack will always start with the affected
controls in their initial position. (Unfortunately, the US-428 will be
hopelessly out of whack after the first pass.)

Examples

US428 8x2.lso

US428 4+12x2.lso

US428 32x2.lso

Import.lso

A one-bank setup for mixing down 8 audio tracks. The Audio objects
are assigned to ASIO for use with the US-428’s audio interface, but
this is not necessary. Simply reassign the Audio objects for use with
any other audio driver.

A two-bank setup for managing four audio inputs and mixing down 12
audio tracks. The Audio objects are assigned to ASIO for use with the
US-428’s audio interface, but this is not necessary. Simply reassign
the Audio objects for use with any other audio driver.

A four-bank setup for managing mixing down 32 audio tracks. You
can assign the Audio objects for use with any of your audio drivers.

This song contains setups for 1, 2, 3, and 4 banks on four separate
Environment layers. There is nothing else in the Environment, so you
can import it by Layer or as a whole. (By Layer is recommended.)

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