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Latest MMcL MackieControl.dll available with HUI Support


msmcleod

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The latest version of my MMcL MackieControl.dll is now available: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MMcLMackieControlSetup.zip . The main highlight for this release is (somewhat limited) support for HUI control surfaces.

No need to uninstall the old version, just unzip the above zip file, make sure Cakewalk is closed, and run the installer.

The latest docs are here: http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MackieControl-MMcL.pdf

Note: I'm treating the HUI support as "beta", as I've not got a real HUI to test this out on. Most of the development has been done using docs I've found on the internet, along with TouchDAW for Android for testing. If you've any problems on your HUI device, please PM me.

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NOTE: All the enhancements in the MMcL MackieControl.dll are now available as part of the official Cakewalk MackieControl support.
The ONLY exception is the support for multiple independent groups of devices. So unless you've got more than one independent Mackie device there's no reason to use this version.

For clarification:  A Mackie combo of MCU + XT + C4 is seen as ONE group of devices, and will work fine with the stock Cakewalk DLL.

****************************************************************************************************************************************************

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7 hours ago, Larry Jones said:

Mark - I don't use any kind of Mackie Control. Don't really even know what it is, but you da man! Thank you for your willingness to contribute.

Thanks :)

FYI...

My Mackie MCU (original) with 1 extender + 2 x C4's:

IMG_1206.JPG.faffa07c757fd205a14c993e60b9c4c8.JPG

Mackie MCU Pro + extenders:

image.png.ee4db84dba4d81b56b24526a831c2179.png 

Mackie HUI:

image.png.87b98227de35ee68499bfdba5de7478e.png

 

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  • 3 months later...

Hi, Mark!

I have an actual Mackie HUI here. Works great with Pro Tools, but having problems with CbB. First off, I notice there are 3 .DLLs, so I'm not sure which to use, but I used the first one. The faders are loading at startup, and the scribble strips are showing data, but when I first hit play,  the HUI display erratically keeps going from active to Offline mode. After a short while, the Time Code/Feet/Beats display updates, then goes blank when it goes offline again. After that, the meters start to work, but then the sound starts to seriously degrade. I have Signal LEDs + Meters on. The pan/send rings are lighting up, though, and they do work as pan knobs. At this point, when I hit the stop button, it doesn't do anything, so I have to use the space bar on my keyboard to make it stop, but the Time Code/Feet/Beats display keeps running until it eventually stops. There seems to be a latency happening or something.

None of the transport buttons light up when you use them except for the Stop button. I can get it to play and stop, though, when I hit the buttons. Sometimes there's also a lag when I hit the play button, but not always. The RTZ button works.

I've shut down Windows and restarted the PC, but the results are the same.  A few times I also got the Blue Screen of death while trying to get it to stop.

I am not able to switch banks.

When I close a session or shut down CbB, the faders do not zero out, and the scribble strip data does not clear out. I have to turn the HUI off and back on to get it to clear out.

I do not have any other control surfaces set up in CbB.

Sorry, not trying to complain, it just isn't working too well for me. :-(

The firmware on my HUI is 1.45. I'm using the latest build of Windows 10, and just downloaded the latest version of CbB today on 10/10/19.

I shot a video if you want to see. Dropbox?

Rick Torres

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1 hour ago, Tortoise Media Prods said:

Hi, Mark!

I have an actual Mackie HUI here. Works great with Pro Tools, but having problems with CbB. First off, I notice there are 3 .DLLs, so I'm not sure which to use, but I used the first one. The faders are loading at startup, and the scribble strips are showing data, but when I first hit play,  the HUI display erratically keeps going from active to Offline mode. After a short while, the Time Code/Feet/Beats display updates, then goes blank when it goes offline again. After that, the meters start to work, but then the sound starts to seriously degrade. I have Signal LEDs + Meters on. The pan/send rings are lighting up, though, and they do work as pan knobs. At this point, when I hit the stop button, it doesn't do anything, so I have to use the space bar on my keyboard to make it stop, but the Time Code/Feet/Beats display keeps running until it eventually stops. There seems to be a latency happening or something.

None of the transport buttons light up when you use them except for the Stop button. I can get it to play and stop, though, when I hit the buttons. Sometimes there's also a lag when I hit the play button, but not always. The RTZ button works.

I've shut down Windows and restarted the PC, but the results are the same.  A few times I also got the Blue Screen of death while trying to get it to stop.

I am not able to switch banks.

When I close a session or shut down CbB, the faders do not zero out, and the scribble strip data does not clear out. I have to turn the HUI off and back on to get it to clear out.

I do not have any other control surfaces set up in CbB.

Sorry, not trying to complain, it just isn't working too well for me. 😞

The firmware on my HUI is 1.45. I'm using the latest build of Windows 10, and just downloaded the latest version of CbB today on 10/10/19.

I shot a video if you want to see. Dropbox?

Rick Torres

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the report. Unfortunately, all I had to work with for this was the MCU in HUI Mode, and the TouchDAW Android app.

It sounds like the HUI isn't getting a regular enough heartbeat from the MackieControl.dll, which is why it keeps going offline. The other issues may or may not be related to this, but if it keeps going offline its likely there's far more MIDI traffic going on re-establishing the link than is needed.

I've updated it to ping the HUI much more often - can you give it a go and see if it works any better for you?

http://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MMcLMackieControlSetup.zip

Thanks,

Mark.

 

 

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On 10/4/2019 at 1:41 PM, Marco Marujo said:

Now the only thing i miss is the VSTI (instuments) control.... maybe one day we'll get there.

Is it for real? I rekon I've read some people are controlling plugins from their MCU or HUI surfaces. So what are the options, only ACT? I plan on buying little iCon or X-touch and would like to know prior to buying which route to take best.

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8 hours ago, chris.r said:

Is it for real? I rekon I've read some people are controlling plugins from their MCU or HUI surfaces. So what are the options, only ACT? I plan on buying little iCon or X-touch and would like to know prior to buying which route to take best.

iCon / X-touch can both use the MackieControl protocol.

Also, FWIW all my enhancements  (apart from the one I changed above) are in the official Cakewalk MackieControl.dll for the 2019.09 release.

The only exception is that my version has 3 DLL's, which allows you to have up to three independent Mackie compatible controllers controlling Cakewalk (4 if you include Cakewalk's MackieControl DLL).

I use a real MCU + XT + C4 in my studio, but also have a nanoKONTROL 2 by my vocal mic. Having the separate DLL's allows me to do this.

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Hi, Mark.

Thanks for the updated installer. I tried it, but things were not much different except things seem to happen a little faster. It mostly stays offline, but still toggles on and offline, though it stays offline for longer periods now. I noticed the bank switching is now responding, though with a very long lag in response time. The meters seem to be coming into play faster than before, but still with latency. And it still appears to keep streaming data after stopping the transport in the Timecode/Feet/Beats display, and the meters are still moving even after stopping. Eventually it does stop after about 30 seconds, though I never really timed it. It seems like data from CbB is going into a buffer in the HUI, then being delayed somehow.

The lights on the transport buttons are working now, but also with a lag in response.

I have a feeling the key is in figuring out the online/offline thing.

Apparently the real HUI is a different beast than devices using HUI protocol.

It's easy to think something is wrong with  my HUI, but then I go back to Pro Tools and it works great.

Drat.

Thanks,
Rick

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14 hours ago, msmcleod said:

iCon / X-touch can both use the MackieControl protocol.

Also, FWIW all my enhancements  (apart from the one I changed above) are in the official Cakewalk MackieControl.dll for the 2019.09 release.

The only exception is that my version has 3 DLL's, which allows you to have up to three independent Mackie compatible controllers controlling Cakewalk (4 if you include Cakewalk's MackieControl DLL).

I use a real MCU + XT + C4 in my studio, but also have a nanoKONTROL 2 by my vocal mic. Having the separate DLL's allows me to do this.

Mark, thanks for your clarification but my question was if you can control 3rd party plugins from the MCU/HUI devices? I'm interested in buying iCon Platform M+, it looks like very basic console but it has few function buttons, I wonder if I'll be able to control plugins from it.

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The official Mackie MCU & MCU Pro can control VST plugins, but not VSTi instruments in the synth rack (although you can get around this by putting the synths in the effects bin of an audio track).

The HUI can't control plugins within Cakewalk at the moment.

From what I can see though, the Platform M+ doesn't have the buttons to put it into plugin mode.

What you could do is use Icon's iMap software to define your own MIDI mappings, and then map them to synth parameters using ACT within Cakewalk.  It's not an ideal solution though - the faders will be one way using this mode (i.e. they will act as if they're not motorized).

Also, swapping between Mackie mode and iMap MIDI mode won't be seamless - you'll need to use iMap to flip modes, and also disable the MackieControl surface within Cakewalk.

Another solution maybe to use @azslow3 's AzController: http://www.azslow.com/index.php/topic,7.0.html

 

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10 hours ago, chris.r said:

I'm interested in buying iCon Platform M+, it looks like very basic console but it has few function buttons,

Chris, Personally I would save the money and buy a used Mackie Control. You can pick one up used at guitar center for 200 bucks. This is of course, the older Mackie Control units. I bought one about 5 years ago on Craigslist for 150.00. It was the best investment I have ever made (for my studio). The older Mackie Control units run through Midi Ports vs. USB like the newer units.

You can control Plug ins, Selection points, loop points, Markers, Views and sooo much more compared to limited buttons on the iCon. Mackie control also has a half sized meter bridge (LCD). iCon doesn't unless you plan on ponying up more bucks for the add on meter bridge.

Its up top you, but I would do the research before investing.

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23 hours ago, msmcleod said:

The official Mackie MCU & MCU Pro can control VST plugins, but not VSTi instruments in the synth rack (although you can get around this by putting the synths in the effects bin of an audio track).

Alright, now you made me understand Marco's previous post (about instruments), thx :).

23 hours ago, msmcleod said:

From what I can see though, the Platform M+ doesn't have the buttons to put it into plugin mode.

they released recently this https://iconproaudio.com/ic_product/platform-b/

and this https://iconproaudio.com/ic_product/platform-nano/

so there's a hope! Unfortunately I have 0 (ZERO) experience with control surfaces as by now so there are very simple questions from me, Thanks for patience.

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14 hours ago, Chuck E Baby said:

Chris, Personally I would save the money and buy a used Mackie Control. You can pick one up used at guitar center for 200 bucks. This is of course, the older Mackie Control units. I bought one about 5 years ago on Craigslist for 150.00. It was the best investment I have ever made (for my studio). The older Mackie Control units run through Midi Ports vs. USB like the newer units.

ChukE Baby, thanks but I think I'm going with small factor. It's a home studio, no serious recording at least by now, more of a producing/mixing ITB. And as for new gear, you know, warranty may be handy etc. Looking mostly for something that may give a bit of feeling of working with hardware mostly when mixing or fooling with plugins.

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6 hours ago, chris.r said:

Had a look on it right now but I see it's an alternative for ACT. FWIK ACT doesn't support high resolution for the faders (10-bit i.e. 1024 setps vs 128 for MIDI). Other than that looks pretty interesting.

ACT is Cakewalk API for Control Surfaces. MackieControl.dll is also ACT based. They label "ACT" Plug-in Dynamic Mapping, which is a part of ACT API. And they call "ACT MIDI" one of DLLs. A bit confusing...

AZ Controller should work correctly with any resolution up to 14bits. By "correctly" I mean careful precision auto-detection, including 7bit transmitted over 14bit messages (most "Mackie compatible" devices which do not claim high resolution explicitly). Exotic value ranges (some iCon devices used that) are also supported. 7bit controls apply special (non linear but invertible) mapping, so pan center can be set exactly. Touch sensitivity and feedback are supported.

Too good to be true? Yes... Unlike "plug-and-play" MackieControl.dll and simple to configure ACT MIDI, AZ Controller is a DIY platform 😉

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13 hours ago, azslow3 said:

Too good to be true? Yes...

A voice from heaven :D... Thanks Alexey, apparently AzController is much more than I thought and that's a good thing. I'll take a close look once I buy the iCon.

For the moment I have just one quick question. Without going into detail, since Platform M+ doesn't have a dedicated button for it - is it possible to assign one of the available buttons and create a custom function for it that will let icon enter a plugin control mode where I can use it's faders, knobs and buttons to control fx bin and prochannel plugins? (Synths in synth rack no possible from what I've learned already.) Guess that's all I need beside basic mixing functions. Presumably the answer is yes (perhaps even possible with Mark's mackie control plugin, idk). I've tried to download the manual for AzControl from the website but the link didn't work.

14 hours ago, azslow3 said:

Touch sensitivity and feedback are supported.

Feedback you mean the display with channel names and control values etc? Like this https://iconproaudio.com/ic_product/platform-d2/

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