Remote Control discovery and troubleshooting

[Hans45]

Hello everyone!

Just gave some tries to Blue Cat's Remote Control, and it's very promising. I stumbled upon a few problems, probably by ignorance, so I was curious to know if someone here could give me some answers (KIUML help is nice, but has its limits...):

• VST3 version can't send any MIDI (I know there have been many topics on this subject, and Steinberg didn't want VST to send MIDI anymore, but it's always a strange surprise). To keep precise: it doesn't work in Cakewalk (I don't have tested it on other DAWs yet).
• I played with KIUML and successfully built the interface joined to this message, but the buttons don't seem to work correctly: the hardware sends a CC with a 127 value when pressed, and the same CC with a 0 value when released. So I must keep them pressed, not working as on/off switches as I would like them to do. Maybe is there a trick?

That's all for this time... But I will probably come back soon with other questions (how to handle continuous rotary knobs, is there a way to send program changes..., etc.). This product is worth the time I pass to learn it, but doing it by guess and try is not the best way to do so...

Thank you all for your thoughts, suggestions, ...

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

[Blue Cat Audio]

That's a nice skin here!

VST3 version can't send any MIDI (I know there have been many topics on this subject, and Steinberg didn't want VST to send MIDI anymore, but it's always a strange surprise). To keep precise: it doesn't work in Cakewalk (I don't have tested it on other DAWs yet).

Some DAWs indeed do not support MIDI out of VST3 plug-in (it is a recent addition that has not been implemented by many yet). But VST2 should work.

I played with KIUML and successfully built the interface joined to this message, but the buttons don't seem to work correctly: the hardware sends a CC with a 127 value when pressed, and the same CC with a 0 value when released. So I must keep them pressed, not working as on/off switches as I would like them to do. Maybe is there a trick?

It looks like you have used buttons instead of knobs maybe? Or if using knobs you need to change the positions_count attribute to 127

[Hans45]

Thank's very much for your answer!

Working with the RC is great, I tried another piece of hardware, easier to code as there were no problems with complicated behaviours.

Switching to the VST2 version works perfectly. That's good news that MIDI sending is right back with VST3, as it stopped me from developing my own hardware interface (JUCE also had the problem at a time), and it gives RC a real interest to keep running using up-to-date standards.

About the buttons, I'll try to be more understandable... :

There are buttons on my hardware. When I press one of these, it emits a 127 value on the CC it is set on. RC handles it perfectly. But then comes the problem, as I soon as I depress the hardware button it sends a 0 value on the same CC. And, of course, RC immediately sets its software button off. As many buttons are used as switches, these ones are quite unusable as such (and using knobs would do the same, switching to 1227 when pressing, then reverting back to 0 when releasing).

I coded an evoluted CC translation by myself, looking only at 127s and keeping the out-CC message state handled on its side, but I fully understand it was probably not what you were thinking of when designing RC. And I keep enjoying it, as even aside from buttons it gives an easy, clear and very useful interface to use between hardware and VSTs. I just told you about the fact in case you would be interested in thinking about it in a further evolution, but it could be difficult, depending on the internal algorithms of RC.
It didn't stop me from making another skin, also... :

mpd232.png

Again, thank you so much for this clever piece of software.

[Blue Cat Audio]

Nice skin!

About your buttons issue, isn't there a way to configure the hardware in toggle mode instead of momentary? The remote control indeed just follows what the controller sends. Maybe we will add an auto toggle mode in the future if it may help!