How to fast forward with Generic COntrol Surface.

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rcktdg

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I am nearly at a zenith of my recording setup. I have a DM24 and a MOTU 2408 all being served by Sonar 2.2. Things are working and sound better all the time.

I have a Generic Control Surface configuration that allows nearly full transport control. I can PLAY, STOP, RECORD, JOG FW & BK, and REWIND. I cannot Fast Forward. I can't figure out why. It was a bit of a trick getting the rewind function to work and I have not been able to recreate it in other attemps.

Does anyone know what SONAR needs to fast forward? The description of the rewind function is rather complex but it is a measure by measure rewind that I find extremely handy.

For anyone who gets this stuff the Rwind command is something like this:

TRIGGER MESSAGE (grayed out) F07F00064073481000F
MIDI Message Interpretation:
On/Off On=0 Off=0

Am I alone here or has someone else had the same challenge and figured it out?

Thanks, RD

Any
 
You probably already know this but have you tried in the tools/cakewalk generic surface menu

Global Parameters and click in >> forward (.)

Then depress learn key as you simultaneously press whatever button you want to represent this function on your control surface.


By the way I would recommend to others the brand new evolution UC-33 control surface. It works brilliantly with Sonar.
Available in UK for £200 ($300)

http://www.evolution.co.uk/moreinfo/hardware/uc33.htm
 
Yeah, That's how I set up all my transport controls. For some reason FFWD wont configure in a way that makes it work. The LEARN button is not as predictable as you would think.

Thanks,
RD
 
On my device which is USB, I updated the single-client Winxp native driver for a multi-client driver that seems to work better. Also I downloaded Midi-OX a free midi monitor (that appears in the Sonar "tools" dialogue) and this will tell you exactly what signals your device is giving off. Also there appears to be a patch that you need to apply to Sonar 2.X for control surfaces. I noticed this recently on the cakewalk site.

Incidentally how do you manually insert those individual midi triggers that you were referring to in Sonar?
 
John, as I only have the UC-16 (and loving it), do you know if it's possible to configure, say, keybad-button 5 and let Sonar play?
 
HI Moskus!
Im only just getting to grips with my new UC-33 myself! It says in the spec that your UC-16 has 4 assignable buttons, but I dont know which ones they are! I think you can also effectively program your number buttons too like you want to but I think thats deep into the manual and a bit beyond my scope for the moment. I use Midi-OX (the program i described before) to check what buttons are giving off midi info and then go into the learn mode (in tools/cakewalk generic surface menu) and see if I can get the button to trigger a simple event like play start. Then just adjust the event. Moskus have you also noticed that each fader in Sonar has a property (right click) called remote control. This too has a learn mode and has enabled me to link my sends and returns to the surface device. You probably already knew that! Like I said I am just finding out myself.
 
johnhoe said:
Moskus have you also noticed that each fader in Sonar has a property (right click) called remote control. This too has a learn mode and has enabled me to link my sends and returns to the surface device. You probably already knew that!
Click to expand...
Actually, I did not! That's a great tip! :)

Thanks!
 
Moskus, Have u installed the pc usb driver 5.1.46 dated 25/2/2003 from the evolution website? Because I have just found a serious bug in it! It gets confused when u train it up between Vol Track 3 and Pan Track 1.
Other drivers dont do this. I have tested both the Windows Xp single client default driver and the multiclient one that came with the surface on a CD.
 
Actually I can't install Evolutions drivers on my system. XP keep telling me that it doesen't find drivers for the "specified hardware", and installs it's on "USB Audio Device"-driver. It works, but I would like to have the Evolution drivers...
 
Thats strange! You know you have to "install from a specific location" then browse to the root of the Evolution CD. Using this technique and "updating driver" each time I can switch drivers. But I have to now say that the native WinXP driver seems more responsive and less buggy than the evolution ones. When I start Sonar with the Evolution drivers I have to make several dramatic movements of the surface controls before they flick the meters. I would be interested if you experience the same thing.
 
SUCCESS! The new version works (last time I checked for updates was in the beginning of february)! I can finally shut down the UC-16 without having to turn off the computer completely!

YES! :D :) :D :cool: :cool:
 
I had no problems with the Evolution drivers under Win2000, they were much more stable than the Microsoft driver. Oh my gooood, that was buggy!
 
Well maybe its me but....
1) The M/soft one seems more responsive.
2) The E ones (both drivers are now showing this bug on mine) get confused when you train up Strip Number 3 (ie track 3) Volume slider and Strip Number 1 Pan slider. IE the vol 3 slider ends up affecting both Vol 3 and Pan 1. You're on XP now right? Like me?
 
I don't know about nr. 2. I've just programmed the Generic Surface Controller for Volume and Pan.

But I've been fooling around abit now, and I think the Evolution-drivers are much faster than Micrisofts. Microsofts drivers werent that accurate as Evolution...
 
But the MAIN advantage about having the evolution driver in is that you can now use a midi monitoring program like Midi-OX inside of Sonar because that driver is multi-client and can cope with several programs at once ...
 
johnhoe said:
But the MAIN advantage about having the evolution driver in is that you can now use a midi monitoring program like Midi-OX inside of Sonar because that driver is multi-client and can cope with several programs at once ...
Click to expand...
It is? WHOHO!


Thanks John, you're giving new information! :)
 
I know this seems a ridiculously long thread to give an answer to Rktcdg's original question about why he couldn't train the fast forward transport on his surface... but now I have the original M/soft drivers in I cannot train any transport buttons (this i could do with the enhanced drivers you are using). Therfore I wonder if getting the full monty out of these devices depends critically on what control surface drivers are installed.
 
That seems strange to me. I thought the training-thingie you're talking about was a feature of Sonar, and should therefore be driver-independant.

Well, Microsoft sucks anyway... ;)
 
To quote from my UC-33 Manual! ".. the Evolution drivers provide greater functionality.. this allows a user to use multiple keyboards and controllers..."

Greater functionality from one driver often tends to really mean (in my opinion) that the previous driver was not able to cover all the functionality and facilities offered by its encompassing s/ware in this case Sonar.
 
Yes, that sounds likely.

And just a little question: How is it to work with the UC-33? Seems like I bought my UC-16 two months too early... ;)
 
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