Mackie Hui/MCU support

I have a question about Mackie support in Translator. I see references that state Translator supports Mackie Hui/MCU but I can not find a reference in the manual for how this is used. I am in the process of converting my Tascam DM24 from a mixer to a control surface. The Dm24 side is complete and I can trace Fader, Pan and transport control messages back and forth to the DM24 using midi monitor and Midi Slider. The motorized pots move as expected, pan works, etc. I now need to integrate to my Sonar Platinum. According to its docs, the only Control Surface protocol that is supported that is bidirectional is Mackie. However, Mackie HUI and MCU only supports 8 sliders. To get full integration, I am going to have to setup 6 instances of Mackie control surfaces similar to what the Mackie multiunit MCU, as the DM24 has two layers of 16 input faders and a layer of 16 Master faders. On the DM24 side I have split these out into different CC for each block of 8 faders and pans. As a result, I need to use Translator to take the one input stream and through the rules test the CC# and the channel # to redirect to one of the six virtual ports where each virtual port is connected to an instance of Mckie Hui in Sonar. Conversely, I need to process messages from each of the HUI instances back through translator into the corresponding cc# and channel#. Is there a built in Mackie translator template that just is not apparent in the Docs?

Hi and welcome back!

Indeed MT Pro can be set up to manage HUI but we don’t provide full blown solutions here. Just the tools to help you build yourself provide some online coaching and Q&A. You might find something on the forum if you search HUI.

I found this example.

As an independent consultant, I could probably provide you some templates that might be a bit more comprehensive but since I put so many hours into them I would have to charge you. For instance I have a template for APC40-MK2 to HUI, but of course the APC-40 MK2 does not have motorized faders.

I have done other similar projects so if you are interested either PM or email me.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

In searching through my hard drive I found this project file for interface between Allen and Heath mixers to HUI. I think it came from the Allen and Heath site. You might wat to start here. I have not tested it. I didn’t see any copyright notices with it so I feel I could share it.

MIDI to HUI - PROTOOLS_1.5_Bome.bmtp (61.0 KB)

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Apparently the DM24 has direct HUI emulation support. Just found this.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Yes it does but it is limited to 8 channels, so only MMC and control for 8 channels. In full midi mode I can configure both open and closed MMC, and by utilizing multiple CC#, I can configure all 48 channels of fade, pan, select etc.
Likewise on the Sonar side, Sonar can only handle 8 channels per instance of Mackie + MMC, but Mackie is the only protocol in Sonar as far as I am aware, that also sends to the control surface, so that motorized sliders will mimic changes made in the DAW.
Translator is the split/merge to take standard midi to/from the DM24 and split/merge from Sonar back to standard midi.

OK, so how many Mackie Instances does Sonar allow? Most DAWs allow up to 4 which would give you 32 tracks. Each bank is on a separate MIDI port.

Are you looking for Mackie MCU or Mackie HUI or does it matter? MCU is usually easier to program. Mackie HUI has no concept of master faders and MCU has a concept of only 1 master.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

It looks like Sonar more closely reacts to MCU. You are correct that technically there is only 1 Master fader but in Sonar you can assign strips, including aux busses to an input. In the DM24 HUI mode you can assign 8 Master Faders to the hui emulation. So far in Sonar platinum, there is no limit to the number of Control surfaces. Once I get Translator installed on the Sonar PLatinum machine and create the skeleton with the 6 virtual ports, I can confirm that I can assign 6 instances of the Control Surface to the 6 virtual ports. Probably over the weekend. I have built a new recorder PC and migrated my Motu PCI424 card to it in a Win10 environment. I have a 24i/o, 1296 and 2 2408s attached to it so about 44 inputs and 8 outputs available to Sonar. My racks have about 40 units(synths/samplers, drum synths), in them so the inputs are full. If I can make this work, then I have a one synth to one strip map. I gain strips because the drum synths (12 of the 40) feed a pair of midi controlled Mackie 1604s so it reduces them down to two pairs of inputs but lose some because of stereo feeds from some of the synths.

So are you on old Sonar DAW? I thought Cakewalk went out of business. I see on the Bandlab website that they are planning on re-releasing Sonar? What kind of support do you get for the DAW , if any?

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

I have Bandlab but it doesn’t compare to the old Sonar Platinum and not a big cloud dependency fan. When the new Sonar comes out which is supposed to have a desktop version, then I will probably move to it. In the meantime, the old Sonar is rock steady and works with my Motu PCIe card.

Hi All,
I’m a newbie who was pointed in this direction by a support resource as i’m a Yamaha 01v96i owner interested in getting my Yamaha device to work with FL Studio

‘Hi, I have created a project file in a piece of software called Bome MIDI Translator Pro that can take a Mackie HUI device output Mackie MCU. I’ve tested it with a few DAWs that support Mackie MCU but not Mackie HUI.’

Where and how do i get involved with esting the template?
Thanks

1 Like

Hi @tommtomuk and welcome to the Bome community!

The template I put in the posting should get you started. You will have to define your own incoming commands but the output will then be HUI.

With that said, I think FL Studio understands Mackie MCU but not Mackie HUI. You might want to double check this before you start working on the project file. I would always start with just testing fader 0.

Now FL Studio supports HUI, you could also look at this thread about the O2r as it has an example of 02r to HUI. I don’t know how similar the O1r and the O2r are.

There are other samples on this forum for various controllers to Mackie MCU and Mackie HUI. Most of them are simple examples with a single or maybe one or two faders. If FL Studio supports MCU, I suggest you search on that.

Mackie HUI is an older standard and is not compatible with Mackie MCU. Most people use HUI with ProTools that does not support MCU. But MCU is better supported by most other DAWS.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Hi there!

I have successfully used my 02R with Ableton, Logic and Pro Tools.

I had fader control, channel banking, single fader scrolling, and even had a button programmed that would kill the fader feedback so i could overdub automation, as the unit has no touch sense track in its faders.

All in all it was a good script. I ended up just buying a wee 8 fader surface.

If anyone would like me to post the scripts, lemme know and I’ll set it up.

Always happy to help!

Thanks, Andrew. Although no one may not be interested right now, if you have time it would be good to post. Often times users come in later and search for previously defined solutions on this forum.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Hi Andrew,

Yes Please post im interested to see what i need to do to get my 01v96i to talk to FL.
Thanks
TT

Hi Steve, New Year Greetings!
HELP!!!
So On your advice ,i got started with trying hard to get my 01v96i to work with FL Studio but with little success
I did the right thng, tried and paid for a Bome MTPro license (and because a user also has my yamaha mixer) i download the settings file 01v96-HUI-to-Ableton-live-Mackie-2023-04-09.bmtp, and worked with that, however i tried everything explained in the post (Yamaha 01V96 VCM as Controller for Ableton - #16 by Marco.Engel) and got some joy, however after some time and work,using MCU in FL, i can only get the first 8 channels singing in perfect harmony with FL and the transport controls are fine as well but what am i not doing correctly?
How do i get the other 8 channels to sing the same song as the daw?
Can you help me please?
Your assistance is greatly appreciated!
Thanks.
TT

Mackie MCU only supports 8 sliders per unit. You will have to create another instance of Mackie MCU in FL and then in translator map sliders 9-16 from your Yamaha to sliders 1 - 8 in the second instance of Mackie MCU on the FL side. If you look at docs for the MCU add on, it has its own midi connections so the master and the addon connect to two instances on the Daw and each one sends its own sliders 1 - 8. Since your Yamaha has 16 sliders as a base, you will have to split them into two sets of 1 - 8 feeding two instances of MCU on FL.
Steve can correct me if I am wrong.
I am starting to work on a similar problem mapping 16 motorized sliders on a DM-24 into Sonar. It will require multiple instances of MCU in Sonar as well.

@jmcdouga , you are right on! Thanks for helping out!

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Jim, Thanks for this
can I play dumb and ask for more help and a brief explanation of how to do this in translator please?

Hi,
I’m not 100% sure that FL Studio supports multiple Mackie devices. Most DAWs that have MCU compatibility do. You usually just set them both up and the second port found uses Tracks 9-16. I just did some testing with FL-Studio 21 and found this not to be the case so you should probably check with Imageline to find out if multiple MCU devices are supported. For me, both controller ports were using tracks 1-8.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Apparently a user wrote a script for MCU extenders. Information is shown below: