Steinberg CC121 AI Knob Emulator - Also MIDI Fighter Twister

Steinberg CC121 AI Knob Emulator

I currently have a Steinberg CC121 controller that features an AI knob.  This allows you modify any parameter that the mouse cursor is currently above.  You can imagine how much more efficient this is compared to mouse click/dragging, or mapping out individual parameters to various midi controller knobs which you may or may not remember.  This was a great idea, but only worked for Steinberg plugins and very few others.  

How do I emulate this in MT pro?  In other words, how do I trigger a mouse click, hold, and drag with the turn of a midi controller knob (in my case I'll be using a Midi Twister Fighter by DJ Tech Tools)

Hi,

You should be able to get similar behavior with a MIDI Fighter twister.  I would recomment you use the push encoder down to initiate a click down action, then twist to initiate mouse movement action and then release to release the click.  Depending on your application the drag operation might be up and down or left and right.

I've attached a project file with the values of one of my knobs performing this action although I'm doing it with Ableton Live instead of Cubase. The encoder is set for type 3F/41 (relative).

 

The click down sets the value of ga to 1 (indicating click down)

The movement only happens if ga=1 (you are clicked down)

The click up sets the value backof ga back to 0 (indicating release click)

 

Just float your mouse over the desired control, click and turn your encoder and release it when done.

 

Enjoy!

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Q and A Moderator and
Independent Bome Consultant/Specialist
bome@sniz.biz

 

 

 


Attachments:
1591188280353_Encoder-move-knob-under-mouse.bmtp

I was think even skipping the click/press down event. Is that required to ensure proper functionality of the translator? I’ll take a look at the .bmtp file soon, but I was thinking we set a condition, “if rotary knob movement” engage “mouse click and hold” while adjust modulation parameter. And then have another case when knob movement is in the other direction.

Well that might work but, probably not a good idea as what if you bump your knob (moving it) unintentionlly? It will click and drag wherever you currently are on your screen. Also, there would need to be a time out so that whenever knob movement stopped for a specific period of time, the mouse up action would occur.

 

Steve Caldwell
Bome Q and A Moderator and
Independent Bome Consultant/Specialist
bome@sniz.biz

Hi! I just bought MIDI Translator Pro after finding this thread and testing the trial. I’m also a Cubase user with a MIDI Fighter Twister who’s been searching for an AI knob emulation. I made small changes to your file Steve, to fit my setup (2nd knob on bottom row) and so the mouse moves diagonally to adjust knobs plus both horizontal and vertical sliders/faders:

TEST_MFT_Encoder-move-knob-under-mouse.bmtp (2.6 KB)

With just this one thing, Bome let me save money and make equipment I already own more powerful! I’m looking forward to trying other functions.

I’m hoping for help with a couple things:

Moving diagonally like this, if I turn the knob left and then right, the cursor does not return to its original position, it returns to a position slightly left of the original position. So if I turn the knob left and right repeatedly, the cursor makes its way leftward across the screen. This doesn’t seem to affect the intended operation of moving the sliders or knobs (which is great!)… but can my settings be changed so the cursor goes back to its original spot?

And, like the OP I would also love to know how to make this work without pressing and twisting the knob, but instead just twisting it! I think I would need to study a lot more before I could figure it out myself…

Look at this post for doing this without click.

As far as returning to original mouse position, MT Pro does not have a native way to do that but if you are on a Windows PC, I wrote MIDIBuddy which can tell MT Pro through MIDI where the mouse is. WIth MIDIBUddy working in conjunction with MT Pro, you can capture the position in MT Pro before moving the mouse, and then return to the original position when done.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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

Thank you Steve, your examples (above, plus several other videos & posts) are helping me a ton! Couple questions about MIDIBuddy:

Trying to set up this “AI Knob” without click, I ran into an issue where it worked fine… until the mouse moved within the vicinity of another parameter nearby, and was no longer adjusting my desired parameter. I saw something about “mouse freeze” in MIDIBuddy. Would that help me with this issue?

Also I’m setting up a different knob to make the mouse go to a specific spot onscreen, and adjust a parameter that’s always in that spot. That works great, but it might be nice to have it return to where it just was. I think that’s what you’re talking about above, right?

Yes, mouse return to last known location and mouse freeze are the most common uses of MIDIBuddy. There is some complexity added when you are using MIDIBuddy however as mouse movement information comes into MT Pro pretty fast and constant (if you are moving the mouse), MT Pro can handle it but sometimes the log window is a bit hard to read due to the increased sysEX traffic.

Steve Caldwell
Bome Customer Care


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