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Setting up control of devices in Cubase?

Kymeia

Completely new to Cubase but I'm trialing it at the moment. Seems I have half the setup right - following the instructions in the manual I have DAW control working and the mixer strips are showing on the keyboard screen. But device/plugin control isn't, and the Plugin button is greyed out - is there a specific script I need to install? I have MIDI remote manager open but not sure where to look for a Kontrol firmware 2 script or do I need to download it?

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PoorFellow

@Uwe303 , I think that this needs your experience and expertise 🙂

Kymeia

Did find a folder with some Native Instruments scripts in for KK, in user documents/steinberg/cubase, but the remote manager doesn't seem to recognise them so maybe they are old ones?

PoorFellow

I do not know if this is of help but there is a five months old Cubase discussion with Uwe here : Uwe303 Cubase Audio and Midi setup help 2026-04-18

Kymeia

Thanks but it's specifically the remote setup I'm struggling with, the DAW functions are working and so is keyboard input.

Kymeia

According to this the scripts are installed with the hardware connection service but maybe the fact that I did not have Cubase before meant they were not installed - reinstalling it might help

https://inmusicsupport.freshdesk.com/en/support/solutions/articles/69000879637-komplete-kontrol-how-to-use-the-kontrol-s-series-mk3-firmware-2-1-2

Kymeia

My hunch was correct - got it up and running now - just needed to reinstall the connection service and it installed the correct script

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/268262#Comment_268262

Sorry , I know that you are on Mac but I only got this :

Reference TimRae_NI

Also, do you have any anti virus software that might have quarantined the .js file? The Hardware Connection Service is supposed to copy the .js file to the Cubase folder when it runs, so would be great to figure out why that hasn't happened here.

However to get things working for you ASAP, you should be able to manually copy the .js file yourself. Please go to the following folder on your computer:

C:\Program Files\Common Files\Native Instruments\Hardware\Hardware Connection Service

There should be a folder in there called NativeInstrumentswhich has a .js file in it.

Copy this folder into your Cubase DriverScripts\Local folder you showed above (i.e. you should now have a "NativeInstruments" folder next to the other "Native Instruments" folder) and then restart Cubase.

P.S.

Had you specified a S-Series MK3 keyboard to start with (or on your profile page) then I would have posted the reference a lot sooner , I actually had in my text edit twice where I discarded it due to the lack of MK3 keyboard specification and I meant the reference for S-S. MK3 only…

Kymeia

So far not hugely impressed. The remote controls functionality is way clunkier than it is in Bitwig or even Live (although at least it exists, unlike FL Studio which is a waste of time with Firmware 2). Far too many menus and windows to make sense of (much like Halion)

I was considering this as it is on sale right now, it does have great support for note expressions and MPE but I don't see it being much better than what there is in Bitwig and it's much more complicated to setup.

PoorFellow

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/268297#Comment_268297

IMO then Cubase is a very advanced DAW and also the most difficult to both setup and to get to understand. I have Cubase (14) myself but must confess that I for same reason have not used it much but mostly used Ableton Live and also Reason (lesser) .

mykejb

I normally use a MIDI template mapped to quick controls rather than trying to map a whole VST/Fx. Eight knobs is enough for me to change parameters while recording or I get fed up scrolling through pages of parameters. Obviously that only applies to non-NKS mapped plugins.

JesterMgee

Cubase MIDI is clunky, I used Cubase back in the SX3 days and also Nuendo. Only ever used it for mixing vocals as I was using trackers for music and it wasn't great for mixing vocals. I hated the whole MIDI implementation and I am sure it's improved but it's a gripe still with many as it is just so much more convoluted than simple midi learn in most other DAWs. Ableton for instance (and I assume bitwig being the same) is just simple and straight-forward to do almost anything in. DAWs like Cubase and Pro Tools are now relics of the past and I cannot imagine many younger folks are diving into them…. Actually, many younger folks dont dive in deeper water than a prompt these days…

mykejb

I think one of Cubase's problems is they change things that people have got used to using so you have to learn a bunch of new stuff. There's often a lot of head scratching and questions like 'where the **** did that move to and why' on the forums when new versions drop.

Kymeia

https://community.native-instruments.com/discussion/comment/268320#Comment_268320

With a Mk3 you don't even need to do that, it picks up the quick controls automatically and displays them on the screen, but you can still edit the remote layout if needed, but the workflow is clunkier than in Bitwig and Live

Kymeia

Anyway I've deleted the demo, I was curious to see how well it integrates with the Kontrol Mk3, and I wanted to see how the note expressions and modulations stack up against those in Bitwig, but not enough there to make me want to buy it even if it is on sale right now, far too much of a clusterfuck of an interface.

mykejb

@Kymeia Mine didn't pick up the QC? If I loaded a non-NKS plugin like the Roland Jupiter 8 I got about 30 pages of mapped parameters rather than the eight quick controls.

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