MIDI control surface support in FCPX?

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Level 1

6 points

MIDI control surface support in FCPX?

Hey all!

So I know that older versions of Final Cut supported the Mackie MCU, and MCU Pro MIDI Control Surfaces for editing. I've managed to hack my own control surface command set using MidiStroke. Are there any plans to eventually bring back this functionality to FCPX? I know that I can manually trigger key commands using MidiStroke to send commands to FCPX, but it would be REALLY nice if there were native support for things like the Mackie Logic Control surface, as well as Euphonix control surfaces, as well... Anyone have any idea as to if / when Apple plans on supporting these kinds of control surfaces again?

Thanks,

Steve

Posted on Jul 2, 2014 8:58 AM

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Answer 1

SteveCable Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 2, 2014 12:28 PM in response to SteveCable

In the mean time, I'm working on creating an overlay for the Mackie MCU Pro Control Surface, and coding the MIDI commands into MidiStroke. If anyone is interested, I can send you my overlay for the MCU Pro once it's done, and the command set for the MidiStroke app. At least it's some kind of support for an external control surface, for the time being, until Apple decides to actually implement their own Built-in support for this device, hopefully using Logic Control to do it. You can always contact me if you've got an MCU Pro, and would like the MidiStroke commands, and the overlay that I'm creating.

Steve

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Answer 2

SteveCable Author

Level 1

6 points

Jul 2, 2014 7:49 PM in response to SteveCable

Well, if anyone is interested in a work-around, and if you have a Mackie MCU Pro Universal Controller, and you're using Final Cut Pro X, I have created an overlay for your MCU Pro, and programmed basic editing functionality using the app MidiStroke. I zipped up the support files and instructions, as well as the custom overlay, and have put them at the following link:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24324374/MCUPRO_FCPX_SUPPORT.zip

I hope that this helps out other users who have an MCU Pro unit, and want to use it with Final Cut Pro X!

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Answer 3

Sep 1, 2014 12:53 AM in response to SteveCable

Would this be a proof of synchronicity? Or a Higher Being? I just found a second hand Mackie Logic Control -really cheap: 100 euros- and tried to figure out how to make it work with FCPX. I think it's really strange there is no native support for control surfaces in FCPX, and I expect/hope that this is one of those omissions that Apple will be repairing as they did with so many things. (A decent AppleScript implementation, or an otherwise accessible API would be great as well),

Anyway, after programming some short cuts with Midi Monitor and Midi Stroke, I got bored, and ran into this post.

Thank you so much for going into this! And what a nice bonus that you added the overlay!

So, I can confirm that your setup also works for the Logic Control. Maybe it's obvious, but for newbies like me: this only works in the Mackie Control Mode, for which you will might have to update your device with a free firmware patch 1.02, and go through a special boot cycle.

I took the freedom to assign the 'Zoom to Fit' short cut to the central Zoom button on the device. If I find a good, comprehensive usage for the faders I will post the patch file here with documentation

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Answer 4

SteveCable Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 1, 2014 6:02 AM in response to Manfred WItteman

So glad you get some use out of my hours of programming, Manfred! I was beginning to think that I was alone on this. I hope the configuration that I did worked well for you. Mine is a second version of the Mackie MCU... I have the MCU Pro as well as two XT modules. I was hoping that this configuration file would help those with the original Logic Control unit as well, seeing as how the mappings SHOULD be pretty much identical, but I had no way of testing it on an original version of the Mackie Logic Control! For the user buttons, I just included the number of the MIDI note on the overlay that I created, so that you wouldn't have to go back and forth referencing the note and the MIDI numbers in MidiStroke. Obviously, if you assign those to a specific function, you can label them on your own overlay. I figured that most of the commands that I included at least gave most users the ability to do common functions...I believe my configuration file was similar with the zoom button working similarly to how you programmed yours. I haven't used it in a little while. I'm glad that you got some use out of my work! Hopefully Apple will fix this in upcoming versions of FCPX!

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Answer 5

Sep 1, 2014 7:00 AM in response to SteveCable

Hi Steve,

I don't think we're alone, in that respect that I've encountered quite a few cries for better external access to FCPX's functionality, both from users as well as developers.

It would be absolutely awesome to make the Timecode Display work.

But we shouldn't be doing this stuff ourselves. It should be a relatively easy thing for Apple to just transplant the Control Surfaces support from LogicX to FCPX.

Thanks again for all your efforts

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Answer 6

SteveCable Author

Level 1

6 points

Sep 2, 2014 12:28 PM in response to Manfred WItteman

I very much agree, Manfred! Apple obviously did everyone right with their release of Logic Pro X. External controller support is the same as it ever was in Logic, but not so much in Final Cut. I've heard murmurs about Motion having control surface support, but never tested it on my own... It's been a few years, now. I think Apple has had lots of time to make improvements to Final Cut Pro X, and they really have improved it, since that first (horrible) release. It's just that there are little (big) things like control surface support that seem to be an oversight, as far as Apple is concerned. You'd think that with a company that tries to be as consistent across-the-board as Apple tries to be, that they'd implement something like this. I guess all that we can do is bombard them with feature requests, and hope that someone out there is listening. ;-) In the mean time, I'm glad that my configuration, and layover is working for you! I'd hoped that someone who was in the same boat as I would get some benefit out of the work that I've done to try to get this hacked together! So far, you're the first! Cheers! I hope that it's working well for you!

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Answer 7

Sep 4, 2014 3:49 AM in response to SteveCable

I think that the results of your hours of hard work is the best integration I will ever will get, and I'm happy with it!

By the time Apple will put external controller support in FCPX, the Mackie protocol will be completely outdated, I guess, and likely skipped.

I had a look at the modern surfaces, and EuCon seems to be the way to go, as well as MIDI over Bluetooth, as is implemented in Yosemite.

Movie editing is just a hobby for me, and FCPX's keyboard shortcuts are pretty clever, but I always though that control surfaces are standard things in professional setups. So, I guess it will happen sooner or later. Apple?

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Answer 8

Nov 11, 2014 4:40 AM in response to SteveCable

I have downloaded your zip file & I can't get the control surface to work with FCP X. Is there a way to get the faders working?

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Answer 9

mauty

Level 1

0 points

Mar 25, 2015 10:33 AM in response to SteveCable

This is brilliant. Thanks so much Steve! Just playing around with midistroke now and trying to figure out how you implemented the scroll/scrub wheel? I'd love to simulate it's behaviour within Logic if possible...

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Answer 10

Dec 9, 2015 4:22 PM in response to SteveCable

HI Steve,

Bought a Behringer X Touch control surface http://www.music-group.com/Categories/Behringer/Computer-Audio/Desktop-Controlle rs/X-TOUCH/p/P0B1X/Features support both HUI and Mackie control protocol to connect o FC Pro X!

It works reasonably well (except level meters are NOT active yet) with Person Studio 1 V 3 using HUI after number of firmware updates! Would you give me some pointers where to start? I am thinking about downloading your zip to check it out...

Thanks,

-YG-

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Answer 11

boKens

Level 1

0 points

Dec 13, 2015 7:51 AM in response to Ye (May San Jose Studio)

hi steve,,,you made my day! i finally could activate the fine TASCAM FW1884 (which i use very easily with cubase pro) now with FCPX HURRAY!!!!!

as the mac and win firewire driver of the tascam is no longer supported by tascam i linked the tascam via MIDI NETWORK - using an old sony notebook with firewire under Win7 to scarlett 18i20.

and midiStroke does the trick on the yosemite side as rtpMidi is doing it on the win7 side.

jogwheel and forward and rewind OK in FCPX, some more buttons are "in effect" --- i think i have to find out "fine tuning" the diverse buttons on the tascam - but for now just using scrubwheel and start, stop, rew, ffwd is marvellous!

many thanks from berlin...boKens

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Answer 12

mike-bd

Level 1

9 points

Nov 21, 2016 6:23 AM in response to SteveCable

Hi Steve

I know its now two years on, but I'm trying to get my Zoom R16 to work with FCPX. I've tried looking for the Applications support folder for ministroke, but it doesn't seem to exist? Where should the file go?

I've tried manually entering key strokes like SPACE/Play-stop, but FCPx doesn't seem to respond?

Cheers

Mike

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