Take Control...Anywhere

May 31, 2005 12:47 PM

           
 

FIG. 1: This Cubase pop-up menu, which appears in the right half of the Device Setup window, shows the complete list of categories from which you can choose when assigning commands to the TranzPort's buttons.

Controlling Cubase
Steinberg's Cubase SX3 is one of the better DAWs to use with TranzPort, as it allows you to set up eight programmable functions: seven in combination with TranzPort's Shift button and one for its footswitch input. An enormous list of possible commands is available, but some are clearly more useful than others in conjunction with a remote.

To see the possibilities, open the Cubase Device Setup window, choose the Mackie Control in the tree on the left (Cubase thinks the TranzPort is a Mackie Control), click in a Category field to choose a command category, and then click in the Command field to see what's available. There are 35 distinct categories, including Zoom, Navigate, and Add Track (see Fig. 1). Some of these categories offer as few as one command, but Preferences and Edit offer more than 60 commands each. The Process Plug-in category lets you choose any of the plug-in effects in your system, which could be a very long list indeed.

Your biggest challenge, then, will be deciding which choices will work best for you. Here are my recommendations:

Let's assume you're sitting across the room from the computer and doing some overdubbing. If you're going to work on various sections of the song in one session, then Nudge->Loop Range Left and Nudge->Loop Range Right may be useful. Combine these with Transport->To Left Locator and you can start playback or recording at any point. You can just as easily locate with TranzPort's data wheel, of course. But if Loop mode is switched on, Cubase will now be set up to let you do a number of takes of a single passage, after which you can shift the loop range left or right and record something else. Since this is a set of three commands, assigning them to F3, F4, and F5 (the TranzPort's Shift-PREV, Shift-ADD, and Shift-NEXT buttons) makes sense.

Work out a harmony part by soloing the track you want to harmonize with.

The Transport command category (see Fig. 2) is a natural place to find useful commands. The basics (Record, Rewind, Insert Marker, etc.) are already covered by TranzPort's buttons without using the Shift key, but Metronome On and Precount On are likely to be useful. Putting these under Shift-Play and Shift-Record provides a reasonable setup. The TranzPort's Footswitch input maps to Mackie User A; you may want to use this to duplicate the function of the Record button by assigning it to Transport->Record. Yes, now your computer recorder can go into Record mode from a footswitch, just like that old cassette deck that's gathering dust in the closet.

FIG. 2: After you choose the Transport category in Figure 1, Cubase makes this huge list of commands available.

Add Track->Audio is another excellent choice for remote recording situations. You may want to put this under Shift-Track>. And while most of the commands in the Devices category aren't of much use with a remote controller, Devices->Time Display lets you toggle the large time display on and off. This merely duplicates the time display on the TranzPort itself, but if you're recording several musicians together, rather than working alone, being able to get the Time Display up on the screen where everyone can see it will be genuinely useful. Since we only have one Shift button left, let's put this under Shift-REC (the REC arm button in the top row, not Shift-Record).