Ableton Forum

Im thinking of buying a Mackie Control. But i have a few questions id like to ask you fellas.

Do you know if Abe's implementation allows for controlling plugin parameters with the mackie?
Also do you know if you can open plugin editors windows like in logic?
Can you add and remove plugins?

In general. What would i still have to do by hand if i buy the MCU?

thank you very much for your help.

you can control banks of 8 device or plugin parameters using the V-Pots (endless encoders). one limitation is that when a device is racked you only have access to the 8 macros, and i don't think there is any way to descend into the rack and gain control over a specific device/plugin (you can still do direct MIDI-mapping but it isn't very helpful to override the functions of the encoders).

you cannot open or close plugin windows, or insert or delete plugins from the Mackie Control either.

to see all the available functionality, find a downloadable copy of the Live 6 or 7 user manual, as these have a section dedicated to the Mackie Control.

Thank you very much. Thats a really helpful response.

I hate the fact that you cant open plugin editors.

Is there anything else you think i should know before buying?

yep, get a Mackie Control Universal Pro, not one of the older ones. someone was recently reporting fader problems with Live with an older one.

if i was getting another one now i would get one of the later MCU Pros which have firmware version 4.x. i think the faders are supposed to be a bit better in the later ones too.

i have an older one with firmware 3.0.0 (the firmware version is displayed when you first power up the unit). you cannot update the firmware on older Mackie Controls to take them up to 3.0.0 (or even from 3.x to 4.x).

if you are buying a secondhand one test all the controls, especially the faders...

even with the limitations, i really like my MCU Pro. there are various other alternatives, but not many have touch-sensitive, motorized faders, which to me are a must. also, many control surfaces with faders only have eight, with no dedicated master fader.

thank you very much.

no problem!

one other thing, if you are buying a secondhand one ask them if they have the Lexan overlays for the buttons (new units come with a set of overlays for different hosts).

Im actually not so convinced now that i know it wont open the plugin windows.
lol.

Do you use the mcu with another daw? is it reall all that?

octavious wrote:Im actually not so convinced now that i know it wont open the plugin windows.
lol.

i think it is more a limitation of the Live interface than anything else. even directly in Live you can only toggle already open plugin windows with a keyboard shortcut.

one workaround is to use a MIDI utility to map a button to the show plugin windows keyboard shortcut. if you manually open all the plugin windows first, then you can show/hide them from the Mackie Control as well.

Do you use the mcu with another daw? is it reall all that?

i mostly use it with Live but it works well with most DAWs, the Mackie Control protocol is a bit like the de facto standard.

Yeah Live is the limitation with opening plugin windows, there isn't even a keyboard shortcut for it (only to hide/show plugin windows that are already open)

The MCU is great for doing mixing and tweaking. I also use Bomes MIDI Translator to map many of the spare buttons to live functions (such as open, save, split, consolidate, open 2nd window, hide/show plugins etc). It takes a lot of control off the mouse and keyboard and personally for me its worth it just for quick access to faders to allow volume tweaks and automation without looking at anything.

I have one of the latest ones with the newer faders and I have designed an overly for live that I print out on magnetic paper.

Controlling plugins is pretty neat, you can switch the faders to control parameters so you have a lot of very fine control (better than an encoder for getting precise sweeps)

An ipad and Touchable can do much of the same thing but you loose the physical feel. I have Push 2 also but still love the MCU.

jestermgee wrote: Controlling plugins is pretty neat, you can switch the faders to control parameters so you have a lot of very fine control (better than an encoder for getting precise sweeps)

yep, fader flip is a good thing!

The thing is im kinda broke. So im building a custom midi controller with arduino and sniffing the protocol.
I just however have not found motorized faders that are cheap enough for me.

I want to have 16 channels at least in one single device. But oh man. i dont know. i mean i'd love to get the analog feel of mixing. but with motorized faders it would be really expensive.

The new behringer fader units are motorized, and they seem decent for the price, you should look into those!