Softube Console 1 as D8B channel strip controller - WORKING!
Posted: Mon Jul 01, 2024 9:12 pmIn case anybody else here has a Softube Console 1:
I always thought that this thing can only output SysEx MIDI data, that makes it more or less impossible to use the Console 1 Hardware controller as a “generic” MIDI controller for other purposes… but apparently, that’s wrong - at least since the release of an update, some time ago. You just have to quit the Console 1 app, and then the hardware will output regular MIDI CC’s per knob. Albeit, via USB. So, you can’t go directly from the Console 1 to the D8B, but need to go into your DAW, first, and pass the MIDI controls out to the MIDI port, that connects to the D8B (i.e. that you would likely have connected for MTC sync, already, anyway - as long as you’re using a DAW along with the D8B).
…with that working, I successfully mapped the Console 1 hardware to my D8B as a channel strip controller (via the D8B's MIDI Map window).
So now, after selecting a channel on the D8B, the EQ and Compressor knobs etc. on the Console 1 hardware controller, now control the same parameters on that D8B channel (and you can follow the knob movements nicely, from a monitor connected to your D8B, and with channel strip view active).
If you select another channel, the Console 1 hardware controls affect THAT channel.
The only thing that’s a bit annoying about this is, that even though the Console 1 has endless encoders (not knobs with a min/max end point), it behaves as if it had regular knobs that send MIDI from 0 - 127 (…and not +/- MIDI values like a digital encoder like that “should.”)
This means that once you move one of the knobs on the Console 1, the parameter it is mapped to on the D8B will JUMP to wherever that knob was set to at that point in time on the Console 1 (there are LEDs going around each knob on the Console 1, indicating their position).
But as long as you look at a Monitor connected to the D8B to see where that parameter was before you touch the Console 1, you can go back to around that value quickly, and start tweaking without big surprises. The whole thing is actually VERY immediate, and feels like a dedicated hardware channel strip controller, almost as if it was “made” for the D8B.
Unfortunately, there’s no Q knob for the lowest and highest EQ bands on the Console 1 (which is fine, if you’re using the “British EQ” on the D8B, that doesn’t have that, either… but it’s missing if you use the 4-Band fully parametric EQ)… but I mapped the Cut/Bell/Shelf buttons for those bands in a way instead, so it switches the Q from widest, to “medium” to narrowest (127/64/0). And most of the time, I just want the narrowest Q to find the frequency center of what I want to cut or boost, anyway… after that, I can dial in the Q the audio needs with the mouse or the knobs on the D8B (after finding the parameter on the D8B’s built-in display, which I find to be a bit of a hassle, since only 4 parameters are displayed at once… that’s the whole point of adding the Console 1 as a channel strip controller).
Of course you can do the same thing as what I did with any MIDI controller that has a sufficient number of knobs on it (I’m mapping an Evolution UC33 as a second option right now… but mostly want to see if I can control DAW Sends with that one - didn’t see a way to map the Sends to MIDI on the D8B, unfortunately) - the process it the same.
It’s just that the Console 1 seems to be laid out almost perfectly, as a channel strip controller for the D8B - even the color matches, hahaha
Here’s the general steps I took with Studio One as my DAW - but it will be a bit different, depending on the DAW you’re using:
Generally, the steps (without details) are this:
1. With Console 1 connected to your DAW computer via USB, quit the Console 1 app (or don’t install it in the first place… I guess that should work, too, if you’re never using the Console 1 software… I do use that, sometimes, though)
2. In Studio One (or in your DAW) add the Console 1 as a generic MIDI controller. In Studio One specifically, you have to “MIDI learn” every control on the Console 1 hardware into a new "external device", first, before you can pass them on to the D8B.
3. In Studio One, create a track that routes MIDI to an external device. In my case, I usually have that, anyway, because I can record automation and play to the D8B via the DAW. You might have to “Monitor enable” the track in your DAW, to pass real-time controls from the Console 1 out to the D8B. (Depends on the DAW, I think).
4. In the D8B, open the MIDI Map Window, create a new map and choose “Channel Select” and the parameter you want to control on the D8B - after that, make sure you set the Control/MIDI CC to the MIDI CC number the Console 1 outputs by default (you should be able to see that from your DAW… if not, you can use MIDI Monitor (Mac) or MIDI OX (PC) to spy that out.
5. Repeat for each parameter you want to map from your Console 1 (or another generic MIDI controller) to the D8B. Here, the D8B would often not let me select “Channel Select” after I assigned a parameter to this right before, and I had to choose something else, first, and then change it to Channel Select… weird bug, but the assignments all worked fine, in the end.
...oh, and doing this, doesn't mean that you can't use the Console 1 for anything else, after that. I also mapped a lot of my DAW plug-ins (especially Channel Strip plug-ins, like the SSL Channel Strip, or Softube's version of an API mixer, etc.). So, you can use the Console 1 hardware for both, controlling the D8B (select the DAW track that routes to the D8B), or software/plugin tracks (select the track that has that plug-in on it... at least in Studio One, the DAW remembers the parameters by plug-in, so you don't have to re-learn them repeatedly).
If anybody wants to do this sort of thing and gets stuck on a particular step, I can try to give more details (if I have that DAW) - but in general, this should work with any DAW, that has the D8B connected to it via MIDI.
I really love this - I only used the Console 1 with my DAW occasionally (since I DO want to see the plugin GUI, and not just a grayscale pop-up screen, representing it), but as a generic MIDI/Channel Strip controller, that is laid out nicely for that task, it gave it a whole new (almost better) reason for existence
I always thought that this thing can only output SysEx MIDI data, that makes it more or less impossible to use the Console 1 Hardware controller as a “generic” MIDI controller for other purposes… but apparently, that’s wrong - at least since the release of an update, some time ago. You just have to quit the Console 1 app, and then the hardware will output regular MIDI CC’s per knob. Albeit, via USB. So, you can’t go directly from the Console 1 to the D8B, but need to go into your DAW, first, and pass the MIDI controls out to the MIDI port, that connects to the D8B (i.e. that you would likely have connected for MTC sync, already, anyway - as long as you’re using a DAW along with the D8B).
…with that working, I successfully mapped the Console 1 hardware to my D8B as a channel strip controller (via the D8B's MIDI Map window).
So now, after selecting a channel on the D8B, the EQ and Compressor knobs etc. on the Console 1 hardware controller, now control the same parameters on that D8B channel (and you can follow the knob movements nicely, from a monitor connected to your D8B, and with channel strip view active).
If you select another channel, the Console 1 hardware controls affect THAT channel.
The only thing that’s a bit annoying about this is, that even though the Console 1 has endless encoders (not knobs with a min/max end point), it behaves as if it had regular knobs that send MIDI from 0 - 127 (…and not +/- MIDI values like a digital encoder like that “should.”)
This means that once you move one of the knobs on the Console 1, the parameter it is mapped to on the D8B will JUMP to wherever that knob was set to at that point in time on the Console 1 (there are LEDs going around each knob on the Console 1, indicating their position).
But as long as you look at a Monitor connected to the D8B to see where that parameter was before you touch the Console 1, you can go back to around that value quickly, and start tweaking without big surprises. The whole thing is actually VERY immediate, and feels like a dedicated hardware channel strip controller, almost as if it was “made” for the D8B.
Unfortunately, there’s no Q knob for the lowest and highest EQ bands on the Console 1 (which is fine, if you’re using the “British EQ” on the D8B, that doesn’t have that, either… but it’s missing if you use the 4-Band fully parametric EQ)… but I mapped the Cut/Bell/Shelf buttons for those bands in a way instead, so it switches the Q from widest, to “medium” to narrowest (127/64/0). And most of the time, I just want the narrowest Q to find the frequency center of what I want to cut or boost, anyway… after that, I can dial in the Q the audio needs with the mouse or the knobs on the D8B (after finding the parameter on the D8B’s built-in display, which I find to be a bit of a hassle, since only 4 parameters are displayed at once… that’s the whole point of adding the Console 1 as a channel strip controller).
Of course you can do the same thing as what I did with any MIDI controller that has a sufficient number of knobs on it (I’m mapping an Evolution UC33 as a second option right now… but mostly want to see if I can control DAW Sends with that one - didn’t see a way to map the Sends to MIDI on the D8B, unfortunately) - the process it the same.
It’s just that the Console 1 seems to be laid out almost perfectly, as a channel strip controller for the D8B - even the color matches, hahaha
Here’s the general steps I took with Studio One as my DAW - but it will be a bit different, depending on the DAW you’re using:
Generally, the steps (without details) are this:
1. With Console 1 connected to your DAW computer via USB, quit the Console 1 app (or don’t install it in the first place… I guess that should work, too, if you’re never using the Console 1 software… I do use that, sometimes, though)
2. In Studio One (or in your DAW) add the Console 1 as a generic MIDI controller. In Studio One specifically, you have to “MIDI learn” every control on the Console 1 hardware into a new "external device", first, before you can pass them on to the D8B.
3. In Studio One, create a track that routes MIDI to an external device. In my case, I usually have that, anyway, because I can record automation and play to the D8B via the DAW. You might have to “Monitor enable” the track in your DAW, to pass real-time controls from the Console 1 out to the D8B. (Depends on the DAW, I think).
4. In the D8B, open the MIDI Map Window, create a new map and choose “Channel Select” and the parameter you want to control on the D8B - after that, make sure you set the Control/MIDI CC to the MIDI CC number the Console 1 outputs by default (you should be able to see that from your DAW… if not, you can use MIDI Monitor (Mac) or MIDI OX (PC) to spy that out.
5. Repeat for each parameter you want to map from your Console 1 (or another generic MIDI controller) to the D8B. Here, the D8B would often not let me select “Channel Select” after I assigned a parameter to this right before, and I had to choose something else, first, and then change it to Channel Select… weird bug, but the assignments all worked fine, in the end.
...oh, and doing this, doesn't mean that you can't use the Console 1 for anything else, after that. I also mapped a lot of my DAW plug-ins (especially Channel Strip plug-ins, like the SSL Channel Strip, or Softube's version of an API mixer, etc.). So, you can use the Console 1 hardware for both, controlling the D8B (select the DAW track that routes to the D8B), or software/plugin tracks (select the track that has that plug-in on it... at least in Studio One, the DAW remembers the parameters by plug-in, so you don't have to re-learn them repeatedly).
If anybody wants to do this sort of thing and gets stuck on a particular step, I can try to give more details (if I have that DAW) - but in general, this should work with any DAW, that has the D8B connected to it via MIDI.
I really love this - I only used the Console 1 with my DAW occasionally (since I DO want to see the plugin GUI, and not just a grayscale pop-up screen, representing it), but as a generic MIDI/Channel Strip controller, that is laid out nicely for that task, it gave it a whole new (almost better) reason for existence