Mackie Control - sending automated mute messages EASILY

Ok, this was bugging me for a while today-- and I've read a lot on google about people trying to make this happen but not having any luck with it.

How many of you out there wanted to automate track mutes with your Mackie Control (especially for hip-hop production/beatmaking... dropping the beat out, or certain parts of your beat), but found this was damn-near impossible with Sonar? Not so anymore.

The Mackie Control's mute buttons send a generic message to mute tracks in Sonar (obviously). But what happens when you "SWITCH TO AUTOMATED MUTE" by right-clicking the track's "mute" button? Well, your Mackie Control no longer sends the correct message for the track mute. You'll see that if you mute a track, it greys out, like it is "sending automation" but in fact, it doesn't, because the "mute" button on that track (with an icon showing Mi (the "i" being a fader, instead of a plain "M") isn't LIGHTING UP.... it needs to light up to send the automation to that track. It works fine if you click it with the mouse, but who wants to do that? Certainly not me. So here's how to get it working:

This tip applies to Sonar Home Studio 7 XL. My friend tried the same thing with his Sonar 8 Producer, and it works the same way.


1. First, obviously, you'll need to right-click the track mute button for each track you'd like to automate (let's start with track 1), and with the menu that pops up, at the very bottom you'll see "switch to automated mute"... click it.

2. Right-click the mute button for track 1, and then select "remote control" - hit the mute button twice on your Mackie Control to let the program know that you want the mute button to become "automated mute". Then click "learn" in the remote control window (you'll see a midi note appear in the window), then click OK.

3. Repeat for each track you'd like to automate.

4. Now the Mackie Control's "mute" buttons work perfectly as "automated mutes" (as the "Mi" button now LIGHTS UP up on the screen when you press Mute on your Mackie Control). Make sure each track you want to automate a mute on has the W enabled (for "write automation")

I am unsure how or if it will work on Sonar X1... I received the free X1 upgrade when it was released from Cakewalk, but I haven't installed it yet.

Hope this helps some of you out there!