Controlling Native through Cubase / MIDI controller

[jpspoons]

As per title, any hints on how to control Native through Cubase with a MIDI controller? I can do quick controls, but MIDI remote and even generic remote have so far been beyond me.... any hints would be more than gratefully accepted.

 

Thank you!

[silverhead]

This describes using Cakewalk by Bandlab and Helix as the midi controller but I expect you’ll be able to use Cubase and a different midi controller instead. Hope it’s helpful.

 

 

[jpspoons]

Hi @silverhead, thanks for this. The controller that I want to use is a Qube Mobi One but I'm guessing the same principles apply. 

 

The bit that I haven't tried is setting an automation track, thanks for the tip! Do you run Native as an insert or a send in Cakewalk? 

 

Thanks again, JP. 

[silverhead]

I apply Native to the track as a plug-in; nothing different there. The important part is configuring Cakewalk to enable the sending of midi commands to Native. Cubase needs to be told to treat the Helix Native plug-in as if it were a midi device. I don’t know the mechanics of how to do this in Cubase but essentially you want to make Native available as an output to the midi automation track. With the midi automation track (like every track) you need to specify its input source and its output destination. For the automation track you assign Moni One as the input and Helix Native as the output. Then you simply record the midi track like any other, but you ‘play’ your midi controller like you would play your guitar. At specific points/moments in the recording you perform your midi operations. Then, on playback, these recorded midi commands are sent at the appropriate moments to the track’s specified output - Helix Native.

[jpspoons]

Thank you for this @silverhead- as soon as I get a chance to test I'll report back. 

Have a great weekend \m/

[jpspoons]

Hello again @silverhead

 

I'm definitely getting closer, but...

 

The midi track has done half of the trick, thank you for that! I can get the quick controls to work, but I would also like to be able to use >8 rotary encoders. 

 

When I set up a dial with either midi learn or specifying the CC number, the signal is sent and received BUT the slider in native doesn't change in increments - it basically flips between 0 and 100. 

 

Any ideas? I don't know whether it's a setting in my controller, or Cubase, or Native... Any thoughts much appreciated. 

 

Thanks again, JP. 

[silverhead]

Sorry - I can't help with that. I've never tried to do that. I expect you are able to  experiment and figure it out (if it can even be done) directly in Cubase with your midi controller better than I could in Cakewalk with Helix. Good Luck, and glad that I could help get you headed in the right direction.

[soundog]

@jpspoons - support for rotary encoders is hit and miss in DAWs and hardware devices. I tried building and programming encoders for months trying to get them to work with Helix Native in Logic Pro, and finally gave up. Be happy if you can get things working with simple rotary pots sending CC 0-127 messages. Then if you have (lots of) time and sanity on your side, you can start trying to get encoders to work. I'd reach out to the support folks for your controller and see if they can lend a hand....Helix will only understand the usual CC0-127, and there is no two way communication of the MIDI parameters.

 

 

[jpspoons]

For anyone following this, I've eventually found a workaround using Cubase's Generic Remote functionality.

 

I've mapped Helix Native parameters to MIDI CC numbers corresponding to the Mobi outputs (although some are reserved by Native eg CC0-4 so creativity is required).

 

Then I've used Cubase generic remote to set up each dial (Thresh, Ratio etc) to send those MIDI CCs to the plug-in, with flags Receive and Relative set.

 

The only foible is that if I change the parameter setting via the software rather than the hardware, it jumps back to the last value set by the Mobi. (This is your point about lack of two way communication I think @soundog?) Still it's usable and if I get it mapped correctly then hopefully I'll default to the unit rather than mouse.

 

Thanks all for the feedback and help with this :-) 

 

Cheers, JP.

[jpspoons]

Quick update for anyone interested. I've made a load of progress on this using MIDI Remote with some great help on the Steinberg forum here:

MIDI control of Helix Native in C12 - Cubase - Steinberg Forums

 

There's a "but"... when I close / re-open the project, moving the controller resets the parameter(s) to zero, no matter what their previous value was. Not great when you have  a preset built and want to nudge the drive up from 60 to 65, for example!

 

That doesn't happen with "native Steinberg" plug-ins, or indeed other third party plug-ins. If anyone has any thoughts on resolving this I'd be most appreciative.

 

Many thanks, JP.