Much Frustration with Remote Control

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I am having a terrible time trying to get Remote Control to work in Cubase (ver. 8.0). I have created an audio track with RC as an insert and two MIDI tracks called ToBCR and FromBCR. Input to MIDI track ToBCR is all MIDI inputs and output is to the RC instance on the audio track. Input to MIDI track FromBCR is the RC instance and output is a synth on an instrument track (makes no difference what synth – I tried several with same behavior).

Now, when using a skin with both meters and controls, I can see that MIDI is making to the RC instance courtesy of meters showing activity. However, knob controls do not move and there’s no indication that MIDI is making it there. I have no idea Remote control is seeing this MIDI or not. A MIDI activity indicator on the RC plug-in would certain help in a situation like this. I would also expect the knobs to move if seeing activity from a learned incoming MIDI signal.

No pass-through MIDI seems to be making it to the synth. However, when I select the FromBCR MIDI track in Cubase, the synths MIDI-activity indicator lights and stays continuously on even when no MIDI activity of any kind is happening. But trying MIDI learn on the synth (learning from RC control activity using mouse-initiated knob movement in RC) gets me no results. However MIDI learn works fine when I MIDI learn when the instrument track is selected in Cubase and learn from controller actions, so it's not a MIDI-learn problem with the synth.

So far, this has been a most frustrating experience and I can’t find any suitable tutorial guidance. Any suggestions as to how to get this project on track?

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There are a couple of things to check:
1. In the Remote Control, ave you enabled MIDI output for the controls in the MIDI settings tab? It is disabled by default, so no MIDI data will be sent if not active.
2. Are the MIDI tracks armed for input monitoring? By default Cubase will not let the MIDI events pass thru.

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Blue Cat Audio wrote:There are a couple of things to check:
1. In the Remote Control, ave you enabled MIDI output for the controls in the MIDI settings tab? It is disabled by default, so no MIDI data will be sent if not active.
2. Are the MIDI tracks armed for input monitoring? By default Cubase will not let the MIDI events pass thru.
1. Yes, output was enabled.
2. Probably not armed if the default is off - I did not do anything on this, so what I've been using has been the default. I will check and report back.

I still have a question about knob behavior. If a knob as done a MIDI learn and gets messages with the learned controller number, is there a visible reaction in Remote Control? Does the knob move in response?

Thanks.

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Yes, the knob should indeed move.

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OK, on one hand, good news. I have KB controller to synth message flow working. There are still a few points of considerable confusion, but the MIDI messages are going the full distance (the issue of turning on track monitoring for the MIDI track BCRC was sending its output to was indeed the problem).

However, I have confirmed that there is a constant flow of MIDI messages out of BCRC even if no other DAW activity is present. First of all, the MIDI activity indicator on the target synth (I tried several all with same results) stays continuously lit. I put the Cubase MIDI monitor as an insert in the MIDI track receiving BCRC output and it too shows continuous activity. Finally, if I try to move the synth control that's slave to BCRC (MIDI-learned, that is), the knob snaps back to the position of at which the associated BCRC knob is set.

Any ideas?

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Yes this is indeed the way it was initially designed: slave keeps getting messages to make sure it is in sync with the remote control. It is something that may change in future versions, though.

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