Fantastic news - the COmpressor pro-channel module has been exposed to the control surface! Thanks Cake.
X1D looking great overall so far.

Er...... before you get too excited, try and access the EQ....

I'm finding that whichever module is first in the PC is accessible, but nothing else is.

You're quite right FBB. But at least it is available somehow, so this is something that Cake can (could?) work on and resolve.

stevenpanter


You're quite right FBB. But at least it is available somehow, so this is something that Cake can (could?) work on and resolve.

I would like to think so. I would have thought that if each module's parameters are exposed if they are in position one, tying it up to cycle through them using the MCU next/previous plugin would be relatively simple. But then again I'm no programmer so who knows...

Better still would be allowing the EQ button to access the EQ, the DYN button the compressor(s), and the rest via the plugin button. I've got enough bug reports & feature requests in to cover all bases so for me it's a matter of patiently waiting.

Very patiently I guess. How long have we been praying for a driver update.....
 
While I think of it, I've discovered a new MCU-related bug. The record enable button (the little one above solo/mute/select) no longer works properly on instrument tracks. Press it once and record will become armed, but the button will not illuminate and recording has to be disarmed from track view or console view, as the button will have no further effect. Still works properly with regular audio r midi tracks though. Time to submit a bug report methinks.

Hi guys, I've been following this issue since FBB filled me in on it a couple weeks back, as I am hoping to add an MCU to my setup. Frankly, I would have already done so but for this pro-channel issue. 

But there might be some hope yet to get this to work.  Check out this verbiage from the x1d notes from cake, regarding PC and the VS700:

  Support for ProChannel (Producer and Expanded only):
  Entering EQ Mode now focuses the top-most module in the current track or bus ProChannel.  Subsequent EQ button pushes cycle through modules, in order.

  Additionally, CMD + Page buttons now move forward and backward through the list of inserted modules  All current modules are already pre-mapped to the Channel Strip Control section. Current and future modules can also be learned via ACT Learn mode.

So, the appearance of whatever module is first is what is is supposed to be happening, and we just need the right sequence to be transmitted to toggle it.  Also, I believe I have read that the VS700 runs in mackie mode, so it might be possible to wire that up somehow.

So here's an idea: If there is some way to modify what the MCU sends, either via the 'next plug' or 'eq' buttons, or for that matter any other button that might be handy, so that it is sending the same CC data as the VS700 does from its EQ button, then it might work.   This could possibly be done via a mapping file, a .ini or something, on the mackie side, or maybe even a drum map(?)...

Note: I am completely ignorant about how this stuff is all wired up internally in the control surface plugins/driver, etc, so this is speculative as hell. But it seems like the main obstacle to this was removed in x1d, as it now supposedly works in VS700, and it's hard to imagine that most of the code driving all that is not common to most surfaces.

Anyway, I'd try this myself if I actually had a MCU.   Anybody have any thoughts, or already know that this path is fruitless? 

Ima keep digging at it some.  If only I had a mackie. If only I had some change. If only, if only, if only...

Very patiently I guess. How long have we been praying for a driver update.....

Don't ask! Please.

The other day I was showing Studio One to a friend then I showed the same song in X1(I had ported it over to X1 some time ago) and the quality was, I like to say very apparent. This was due to PC and a few plugins I used on it. At the time I did the port I was on Studio One Artist. That did not support VSTs. So not liking the few plugins that came the Artist version I did not bother with it. Even so  it was already mixed to their standards. With X1 which I know fairly well it was a breeze to get the sound I wanted from the song. My friend was stunned by the difference. That brought us to talking about the MC I have (often a subject of interest for people coming to my setup). I mentioned that Studio One had decent MC support that X1 didn't and believe it or not FL studio had the best that I have tried. The reason. I explained to my friend was that the FL Studio developers asked what the users wanted their MC to do with FL S. They listened and did the best to accommodate the wishes of the users.

Much of what is asked for here in this forum for CW to do to fully support the MC is not impossible. It just will take will power and some time to do. It can be done, it should be done after all the years CW has not updated MC support.

FBB has been a true blessing on this forum for his being on top of the issues and asking CW to get it done.

I had almost given up on it. Thanks to FBB I think we have a change to get CW to do right by the MC.

Guys, I have said this before that the MC can do amazing things with the right support. Its still the industry standard.

If only it were that simple. I too was optimistic that the MCU would be able to step through them in a similar manner but it doesn't. It will see the first module in EQ and plugin mode but not past that.

AFAIK there's no easy way to make any major changes to the MCU, it's pretty much a one trick pony in that it works in "Mackie" mode, HUI, and one other I believe. None of which help the prochannel situation.

The ini file is easy to edit, I have done that and there's a whole thread on that HERE. I have tried to assign more V-pots to the existing ones just in case the PC was being seen as one large entity, but it isn't.

I fear that until CW update the mackie dll and/or change the way the PC is "seen", it won't get any better.

Having said all that, and annoying as it is, I certainly wouldn't let that or any of the other little "bugs" be a deal breaker for me personally, the upside of having one far outweighs the downside, although there may presently be better options such as the V-700, although I don't know what the ££ difference is.

It's probably more frustrating for those of us that already have the surface because we've lost functionality whereas if you've never had it in the first place you don't know what you are missing.

Oh, well.  I had done a little reading since I posted on the Cakewalk Control Surface SDK, which contains a sample Mackie surface plugin, and was starting to come to a similar conclusion.

While the Vs700 looks like it works great, it's twice as costly as the MCU, and one of the reasons I have stood stubbornly with Cake since the pre-Sonar days is that I wasn't going to buy into what I felt was a predatory marketing scheme by Digidesign, with an integrated hardware/software offering that you had to lock into.  With the V-studio, and now particularly in light of this issue with the PC, I'm feeling Cake working the same old squeeze.  I'm especially concerned about this in light of the obvious positioning of the PC as the new vehicle for delivering functionality via new modules. 

If I thought the VS700 had any practical application outside sonar, I might consider it.  But it doesn't - nada.  Like you said, MCU is the standard.  

I'm starting to ask myself if I was just starting from scratch, what would I go with?  I mean, I could switch to another DAW and fill out my UAD plug suite for the extra money it'd take to get the VS700, and be able to use MCU as well as the Novation stuff I already have...

Then again, every platform has its issues.  I make the switch, and the biggest impact will  be that people on some other forum will have to listen to me complain.   Time to go play music.  

Cheers...

I'm not 100% sure but I think the V-700 has a Mackie mode as well, perhaps one of the V-700 users will confirm that or perhaps it's in the product info somewhere.

If it does you'd be able to use that anywhere that Mackie mode is supported.