HUI to Midi CC or Mackie MCU to MIDI CC

Bome Products
1

Hello everyone,

I humbly request your help, since I am not getting there on my own.

Short story:
I have an Icon Platform M+ and Cubase Pro 11.
The controller support MCU, HUI and MIDI but the motorized faders don’t receive feedback using MIDI. They used to at least but didn’t work correctly. Then there was a ‘firmware update’ and now they don’t respond at all. (I contacted ICON’s customer support but let’s not go there… so perhaps this is the only way to get it to work.)
Mackie Control for channels and such works just fine, including the motorized fader. In HUI-mode it also works fine.
However, I need the faders to control plugin parameters (faders in plugins n such) and preferably feed back from Cubase to the motorized faders.
I see that HUI is supported in Bome Translator Pro but I can’t get it to convert HUI to Midi CC to send to Cubase. And then also back from Midi CC to HUI to send back to the motorized faders.

So the motorized faders I’d like to use and also the endless rotary knobs. (the latter work fine in MIDI-mode but of course I have to put the entire machine in HUI mode). If MCU works, that’s all the same to me.

Or if my solution to this (HUI to Midi CC) seems like a bad idea for fixing this issue and anyone has a better idea, I’m all ears.

Many thanks,

Andi

2

Hi, and welcome to the Bome Forum!

From what I’m hearing, fader movement feedback to your iCon Platform M+ in CC mode is no longer working, however it still works in Mackie MCU and Mackie HUI modes.

Yes you can leave the device in Mackie MCU or Mackie HUI and convert from MCU to CC (to the DAW) with feedback as CC to MCU back to your device. You can also do this with HUI conversion.

It is less complicated with Mackie MCU and you also retain your master fader (which HUI does not support).

Here is an example of conversion of HUI to CC for fader 1, For CC, modify as necessary for which CC and channel you want.

Incoming (From platform M) E0 pp qq
Outgoing (To Cubase) Control Change MIDI CH 1 CC 0 value pp

For feedback

Incoming (From Cubase) Control Chane MIDI CH 1 CC 0 value pp

Outgoing (To Platform M) E0 pp pp

Notice the CC has only 7 bit value and faders have 14 bit value hence you will lose some resolution of the feedback fader movement on your Platform M which uses 14 bit.

For Faders 2-8 Substitute E1-E8 in place of E0 above. E8 is the master fader.

One final note, you may need to push an unused button on your controller to signal to MT Pro to enable and disable the preset with the above translators and then add a MIDI thru path so that you can still move your faders in Cubase. For example with a given button pressed and held, switch the preset on so you can send CC with your faders and with button release, send normal fader information.

Also, you may need to capture feedback of each fader in the unselected mode back from Cubase so that as you switch your controler into into Fader (MCU) or CC mode, you can update the fader positions on your controller.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
3

Hey Steve,

Thank you very much for the help!

I got it to convert from the faders value to Midi CC.
However. after moving the Platform M+ faders, they automatically seem to move back to the bottom after releasing.

The Midi CC data in the output log seems to be fine, the qq = seems to have the correct value. When releasing the hardware fader, the qq goes back to 0 of course because the hardware fader goes back down.
The fader in the VST in Cubase is jumping around like crazy though and the VST fader doesn’t show the CC position being sent from Bome. Also, the motorized faders doesn’t work.
Maybe it is the Platform M+ causing the issue?

Thank you,

Andi

4

To get your fader to stay in the correct positiong, add another translator as follows

Incoming Raw MIDI E0 qq pp from port Platform M
Outgoing Raw MIDI E0 pp to port Platform M

On your second issue, I would need to see the outgoing message on your log.

Of course if you are in MCU mode, you will also disable the fader feedback from Cubase for the normal fader operation otherwise Cubase will be trying to both control your fader and the VST value

Incoming E0 pp qq from Cubase
Outgoing None

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
5

Hey Steve,

Thank you so much for your reply.
The faders work perfect now!
And even though this is expected behaviour, I’m still amazed it works.

There is just one more thing I’d like to manage in the demo, could you help me out a hand with the rotaries as well?
As the faders are

E0 xx xx
E1 xx xx

The rotaries are all B0 xx xx.
Rotary 1 is B0 10 xx, rotary 2 is B11 xx, etc…

Perhaps this is obvious but I just want to be clear in case it differs per device.
I played around with the NRPN and RPN but can’t seem to get it to work.
The values for the controller seem to be between 01-07 for increments depending on the speed and 41-47 for decrements.

Many thanks again,

Andi

6

Hi Andi,

For V-POTs something like this would work for Macike MCU to CC conversion. Since V-POTS send relative data, you will have to do some addition/subtraction and store the current values of each into global variable. In this case I use l0-l7 (letter L). In this example, I look at the incoming value to determine which global variable to use, then put it into local space for manipulation and back out to global space when done. In this way I can achieve all V-POT with one translator

Incoming: Control change on ch1 with any CC set pp to cc# and value to ss
Rules:
// determine vpot number by CC
// incoming is 0x10-0x17
// outgoing is 0x30-0x37 in this example

// Only addres 0x10-0x17

if pp>0x17 then exit rules, skip outgoing action
if pp< 0x10 then exit rules, skip outgoing action

// outgoing values
pp=pp+32

// store to rr for global variable evaluation below
rr=pp-48
// get the proper global variable into local space for manipulation

if rr==0 then qq=l0
if rr==1 then qq=l1
if rr==2 then qq=l2
if rr==3 then qq=l3
if rr==4 then qq=l4
if rr==5 then qq=l5
if rr==6 then qq=l6
if rr==7 then qq=l7

// Next to rules is left turn buts skips below for right turn
if ss>64 then tt=64-ss
if ss<64 then tt=ss

qq=qq+tt
// don’t go beyond value limits of 0-127
if qq>127 then qq=127
if qq<0 then qq=0

// put the working local variable back into global space

if rr==0 then l0=qq
if rr==1 then l1=qq
if rr==2 then l2=qq
if rr==3 then l3=qq
if rr==4 then l4=qq
if rr==5 then l5=qq
if rr==6 then l6=qq
if rr==7 then l7=qq

Outgoing: Control Change on ch 1 CC pp and value qq

I hope this helps!

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
7

Hey Steve,

Thank you for your help!

I got it to work, unfortunately I didn’t mean for it to output a value between 0-127.
Is it possible to have them output the relative data that would work with knobs in Cubase?

I’ve been trying to figure out how but unfortunately haven’t been able to.

Many thanks,

Dries

8

If you are sending to VSTs then it will need 0-127. If you are sending to Mackie V-POTs all you have to do is pass through the data untouched and set up Cubase to talk o a Mackie MCU device type.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
9

Thank you for your reply.

I use them as a generic remote in cubase and it works fine using the knobs as relative and as a rule:

if qq<10 then rr=1
if qq>60 then rr=127

The issue I’m facing is that only every second indent seems to transmit data (even in the midi in log, it seems) and the values it moves on the knobs seem big. For examples I have a knob in a VST and it has 6 positions. It would jump 1-3-5 and then 6 the last when I move it. I notice on the other knobs that it seems that the parameters are quite big. (maybe moving 1 is a bit much and it doesn’t use midi values 0-127 but knob value 1? Is there in any case a way to change that?

Many thanks,

Andi

10

Assuming your encoders are sending Mackie V-POT relative values as qq, and Cubase is looking for 1/127 values try this:

// This handles positive movement
if qq<0x40 then rr=qq
//This changes negativ to +1 +2 +3 etc
if qq>0x40 then rr=qq-0x40
// This will make negative 127, 126, etc
if qq>0x40 then rr=128-rr

Then send the value rr

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz
11

Hey Steve,

Thank you for your reply.

No, it doesn’t send Mackie V-POT relative values apparently but I’ve given up for the time being.

Thanks,

Andi

12

Hi Andi,

If you want to come back to it at some future point. If you could turn on logging for MIDI INPUT in MT Pro and copy and paste the messages your knob sends, I could probably assist further.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care

Also available for paid consulting services: bome@sniz.biz