Mackie Control, a few questions

Arnar wrote on 4/21/2004, 11:45 AM
Im just getting one of the babies and id like to know if anyone's tried it out with Vegas 5?
Also , can i set it up so the rotary buttons will operate plugins ?
Or am i just getting a fancy unit to control faders and pan?
Can i easily determine wether im controlling tracks or busses?
Will it work with the 2.0 rom as well as the 2.1 rom?

Btw: you need to get yourself into the "supported porgrams" at the mackie site.

Comments

PipelineAudio wrote on 4/21/2004, 12:11 PM
Ive been using it for a while now

I dont know jack about how it works, but I just use the faders

you can do plugs with it, but again I dont know how

I am using the custom midi controller generic thing, so I just have transport, faders and "show active take names in events"

I am hoping for a LOT more customization with the mackie map
Arnar wrote on 4/21/2004, 12:33 PM
Why arent you using the mackie map?


"show active take names in events" what does that do ...show the track names on the mackie lcd?
pwppch wrote on 4/21/2004, 1:16 PM
Yes, you can control FX parameters - at least those that support plugin automation. Some don't.

Basically, you select a channel (track or bus) and can then

- add/remove plugs into the chain
- change their current preset
- control the parameters of the plugin (iff it support plugin automation)

From the parameter control, you can then record automation for any plugin - assuming automation write (Latch or trim) are active.

For those Video users: You can only view and add/remove Video FX as our current shipping Video FX do not expose their parameters for automation.

The Mackie has two modes: Audio OR Video. (It defaults to Audio mode!)

Important Concept: A "channel" is a track or bus in Vegas.

The Mackie will by default display/control all tracks and then buses. So, if you had 10 tracks and a master + 4 sub buses, the Mackie would show you the first 8 tracks and you have to page or inc to move through all the tracks buses.

You can also show only tracks or only the mixer view.

The MCU master fader is ALWAYS the master bus in the mixer.

You can control main channel fader, pan, and sends as appropriate. (This means that if a channel doesn't have a pan - the master bus - then the pan is a no op. Since buses don't have sends, then these are no-ops.)

You can also control

- the routing of tracks and buses, (output only on buses, input and output for tracks)
- the phase of a track
- the automation stated - read, write, off - of a channel
- the input monitoring state of a track
- the pan model of a track/bus
- reset channel to default values - i.e. center pan, 0 dB for main faders, reset all envelopes
- arm tracks for record
- when in surround mode you have control of front, rear and center settings
- the "sub buses" of the surround master are seperately controlable

There are tons of mappings, and some level of user reassignments that can be done. Some of the mappings are clearly marked on the Lexan overlay that will be availble through Mackie, and some are "hidden" but in the users guide. i.e. Trim edit modes, track reordering

We will also support the Mackie XT extender units. This feature was disabled only because Mackie was completely out of stock of XT units and we had no way to internally test the support. Upto 4 XT units will be supported, and you can configure the "layout" from the Mackie driver configuration dialog. This means:

XT unit 1 : Channels 1-8
MCU unit Channels 9-16
XT unit 2 : chanels 17-24.

or any variation on the theme. The default is XT units are mapped first, and the MCU is mapped last.

We support the 2.0 ROM, but you should update to the latest download available on the Mackie web site. We DO NOT support the orginal Logic Control, so if you have an orginal unit, you will need to update the ROM by ordering it from Mackie.

Peter





PipelineAudio wrote on 4/21/2004, 1:20 PM
its the only way to sensibly use the pitch control for me, since the new pitch/timestretch thing is so user unfriendly, so I need it on an instant switch
PipelineAudio wrote on 4/21/2004, 1:23 PM
peter I still need some help, using the mackie in mackie mode. I cant reassign "show active take names in events" to a single button press for some reason

couldnt we have a learn mode for buttons on the mackie map as well as the generic controller?

Or at least an easier and more sesnible way of what button does what in preferences?
Arnar wrote on 4/21/2004, 2:22 PM
wow..i cant wait to get the mackie control.
Sounds like its fully supported!!
the mackie site doesnt say that you can buy a lexan overlay for vegas but i´ll take your word for it :)

awesome....

great job on the new version indeed.
pwppch wrote on 4/21/2004, 4:40 PM
I told you at least a dozen times during the beta that you can't do these things. It hasn't changed.

However, since this was all discussed during beta, I will say it all in public

"You can't do that."

I'll say it once more, just to be explicit:

"You cannot assign a single button press to toggle on show active take names in events."

Will it change? There is currently no plan to support this.

I also told you there is no learn and will not be a learn for the Mackie driver. This has not changed either There is no plan to add a learn mechanism to the Mackie Control Universal Driver for Vegas 5.0.

Sensible is subjective at best.

Vegas 6 is wide open for suggestions like these, and they are already in the "things to discuss for future versions of Vegas" list.

Peter
pwppch wrote on 4/21/2004, 4:41 PM
We just released. Give Mackie a little time.

Peter
PipelineAudio wrote on 4/21/2004, 4:51 PM
is it possible to map this function to a keystroke on the keyboard then? that would be just as good. Even better would be to give the option of the old look to the time/pitch strech controls
Nat wrote on 4/21/2004, 5:17 PM
A button on the ui for this would be nice (also a button to show/hide timecode on the thumbnail)
PipelineAudio wrote on 4/21/2004, 7:45 PM
I dont see " show active take names " in the availablke commands menu for the keyboard

Am I missing it somewhere?

pwppch wrote on 4/21/2004, 8:18 PM
It isn't available to be mapped to the keyboard. (It is actually a pref, not a "function" of Vegas, this is why you don't find it keyboard mappable.) It may be controlable with a script though, which you can then assign to a keyboard map. I am checking.

Peter
Nat wrote on 4/21/2004, 8:19 PM
That would be nice !
decrink wrote on 4/21/2004, 11:26 PM
I'm thinking of springing for one of these too. When you drag tracks up and down, say from position 12 to position 8, does it automatically update it on the Mackie?

If I understand correctly, you can toggle between track banks 1-8, 9-16 etc. and the busses? Easy to do in practice?
PipelineAudio wrote on 4/21/2004, 11:45 PM
nothings numbered that makes it kinda tricky
pwppch wrote on 4/22/2004, 12:35 AM
When you drag tracks up and down, say from position 12 to position 8, does it automatically update it on the Mackie?
Yes.
pwppch wrote on 4/22/2004, 12:36 AM
What is not numbered and what is tricky?

The mackie displays the track name or a track number if no track name is set.

Peter

PipelineAudio wrote on 4/22/2004, 1:10 AM
it renames it in order to fit, so sometimes its hard to tell. I just gotta get new naming conventions and not use "duplicate track" so much when doing vocal layers. A switch to change the display to numbers would be cool especially when you move by 1 channel at a time instead of a bank
Arnar wrote on 4/22/2004, 6:28 AM
Regarding "show active take names in events"

why would that be nice ? am i missing something?
You can set this to show at all times, is there a reason to not show it at all times?
PipelineAudio wrote on 4/22/2004, 11:00 AM
if you show it at all times the words are in the way of editing a lot
decrink wrote on 4/23/2004, 12:25 AM
Is there a way to automate panning from the Mackie? When I switch to automation mode, the panning adjusts but makes no changes to the envelope?
pwppch wrote on 4/23/2004, 6:44 AM

Absolutely you can record pan automation from the Mackie.

Do main fader automation modes record correctly?

Are you switching the Makie or the GUI into automation mode? You must put the Mackie into automation mode. (Press the Automation | On button from the MCU - which is the third button from the left of the first row of buttons below the small Function key buttons.)

Peter
decrink wrote on 4/23/2004, 10:04 AM
Yes! I found it before you replied and used it last night for sessions and this morning as well. Its great! I've only had the Mackie up and running for a day and its integration has been flawless except for the learning curve. It appears the mapping is very similiar to the default overlay for emagic.

I'll give a better more detailed review later but for now, I'm loving it.
PipelineAudio wrote on 4/23/2004, 10:34 AM
is there a way to kill the variable velocity on the pan control and just make it linear?