Alphatrack or Tranzport with CueMix FX?

[PostPCMan]

I just installed my cool new 828mk3. Very cool!

Has anybody tried either the Alphatrack or the Tranzport control surface with CueMix FX? Does it work? Any recommendation which of these would be nicer? I'll also be using it with Ableton Live.

Thanks...

[mikedrick]

i am wondering the same thing. I have the tranzport, but am wondering if any control surface like the Evolution UC-33e seen here:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/UC33e/

any thoughts?

[PostPCMan]

I bought an AlphaTrack. Works great with Live and Cubase, but I can't get it to work with CueMix FX. CueMix FX says that it can be used with a HUI or Mackie Control. The AlphaTrack emulates either of those, but when I set it to do so, CueMix doesn't recognize it at all. It tells me that no compatible control surfaces are installed.

I've sent a support request to Frontier, but not yet to motu. We'll see if they know anything.

Has anybody else tried this?

[PostPCMan]

Despite the fact that the AlphaTrack will happily emulate a Mackie Control, it does not work with CueMix FX.

Here is the note that I got from Rich in motu tech support.

The AlphaTrack is not available in the CueMix Mackie Setup applet because it is not possible to choose the Mackie Control or HUI device profiles for it in Audio MIDI Setup. This is because the AlphaTrack device in Audio MIDI Setup is a driver-created device with no MIDI I/O ports. The CueMix Mackie Setup applet will only recognize MIDI devices in Audio MIDI Setup that are set to use the Mackie Control or HUI profile.

Normally, a driver-created MIDI device in Audio MIDI Setup will have at least one MIDI I/O port. This allows the user to create a new "proxy" device, set it to use either the Mackie Control or HUI device profile, and connect it to the driver-created device. Since the AlphaTrack device in Audio MIDI Setup has no MIDI ports, this is not possible.

The AlphaTrack profile that is published to the CoreMIDI system by its driver does contain an "internal" MIDI port as you've described, but it is not possible to connect another device profile to that port since the AlphaTrack icon in Audio MIDI Setup does not show any ports. In order to use the AlphaTrack as an emulated Mackie Control or HUI control surface device with CueMix FX, it will be necessary to connect a Mackie Control or HUI device profile to the AlphaTrack icon in Audio MIDI Setup. For example, please see the attached screenshot that shows how this configuration would be made with a Behringer BCF2000. Notice that it has MIDI ports at the bottom of its icon.

Therefore, it is currently not possible to use the AlphaTrack to control CueMix FX. If Frontier Design changes their driver to display the AlphaTrack with at least one MIDI I/O port in Audio MIDI Setup, then you will be able to use the method I described previously to configure the unit as a Mackie Control- or HUI-compatible control surface device for CueMix FX.

I've forwarded this to Frontier. I also sent them a much less detailed tech support request about it several weeks ago, before I even tried motu tech support, and I've yet to receive a response from that request. We'll see.

I hope that this doesn't turn into an impasse, with motu and frontier both claiming that it's not their problem. It ought to work. Unfortunately, right now it doesn't.

[sustainiac]

>please see the attached screenshot that shows how this configuration would be made with a Behringer BCF2000. Notice that it has MIDI ports at the bottom of its icon.

So Reading between the lines, it is implied from Rich at MOTU that the BCF2000 is successfull controlling the Cuemix FX mixer?

Can they clarify how this is accomplished?

[PostPCMan]

>please see the attached screenshot that shows how this configuration would be made with a Behringer BCF2000. Notice that it has MIDI ports at the bottom of its icon.

So Reading between the lines, it is implied from Rich at MOTU that the BCF2000 is successfull controlling the Cuemix FX mixer?

Can they clarify how this is accomplished?

Yes, that is the implication. Looking at Audio MIDI Setup, the icon for the Behringer has some little bumps on the botton, which are ports that can be attached to. Somewhere on the motu site (I can't find it right now) is a document that shows how to create a new pseudo device, attach it, and call it a Mackie Control. The alphaTrack has no such little bumps on the bottom of its icon.

[PostPCMan]

I sent motu's comments along to Frontier, and this is the response from Brian George.

Hello Jerry,

actually there are a couple issues with Cuemix/AlphaTrack. But the first
and most significant one is the fact that Cuemix doesn't recognise USB
(virtual) MIDI ports for some reason. AlphaTrack, and many other devices
fall into this category. The reply from MOTU included below seems to
verify that they have only coded Cuemix to see physical MIDI ports on
hardware interfaces. And I suspect that the team writing Cuemix are not
the same as those writing DP. Certainly we can't add a physical MIDI
port to AlphaTrack. This is a shame because a growing number of control
surfaces, including the newest versions of the Mackie Control are going
to USB MIDI connections. And most of these controllers have some ability
to emulate an MCU or HUI if they could be recognised like normal DAW
software such as Digital Performer allows. If Cuemix could accept USB
MIDI devices then MCU or HUI emulation occurs with the device driver as
we now do with ProTools for example. Better yet, they could add a native
mode for AlphaTrack as all of the information needed to do that is
already published on our website.

Assuming MOTU fixed that issue, we might then write an MCU emulation
mode that matched the control set used by Cuemix if they published that
information. Every app uses the MCU spec in a different way to match
their specific needs so there is no single mode that works genericly.
The HUI emulation that we have written into the AlphaTrack driver is
'tuned' for PT. There are also MCU emulations tuned for Final Cut Pro or
SoundTrack Pro.

So in short, if MOTU added support for standard USB MIDI devices and
shared the MCU command set they use we could revisit the possability of
adding Cuemix support. We have had a number of requests for it.

Regards,

Brian

Sigh. To me, Brian's comments make more sense than Rich's at motu, since alphaTrack seems to work fine with most every DAW, including motu's DP. However, it seems that the only way this gets resolved is if Frontier and MOTU talk to each other.

We'll see.

[sustainiac]

Rich at MOTU wrote>

CueMix FX under Mac OS X supports the Mackie Control Universal, Mackie HUI, Mackie BabyHUI, and any control surface device that features a Mackie Control or HUI emulation mode. The Frontier Design AlphaTrack does not work with CueMix FX because of the way its Audio MIDI Setup profile has been configured to work by the manufacturer. The majority of control surface devices that support Mackie Control or HUI emulation do not have this problem.

It is not possible to control CueMix FX with generic MIDI continuous controller messages. You must use a control surface device that uses the Mackie Control or HUI protocols.

[cyberpink]

create a device in your audio/MIDI setup on the mac
connect it to the controller you want to use in and out and the motu cue mix software will aknowledge its here (from some SOS thread about the BFC/R 2000in mackie mode)