Lost use of V pots for pan on Mackie universal

[Mnelson7045]

Recently I have lost my use of the pan function on my Mackie. It has always worked. Did I hit something to lose the  function. I can use the mouse to turn the pan but I would prefer to use the Mackie. Thanks for any help you could supply.

 

 

[des99]

The MCU has loads of different modes which change the function of the vpots. How well do you understand the options of the MCU and how to navigate around them?

What is the small LCD display (that indicates the current mode the MCU is in) showing at the moment?

[Mnelson7045]

Pan, like it always did.

[des99]

Is there a dot in the display, or not?

Try pressing pan a few times to cycle modes, try going to track mode, and use the cursor up/down buttons to cycle through the menu layers.

If you still can't get it working, then you might want to reset the MCU, but try cycling through the modes first.

[Mnelson7045]

Thanks, I will give it a try.

 

[Mnelson7045]

Thanks, I will give it a try.

I found that Track and F2 gives me the pan back. I do understand how this was moved from what it was previously.

But the mode is CS

[des99]

Sounds like your MCU was just in a different mode - you're all good now?

I do recommend getting to grips with learning the various modes and features and layout of the MCU, generally though. In my experience, most people use them at a fairly simple level - transport, faders, pans, bank switching, and not much else - however, there are some very cool things you can do with them, but the layout isn't immediately obvious and takes a little time to get your head around.

[Atlas007]

2 hours ago, des99 said:

there are some very cool things you can do with them, but the layout isn't immediately obvious

Could you elaborate a little?

I went through the documentation but I would appreciate an insight from an initiated knowledgeable person… in occurence you…😇

 

Besides, I had noticed the Mackie MCU’s Pan had indeed changed its working after (IIRW) upgrading to BigSur… 

Edited July 28, 2022 by Atlas007

[des99]

19 minutes ago, Atlas007 said:

Could you elaborate a little?

I went through the documentation but I would appreciate an insight from an initiated knowledgeable person… in occurence you…😇

Do you have an MCU - or are you familiar with it and how it works generally?

[Atlas007]

Yes I do have both a Mackie MCU Pro and a Mackie C4.

They are (intentionally) set up independent from one another (one on top of the other in Control Setup window).

They both work fine. On occasion the display gets awry which requires either the unit reboot or the complete assignment to be scrapped. On rarer occasion, the scribble display will show a message (in english and in german) stating something went wrong and needs to be turned off.

I know how to change mode (pressing repeatedly on the CS, Pan, etc) so the red LED shows the dot in that effect.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Atlas007

[des99]

2 minutes ago, Atlas007 said:

Yes I do have both a Mackie MCU Pro and a Mackie C4.

Ok cool, so you'll know the fundamentals...

How do you use yours, what functions do you use generally?

[Atlas007]

9 minutes ago, des99 said:

How do you use yours, what functions do you use generally?

Faders, pan, navigation (markers, play, record, scrub, etc), automation, select/mute/solo, 0dBFS, balancing Eq, etc…

The C4 is more for adjusting some plugins parameters or AQA.

Edited July 28, 2022 by Atlas007

[des99]

I have an MCU and Extender, but I'm not using them currently, I'm using a slimmed down small desk footprint setup of a Behringer X-Touch 1 (which is essentially, the MCU transport section and one fader), and a second fader controller which toggles between a HUI mixer, and a custom C4, for plugins. Nice and portable and gives me most of what I need. I can always break out the Mackies from time to time.

Basically, the deeper stuff of the MCU I was referring include the extra layers of the transport - so, for instance, you can not just turn cycle on/off with the cycle button, but you can also define the cycle range. Marker mode is cool too, I use that to navigate a lot. Most of the transport section controls have deeper functionality with modifiers. Then you have the assign modes, which have mostly two different layouts for each (for instance, one parameter across 8 channels, or 8 parameters for one channel), the normal view, or the channel strip view, and you can position the vpots up and down to the functions you want like sends, plugins etc, moving up and down between plugin slots, the smart controls mode and so on.

Fader flip modes for plugins and automation, the various extra EQ modes, the custom function keys you can define yourself, the user modes where you can setup a bunch of custom stuff.

Then you have more subtle features, split modes, track lock and other things, global settings - there's tons of cool stuff you can do. Many things I've not covered too.

The really designed the MCU to control much of Logic, it's pretty amazing what they can do, but it easy to get lost between modes and not realise you can page up and down within each mode...

Edited July 28, 2022 by des99

[Atlas007]

6 minutes ago, des99 said:

Basically, the deeper stuff of the MCU I was referring include the extra layers of the transport - so, for instance, you can not just turn cycle on/off with the cycle button, but you can also define the cycle range. Most of the transport section controls have deeper functionality with modifiers. Then you have the assign modes, which have mostly two different layouts for each (for instance, one parameter across 8 channels, or 8 parameters for one channel), the normal view, or the channel strip view, and you can position the vpots up and down to the functions you want like sends, plugins etc, moving up and down between plugin slots.

That, I am pretty aware of same and find them pretty useful indeed. Except perhaps for the cycle range setting that I find more convenient to set in Logic’s LCD or directly with the mouse or more often the U key-command.

 

9 minutes ago, des99 said:

Fader flip mode for plugins and automation, the various extra EQ modes, the custom function keys you can define yourself, the user modes where you can setup a bunch of custom stuff.

Those I am also aware of, but really don’t use them on the MCU, mostly on the C4 though… Except for the flip which I didn’t find use for yet…

 

12 minutes ago, des99 said:

Then you have more subtle features, split modes, track lock and other things, global settings - there's tons of cool stuff you can do.

Split modes and Track lock are things I didn’t get to grasp yet… even on the C4… I tried them several times with inconsistent result… If you have tips about those, and "the other things, global settings - there's tons of cool stuff" that would be real great!

Anyhow, thank you very much for your time so far!

 

16 minutes ago, des99 said:

The really designed the MCU to control much of Logic, it's pretty amazing what they can do, but it easy to get lost between modes and not realise you can page up and down within each mode...

Totally agree! Quite deep and pretty comprehensive. But the price to pay is complexity, I guess….

One thing I do appreciate much about those is that they are also very sturdy pieces of equipment. 

[des99]

21 minutes ago, Atlas007 said:

Split modes and Track lock are things I didn’t get to grasp yet… even on the C4… I tried them several times with inconsistent result…

Track lock I implement on my (custom C4) controller. Let's say I'm in Instrument Edit mode, so the parameters of the synth on the selected track are available to control by the knobs.

Normally, if I selected a different track, the parameters of that synth would now be editable on the knobs. But if I track lock the controller, then that synth stays on the knobs, even if I select a different track.

The concept applies to regular plugins as well. It essentially locks the controller to a specific track that isn't changed when you select or bank around to different tracks.

Split modes let you divide the C4 up to do different things. Normally, let's say you were in plugin edit mode - the first 32 parameters of the plugin are directly available on the knobs. But you could split this into, say 2x 16 controls, so the top two rows of controls control one plugin, and the second 2 rows control a different plugin (or a different page of controls for the same plugin etc).

21 minutes ago, Atlas007 said:

Except for the flip which I didn’t find use for yet…

It's useful for automation, because by calling up plugin parameters on the faders, they now become touch-sensitive (ie you can write automation data by touching the fader without moving it). You can pretty much flip anything, so anything that's currently on the vpots becomes either *also* on the faders, or the faders and vpots switch tasks.

Honestly, I can't come up with everything just from memory right now - the point I was really making is that generally speaking, MCU's are often used at a fairly surface level - which is fine of course - and people often don't know about some of the other cool stuff you can do. It's really worth exploring imo. It doesn't mean *everything* you can do on the MCU is the best way of doing it - for example, you can load plugins via the MCU, but it's really awkward and painful due to the arbitrary sort order and other factors.

That's not that the implementation is perfect though, I'd love to see some more complex handling and behaviours more accessible to users, and I'd love to have access to the control surface module dev kit too, and have better ways to programmatically install or change controller assignments for all kinds of reasons...

Anyway - cool stuff!

Edited July 28, 2022 by des99

[Atlas007]

Hey thanx @des99 for your input!

I guess I'll have to explore and invest more time into learning and managing those split and lock features, which definitely sound pretty useful.

 

4 hours ago, des99 said:

That's not that the implementation is perfect though, I'd love to see some more complex handling and behaviours more accessible to users, and I'd love to have access to the control surface module dev kit too, and have better ways to programmatically install or change controller assignments for all kinds of reasons...

There was the C4 Commander which is no longer supported on recent macOS... I wonder if it will ever be ported some day?

Edited July 29, 2022 by Atlas007