Living with the QCon Pro X: Avoiding a Cubase crash and basics tutorial 

I am going to be completely updating all these 2018 videos over the next few months to answer extra questions I've had and cover the new panel layout. Might do one on calibration too.

Hi there. Short answer - Probably not in the way you would want. Long answer - I actually haven't tried that on the Qcon as I have a little Korg NanoKontrol2 (very cheap - approx £40 UK) on the left hand side of my desk which is set up for precisely the three controllers you are talking about there (I'm using a lot of Spitfire samples). I did a video on my use of the NanoKontrol2 ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jle5Dwjwx2s.html as I also use it for a lot of other functions (not what it was intended for but useful all the same). The problem is that to really use the faders of the Qcon for such specific functions I think you'd have to go into the iMAP software and reprogram the whole desk. This would take a huge amount of effort plus I suspect it would hard wire those controllers into channels 1,2 and 3 then you'd no longer be able to use them as mix faders. I stand to be corrected on this but that's my understanding. I think other solutions for this are better but you can certainly control several different automation parameters on the same instrument channel in real time simultaneously if they are set up in a dedicated midi controller.

Hi there - sorry that last response was my reply but I was on my other youtube channel when I replied. Hope it helped.

@@DarkenJax TNX for your answer... I also have the NanoKontrol 2 for this purpose and for the initial automation recording it works perfectly fine. But the problem is that everytime I want to tweek my automation, when I come from another track, and slide the Nanokontrol2 faders, it's messy… If the faders would jump to the correct values, it would really simplify everything for me. So maybe I'm just beeing picky. But there's so much possible with today's controllers that it's almost mindboggeling that nobody thought to implement this. Especially because there's a lot of people out there working with lots of virtual instruments. I also work with a lot of Spitfire Libraries and these controls are great to controle each and every virtual instrument. But there's to much mouse klicking and it pulls me out of my groove.

@@FreddyMcLennon I do agree. I've been through three main midi controllers now and there is never the exact solution but the Pro X has come pretty damn close. There is a guy toying with custom programming for features on controllers and I did try it out but it was a bit above my pay grade programming wise so in the end I gave up . That's the reason I called my series Living with the Qcon Pro X. It does sometimes feel like a slightly tetchy relationship but in the end you work it out and accept each other's faults. 🙂

Hi there. No I do not use the pedal inputs on the Qcon as I have one of these amazing devices from Audiofront that can take almost any type of pedal and allow you to program it to do almost anything (Stop/start your Daw, Record, Loop, Expression etc). ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-CwG-4xpEli8.html I bought it for live keyboard work and patch shifting while playing but it works just as well in the studio linked to my DAW. Not cheap but worth every penny. After getting your message I tried out the USER A and B but didn't have any luck. I hear on the forum there may be a Firmware update but I have given up waiting for these to roll out!

Thank you for those kind comments. I hope we are all able to help each other out to make our music as easily as possible.

That makes sense. I'll give that a go next time and see how it works. Thanks for the tip.

I am with you on the clicking. My unit does this; not all do. I couldn't solve it but it isn't loud enough to cause me any recording issues so I decided to ignore it. The extender doesn't click though. As for crashes obviously I had this issue and that's why I made the video in case the same solution may help other people. If you have tried everything I suggest and then completely shut down and rebooted and it still won't work then if you are a Cubase user, check that you are in Compatibility mode NOT Cubase mode. I show you how to do this in my video here. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VlT-9Vyjlj4.html This has helped out a couple of people. If still crashing you have no option but to replace it. A new (non clicking) Qcon might help or you could go for something like the Behringer x touch which is a good price and has a similar feature set www.soundonsound.com/reviews/behringer-x-touch-x-touch-compact Good Luck

Thanks for that. I did see a video on using FL with the Qcon ProX which might be of use to you. I found Cubase easier for the music I do than FL but DAWs are a lot of work to master so it is a real learning curve if you do swap. Not worth it if you like your DAW. Anyway here's a link that may help you get started ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-iFx0488ZmvQ.html

I don't think there's any major DAW that should avoid this controller. Just be aware it integrates differently for each one. I suspect Cubase is slightly less well integrated than some others but if you check out my latest review of the new panel you'll see I still find it really useful in my studio. My advice is to decide what you want from a controller, check out as many reviews by people like me who have no connection with the company, then decide. I'd been through three midi controllers in the same number of years before the Qcon. I've had it for three years now and am still happy. Presonus Faderport also looks very good with 16 channels but have never tried it. Good luck.

Thanks. It would be hard to be less useful than the manual LOL!

Hans Jacob Winge Thanks for that. Will take a look at the video. There is so much to cover this is definitely a work in progress.

Honestly I've never tried this but I'm pretty sure that from the factory set up this is not possible. The only other control I know on the pan is if you page down for front and rear if you're mixing surround sound. There are very few parameters that are user programmable in the Mackie Control set up, mostly confined to the programmable function keys which I use for various things like audio rendeering, turning on video etc. Whether you could remap the pots with the iMap software I'm not sure but I suspect that would be a hellish job to remap the entire board and personally I wouldn't do it just for a function I could change with a mouse click. Sorry I can't be more help. Every midi control surface I've owned has some kind of limitations although the Qcons come pretty close to the functions I need. I use them in combination with a Nano Kontrol 2 for all my shortcuts and a few fader and rotary pot controls too. I know with the Generic Remote controller in the Studio Setup you can get to the Pan L R 2 function using track Quick Controls. Check out my video on the Nano Kontrol 2. It might give you something to think about. But I haven't tested out whether this would work. I could try it out if you want me to and give you some feedback but I won't be in the studio until next weekend. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JsogrggvzRM.html

​@@MoonhareStudio Thanks for replying. In the meantime I realized that you can connect Qcon via Mackie protocol and simultaneously add it as Generic Remote device in Cubase to assign MIDI controls (which is great). Unfortunately this still doesn't solve my problem since Cubase is obviously limited with controlling panning via commands or MIDI, at least to my knowledge. The furthest I got with it is to program activating Pan LR 2 by clicking the rotary knobs, which weirdly inverts right and left and only allows me to pan from hard left to center. Further on, since Qcon already has actions assigned to buttons, clicking the rotary knob also activates monitoring. That command is not showing in Generic Remote, so I had to create yet another Generic Remote to cancel it. I hope I'm being clear since it's rather confusing. :/ I also can't figure out how to use iMap to assign MIDI controls, since it doesn't seem to save programmed buttons that I send to the controller. There is absolutely no information, manual or a video for it. I appreciate your response and suggesting to check the possibility to set this up with Nano Kontrol 2. I'm not really interested in buying another controller just for that, since I still think it should be possible to do this with QCon and therefore want to have one piece of hardware to control all the functions. But if you don't mind and have extra time, it might be helpful to see if you'll be able to sort this with Nano Kontrol 2, cause it would at least give me an answer if it's a problem with hardware or Cubase limitations. I think it would be rather weird if Steinberg didn't have this in mind, since most mixers use stereo tracks for most of the instruments (to have freedom of adding stereo effects). As long as I'm already bothering you with millions of questions, I have yet another one if you don't mind. :) My Cubase is set up to have max fader volume of +12db, instead of +6db. The problem that I noticed is that when I physically max a fader on my QCon it only goes up to +10db in Cubase. Is there a way to set it up to go up to 12db? Via calibration or something.. Thanks a lot in advance

@@fantomstudioproduction wow you are getting into very deep territory there. You are definitely delving into things I really haven't needed to look at for my setup. Obviously I'm just a user like yourself and I really started doing this channel because of frustration with the official manuals. I've found out stuff after posting videos because people like yourself have commented after experimenting and I've then tried to include that in future update vids. I bought the Nano at first just as a cc controller for expression and dynamics to control Spitfire orchestral libraries but then realised that all the buttons, pots and sliders could be programmed with any shortcuts I wanted. So the Qcon is my main fader bank, mixer, transport, etc and the nano sits in front of it with functions like add audio track, studio setup, click track volume, nudge L R .... the list goes on. It is dirt cheap, fits in a laptop bag if I'm on the road and is just a fundamental part of my workflow. I don't know if you can hybridise the Qcon as you want, but if you do manage to I would be really interested to talk in more depth about it and perhaps do a video on what you've discovered. In the meantime I'm out all week but may get a slot at the weekend to look into a couple of things on your wishlist above. Would be good to crack this if it is possible. Also do check out my video on fader calibration. It might help you. No promises.

@@MoonhareStudio I finally figured out the damn panning problem! Holding down the SHIFT button on the controller and pressing PAN does the trick. It automatically spreads Panners LR and LR 2 on first two rotary knobs, which you can then freely adjust. Works in FLIP mode via faders too. I still can't believe how in the world I could've foreseen this. This tells me that it's a command of sorts that's integrated into the controller mapping, since this couldn't be done via Cubase, except maybe with some Midi schematic mapping software like Cycling 74 Max. Dabbling with that could probably also give me an answer to faders not going to +12db. I've managed to do a primitive version of it, setting it via Generic remote, but it can only be assigned to a specific channel or selected channel, which doesn't solve the whole problem, and it also coincides with controller's integrated mapping. I'm still yet to dive deeper into the new MIDI Remote Manager / Mapping in Cubase 12, which I recently bought. It could potentially solve the volume problem, but from what I've managed to experience on first fly, there's kind of a latency when using newly programed functions. Another fact is that when you start creating a new script, Cubase seems to bypass the whole Mackie protocol mapping of QCon, leaving you a blank controller to start from scratch, which could be a good thing since there won't be any coinciding like before. We'll see how it goes.

@@fantomstudioproduction That is brilliant about the panning. A lot of what I've learnt has been complete trial and error but thsi is next level stuff. Thanks for keeping me in the loop. There may be a need for a video on some of this later down the line. We may be able to collaborate on that but do let me know how you get on. Sounds really useful!

Hi there. Difficult for me to problem solve something specific like that. Face value sounds like something has changed, an update, a pie e of Kit. Really weird it would just start happening for no reason. Have you tried different Cubase sessions? I found one of my templates to be causing issues. It became corrupt and unstable. Scrapped it and started from new. Any new VST or plugins installed before the problems? Again worth uninstalling to check. Strange also that Pro Tools is OK. This makes me think something has changed in Cubase rather than it being the Qcons. Process of elimination is the only way forward. Good luck.

@@MoonhareStudio Hi, and thanks for your reply! I found out what it was. It only happened when I was working at 48kHz. After I converted my project to 44.1 everything went back to normal. Kind of weird but hey, it helped.

@@DJChappie001 That is very interesting. I had some issues after changing to 48k from 44.1 for the Westworld Scoring competition. Hope you don't mind if I include that tip in a future video?

Relaxed is the key word. No fake ass hype😃

Hi there. Do you mean you can't see a value for volume on the Qcon LCD strip? There is no actual numeric display that you can see volumes on with the Qcon, just the meter bridge to refer to. Personally I rely on what I'm seeing in Cubase on the meters there to make sure I'm not peaking out. You can see some of this workflow in my video on Mixing like an amateur ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9welXLX1JdA.html . I'm not sure if that answers your question or if I have misinterpreted what you wanted to know.

@@MoonhareStudio Yes, a friend of min has the G2 and he thought was possible to have the volume value readable in the dispaly

@@alexcarnevali4969 If he has worked out how to do this can you let me know. I've had another try but I can't find a workaround yet.

@@MoonhareStudio Sure!!

Hi there. Yes that is correct. You get abbreviated versions of your track names displayed along the top LCD strip. It's not the whole name but is usually enough to work with if you are careful with your naming scheme. If you look at this clip you'll see what I mean ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JH7XmJ_NoIw.html

@@MoonhareStudio Thank you, lots of aliveness and energy in your soundtracks. Well done :)

@@MoonhareStudio What is the difference with the Pro G2 and the Pro X, just only the meter bridge? The G2 came out later, does it have other improvements?

@@bram9498 The price tag is one thing. It is cheaper than the Pro X and if you're not worried about the meter bridge I think it's a good deal. You lose the lower LCD but if you've watched my other vids you'll know I don't really care for that anyway. I don't own a G2 so I can't say it is identical in its features but while there may be some layout differences I think you are basically getting a unit that is pretty comparable. Be aware that although I like the look of the meter bridge on the Pro X, the stereo meter has never worked with Cubase and generally I use the on screen Cubase meter bridge for accuracy. Check out some G2 reviews before making any decisions though, just in case there is a feature you like that is missing.