Cannot edit Kontakt automation tracks in Cubase

mofaha

I'm trying to automate changes to Kontakt instruments. I'm seemingly able to record and play back automation tracks, but I am not able to edit those automation tracks at all. 

By 'not able to edit' I mean: the little squares which mark each change to the automated value (I'll call them nodes) are clickable and movable both horizontally and vertically, but their value does not change. In fact, the value shown on every node in an automation recording is identical regardless of its vertical position - every node shows the same value as the last recorded node. 

Details: 

I'm currently using 7 player, but the issue was identical under 6 full. 

I'm predominantly using Cubase's Track Smart Controls, it's the same setup I'm able to use successfully on non-Kontakt instruments such as Padshop. If that is a bad approach with Kontakt I am definitely willing to try other approaches. I just need it to work.

I've followed multiple tutorials while trying to troubleshoot this, and most things have worked for me exactly as shown in the tutorials, seemingly flawlessly. But every time the end result is the same - the automation track is uneditable in exactly the way I've described above. 

Mod wheel and pitch bend changes record flawlessly and are editable. They show up in the recording with the midi, and they're fully editable in separate tracks in the project editor. 

I have a Nectar midi keyboard which is set up for Cubase. 

What I'm trying to set up:

I need to be able to record multiple automation tracks in one pass, and the resulting automation recordings need to be editable. That's it!

I'd be very grateful for any help, insights, or suggestions at all. Pretty much all the big libraries I own (Spitfire mainly) run on Kontakt, so this is huge for me. 

Many thanks in advance :)

mofaha

A final note to you friend, THANK YOU, you didn't say "here is the solution", you said, "maybe this helps" and in the end it totally did.

Simply put, instead of routing the Kontakt control to the mod wheel, I looked through the MIDI Channel → All CCs list on an empty Track Smart Control slot connected to one of the pots on the Nektar, and assigned it to an unassigned CC. Then I went into Kontakt's MIDI Automation list and dragged the same CC to a Macro pot. It's outputting to an Automation Track, fully editable, and I can run as many as I need simultaneously. Which is exactly what I wanted.

Again, a huge thank you for steering me in the right direction, you don't know how important this was to me 🙇

Uwe303

Hello,

maybe this helps:

https://youtu.be/vQdoEYULFeY?si=F_GW-aTW-G048bY5

mofaha

Thank you so much for the response, I really appreciate it.

Routing through the mod wheel is not going to work for libraries sauce as Spitfire, which route dynamics through the mod wheel but also require simultaneous live recording of changes to (for instance) vibrato. I'd be very grateful if you could offer any insight at all into how those libraries are intended to be used in Cubase.

Thanks again for the response, and for any additional insights you can offer. m

mofaha

Hello again, I can't find a way to edit my comment above, where I chose a particularly bad example to illustrate my issue, so here's a restatement.

My (simplified) real-world situation is that I'm using Ethereal Earth via Kontakt, I've made a recording of the musical notes themselves, and now I want to record changes made to multiple Ethereal Earth macros during a live playthrough/performance of the piece. I thought that was pretty much exactly how macros were intended to be used.

Have I misunderstood all of this? Is there really no way to achieve this in Cubase? Is this also true in other DAWs, or is just Cubase?

Again, any insight you can offer about the intended way to use the macros ,or any other aspect of this, would be very welcome.

Thanks again, m.

mofaha

A final note to you friend, THANK YOU, you didn't say "here is the solution", you said, "maybe this helps" and in the end it totally did.

Simply put, instead of routing the Kontakt control to the mod wheel, I looked through the MIDI Channel → All CCs list on an empty Track Smart Control slot connected to one of the pots on the Nektar, and assigned it to an unassigned CC. Then I went into Kontakt's MIDI Automation list and dragged the same CC to a Macro pot. It's outputting to an Automation Track, fully editable, and I can run as many as I need simultaneously. Which is exactly what I wanted.

Again, a huge thank you for steering me in the right direction, you don't know how important this was to me 🙇

Uwe303

There are many ways to that in cubase, you maybe should also read about cubase quick controls,

https://youtu.be/GbypqpdtOFg?si=sH8SlISDp2wMPwDh

You simply can once learn you physical knobs and control different things on each track, as you assign them as quick controls. Let's say on track 1 you have a synth and the first 2 knobs of your nektar control filter frequency and cutoff but if you select the next track those knobs can control the eq or whatever of you go back to track 1 you will again control the filter and so on.

mofaha

Thanks Uwe,

Track Quick Controls are how I started out trying to make this work, but I was routing everything through Host, which is the default and which works for most things, but doesn't work correctly with Kontakt. With Kontakt it seems you have to switch the Track Quick Control assignments over to available CCs, otherwise the Kontakt automation output is not editable.

I am so happy this is finally working :)