how do i get all of this gear to control
cakewalk
let's find out in this video wait for it
[Music]
hi folks i'm mike and i hope you will so
i've got
five devices here which i'm using to
control kcork i've got three in my
desktop
i've got my keyboard here and i'm also
using my humble
smartphone as well now if you've got a
device that you can't see here
and you want to use it to control
cakewalk do stick around
because this video may still be very
helpful to you the reason for that is
many manufacturers use a common protocol
to communicate with doors so protocols
are kind of a language a way of
communication
that protocol is called the mackie mcu
protocol
and it can do things like control
transport things like play stop fast
forward that kind of thing so
for example with my keyboard here it's
got some transport buttons
so i can use it to start the playback so
like this
[Music]
and stop fast forward record all
that kind of good stuff i can do it here
on my mackie mcu controller
i can do it over here on my icon pro q
controller
and also over here on this presonus io
station 24 which is actually very
similar
to the presonus fader port as well so i
can play
stop fast forward all that good stuff so
that's the first kind of group of
functions
that we're using to control cakewalk the
other one is to do with
individual channels or multiple channels
things like muting
soloing that kind of thing and what a
lot of us want to do is control the
faders
so for example on my keyboard again here
i can use
the fader here push it up and down and
you can see
the faders going up and down on these
other devices and if you're eagle-eyed
you'll be able to see it happening on
the screen behind as well so of course i
can do that
with these controllers
and with my fader port over here not
fader port sorry the i o
station 24. i always think it's the
fader port
with an audio interface added to it
anyway
so those are the things that we can do
there's a whole bunch of other things
you can do with some devices you can get
plug-in control
all that kind of good stuff as well lots
of advantages
it feels a lot more organic to do it
this way you can put your hands on
something
and use it rather than having to use the
mouse and keyboard all the time
so i know some of you do have problems
getting this
up and running so in today's video i'm
going to run through how to set it up
and then how to fix some of those common
issues
let's start off with some preparation
so what i mean by preparation is making
sure that your device
is in mackie mcu mode now unfortunately
i can't tell you exactly how to do that
it varies from one manufacturer to the
other
and from one device to the other the
tips i'll give
this if you've got a screen on the
device and it's got some settings
then often you'll find that you can
switch modes in there
if you haven't got a screen on your
device then commonly
there's a special button combination you
have to press when you power up the
device to get it into machi
mcu mode what i suggest you do is go to
that products web page
look for the manual and that's usually a
pdf and do a search in that pdf
for mcu and if you can't find it at all
that may mean that your device doesn't
have mcu mode
another thing you can do though is look
for any tips on setting it up for
cubase i've often found that helpful
because cubase uses
mcu as well so if there isn't something
on cake cork specifically or sonar
then look for cubase maybe you'll get
the tips in there as to how to put your
device
in the correct mode once you've got it
in mackie mcu mode
then we can start setting up in cakewalk
so i'm going to start off with the
standard process this is the process
you'll have to go through
regardless of manufacturer or model of
device now i'll happen to be using my
machi mcu
pro control surface the device where the
protocol gets its name from but as i say
this could apply to something like the
behringer
x touch or as i say my qcon pro g2
and many other devices keyboards and
things from other manufacturers so i'm
in cakewalk i'm going to press p on the
keyboard to bring up preferences
and then i'm going to go down to midi
devices
because all of these devices are going
to use midi
to communicate with the computer and
then with
cakewalk so it's important that we set
up inputs
and outputs the inputs are so the device
can tell cakewalk to do things and the
outputs are so that
cakewalk can tell the device what the
current state is whether it's playing
what position it's at what the current
state of a fader is all that kind of
good stuff
so you can see i've already got a device
selected here this is just my keyboard
my regular keyboard set up for playing
notes okay
that's not what i'm interested at the
moment i'm going to set up my mcu pro so
i'll set its
input on and i'll set its output on
okay now a note on keyboards if i was
setting this up at the moment
to be using the controls on my keyboard
the transport controls and the faders
and things
usually what happens in fact all of the
times i've done this successfully this
has happened
that keyboard will have two midi outputs
and
inputs one for its regular use for
keyboards and things
and then another one for using the
mackie mcu protocol it may have
more than that so depending on the
device it may be using
um midi two or three etc so in my case
with my arteria keyboard you can see
here it's got this device here
midi into key lab mark ii that's the
arterial device so if i was setting that
up
that's the one that i would be enabling
and it's the one that i would use later
on in this process but i'm not doing
that now so i'm going to stick to
this mcu pro here so i've got that
selected
i could hit on apply at the moment if i
wanted to make sure that's applied
and then i need to go down to midi
control surfaces i click on that
and now i'm ready to set up this as a
control surface
so i'll go right up to the top right
hand corner here this little little icon
here
and you can see it's to add a new
controller surface i'll click on that
that brings up this dialog here so i'll
start off by selecting
under here the mackie control selection
there you may have a bunch of other ones
there you may have less than this
depends on your particular setup but you
will all have the mackie control
uh i think it's a driver you would call
it here so i'll select that
as the type of control surface and then
i need to select that device that i just
enabled for the input and the output so
i'm not going to use the key lab that's
for my notes i'm using the mcu pro
on this occasion so change that to
wherever your device
is for that particular midi output for
that device
then i just click on ok and that is all
set up
now if everything goes well and the
device is sort of using the standard
implementation
then that will all be working i'll just
click on apply here just to make sure
i'll close that
and if i hit play on my mackie
you can see and here that the music
starts to play and i'll click stop
and that stops and if i move one of the
faders around
in actual fact i'll just bring this over
so you can see the faders
i've got control over you can see i'm
moving
them up and down so that has all worked
well
all gone to plan but it doesn't always
go to plan so let's look at the first
reason why that might not be the case
so sometimes you'll follow that
procedure and still
nothing happens well i've got a quick
tip for you here
and this may solve it for you let me
know in the comments down below if it
does
and also let me know which model of
keyboard you're using so if somebody
else comes to me with that model
i can let them know this is how you can
fix it i'm
using my arturia keyboard here i've set
it up
as i did in the previous section i've
made sure i've used the right
midi outputs and things i've gone
through and set it up as a mackie
controller
and then i've got to hit the play button
on the transport i'll do it now
nothing is happening i'm pressing the
i'm pushing the faders around on my
keyboard
none of the faders are moving so here's
how i'm going to fix that
whenever you've set up a mackie control
surface of any kind if you go up to this
utilities menu at the top
left here click on that you'll see at
the bottom it will appear down here it
may have a slightly different name
if you've just got one installed it will
just say mackie control
one like that click on that it takes a
moment
and then it brings up this menu this
gives you a few useful
options as regards the control surface
and sort of customizing it
the one thing i've found that really
helps with a number of devices
is checking this tick box here next to
disable handshake
this is a process which happens normally
between cakewalk
and the device when it first starts up
it sends some information back and forth
but with some devices they're not
completely compliant so this doesn't
work and won't it won't get going
so if this is not happening for you if
it's not working try this click on
disable handshake
then click close that window there now
i'm going to press play
on my arturia device you can see things
happening there it's playing i'll press
stop
i'll push some of the faders around you
can see them moving and capable of there
it's fixed that it's not always a
complete fix but you'll generally find
you get
most of the functionality that you would
want oh by the way are you finding this
video useful
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back to this video
so sometimes you'll get issues when
you've got more than one device set up
to try and control cakewalk sometimes
the second device
just won't work or doesn't work fully so
for that i'm going to give you a
solution which involves downloading a
file i'll put a link for that in the
description down below and within that
file is a setup you just run that setup
and install some alternative drivers
which will appear in
cape cork you'll have to restart catwalk
of course before you can see them now i
just want to quickly thank
noel borthwick and mark mccloud from
bandlab
who have given me some little hints
before i've proceeded in making this
video particularly surrounding
this particular subject so i've already
got one controller set up that's my icon
q con pro g2 and i'm going to set up a
second one so again i'll press p
on the keyboard preferences i'm already
in control surfaces here
and you can see i've already got the
icon set up just as normal
as i've shown you already so now i'm
going to
add my i o station 24 that's the
presonus product
and i think that that product works in
exactly the same way as their current
fader port
as well so you can follow this procedure
if you're having that issue
with that as well so i'm going to go
ahead on the icon at the top right there
click to add a new controller surface
now in this part where i select the
controller surface rather than picking
control sorry mackie control i'm going
to go ahead and this has appeared now
this is something that mark mcleod make
from
bandlab and i've followed that process
which i told you about earlier of
installing that so i'm going to select
this one
this mcleod mackie control number one
and if i was going to do even more
devices then i'd use number two and
number three
so i'll click on number one there and
again i'll just go ahead
and i'll select the i o station 24c
there again io station 24c there click
on
ok click on apply uh close this window
so i'm going to use my cue con to press
play
you can see that's happening and my fade
is going up and down
and i can already see my fader moving on
my i o station from presonus over there
you can see that moving up and down and
the transport controls are working on
that as well so that's how you would go
ahead setting up a second
or third device etc it may even help if
you're just having general problems
to try these alternative drivers i can't
guarantee but there's always a
possibility that could help
it's worth trying out so if you're still
confused please do
ask in the comments down below and i'll
do my very best to help you out
but do bear in mind i don't know about
every single device
out there and how to get it into mackie
mcu
mode that's something you're best to
look in the manual for or contact that
company support about now if you want to
download those other drivers i told you
about
do check the links in the description
they may well help you out
while you're there check out my link to
patreon.com where if as little as one
dollar per month you can help me
help you by making more videos like this
and i'll see you in the next video
[Music]
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