Control Surface MMcL Mackie Control odd transport behavior

[freddie_tane]

Using the "MMcL Mackie Control #3 - 1"  for PreSonus FaderPort 8 (FP8)

FP8 Pressing Play it starts , pressing Stop button, CWbb stops at that point in time position.

FP8 Pressing Play it starts , pressing Play/Pause button, CWbb rewinds to the starting position.

The CTL-W option is un-checked:
On Stop, Rewind to Now Marker. The Now Time jumps back to the Now Time Marker whenever playback stops.

I have tried with Handshake On and Handshake Off, same behavior.

The PC keyboard spacebar behaves correctly = Start, press space, stops at that point in time position.

Is there some other setting to adjust? 
How do I check if the version of MMcL is up-to-date ?  And where would I find the latest version?

Thanks!

[msmcleod]

The latest version of MMcL Mackie Control can be found here:  https://msmcleod.co.uk/cakewalk/MMcLMackieControlSetup.zip

Apart from the COM class ID (so it's recognised as being separate from the stock Mackie Control DLL), it's identical to the one shipped with Cakewalk/Sonar.  It's definitely up to date.

 

[freddie_tane]

Now I have more clearly identified what is going on:

CWbb uses the space bar as keyboard shortcut for Play / Stop  , which is apparently not the same message as Play / Pause.

Using the CTL-W option, I can either make CWbb work as I would like, or the FaderPort 8 transport, but not both at once.

The CWbb space bar keyboard mapping works as I would like ( with CTL-W Option UN-set ) so that space-Play = play , and space-Stop = stop in-place (which is basically a Pause).

And unexpectedly, even though CTL-W is UN-set, the FaderPort 8 transport button called "Play/Pause" behaves as if the CTL-W option is SET (though it is not) and winds back to "Now".

With FP8, "Now" located for example at time 1:00:00.000 press the "Play/Pause"  ... roll for a while, press "Play/Pause" and the transport rewinds to 1:00:00.000

The symptom is that FP8 with CTL-W = SET  ,  press the "Play/Pause"  ... roll for a while, press "Play/Pause" and the transport stops right there. Which seems kind of opposite to what would expect.

I've opened a ticket with PreSonus about this, and if I hear anything back will update the posts.

In the meantime, I'm keeping the CWbb CTL-W Option UN-set and I will workaround on the FP8 to not use the "Play/Pause" for pausing but will use the Stop button.

Edited September 30 by freddie_tane
revise post

[freddie_tane]

And, drum roll please, the not-surprising answer from PreSonus regarding this issue:

>> Thanks for contacting Presonus Technical Support.
>> 
>> Is this issue occurring with Cakewalk? Sonar is not officially supported for use with the Faderport. It will work since Cakewalk supports Mackie, but the specific way that it is implemented is managed by Cakewalk. If you having issues with how it is working then you may consider reaching out to Sonar for advice. 
 

[azslow3]

"Stop with Now Marker" command is "Rewind to Now marker on Stop" (Ctrl+W) state dependent.  Even so the name of the command suggest it doesn't rewind. Checked in CbB 2024.7 (with keyboard shortcut assigned)

Mackie surface (BTW open source) use the command for Play button, when it should do "Pause". So the result is what you get, Ctrl+W dependent reversed to what space does.

PS Presonus has absolutely no influence on what particular control does in Cakewalk. They just send MIDI messages. They can only change what they send, f.e. in case they for some reason don't send "Note 94"  when you press Play button. But once they send correct message (and they obviously do, you will be unable to start Playback otherwise), the ball is on the other side.

[msmcleod]

On 9/30/2024 at 4:12 PM, freddie_tane said:

Now I have more clearly identified what is going on:

CWbb uses the space bar as keyboard shortcut for Play / Stop  , which is apparently not the same message as Play / Pause.

Using the CTL-W option, I can either make CWbb work as I would like, or the FaderPort 8 transport, but not both at once.

The CWbb space bar keyboard mapping works as I would like ( with CTL-W Option UN-set ) so that space-Play = play , and space-Stop = stop in-place (which is basically a Pause).

And unexpectedly, even though CTL-W is UN-set, the FaderPort 8 transport button called "Play/Pause" behaves as if the CTL-W option is SET (though it is not) and winds back to "Now".

With FP8, "Now" located for example at time 1:00:00.000 press the "Play/Pause"  ... roll for a while, press "Play/Pause" and the transport rewinds to 1:00:00.000

The symptom is that FP8 with CTL-W = SET  ,  press the "Play/Pause"  ... roll for a while, press "Play/Pause" and the transport stops right there. Which seems kind of opposite to what would expect.

I've opened a ticket with PreSonus about this, and if I hear anything back will update the posts.

In the meantime, I'm keeping the CWbb CTL-W Option UN-set and I will workaround on the FP8 to not use the "Play/Pause" for pausing but will use the Stop button.

IIRC on the real Mackie,  Modifier 1 + Function 5 does the same as the space bar,  where Modifier 1 is Note On 0x46 (70), and Function 5 is Note On 0x3A (58).

The Faderport might use SHIFT for Modifier 1, and the "Master" button for F5...  but you'll need to give it a try (or see what buttons give the same result using something like MIDIOX).

For the play button, the Faderport is definitely sending the expected messages for their play button, but as you say, this isn't the same as the spacebar.