Anyone here own an Alphatrack?

[Ermz]

To those of you who do, and use it with Nuendo/Cubase, please tell me...

How do you get the unit to follow your track selection in the DAW? I hate having to manually jump channels using the unit. I want to just select one with the mouse and have the unit respond, fader ready to automate.

The weird thing seems to be that the effects send part of the unit follows your track selection, but the panning and channel volume parts don't.

 

[[UEAK]Clowd]

+1, I've been thinking about picking one of these up. I have the same concerns.

 

[botus99]

I have one and that one issue is why I don't use it for tracking (which sucks, it would add a nice aesthetic to the recording process). I've never tried to find the solution, but you make me wonder now... *googles hard as fuck*

How bout this:

Enable "Sync Project and Mixer Selection" in Cubase's preferences. This will make Alphatrack follows tracks selected in the MIXER AND PROJECT WINDOW. By default, it follows tracks selected in just the mixer section. I'm not sure if that's the solution you need, but good luck man!

They have a bunch of manuals here -> http://www.frontierdesign.com/Products/AlphaTrack/Downloads

 

[Ermz]

Awesome man, I'll give that a shot. Cheers!

 

[aortizjr]

Mine follows just fine. It is set-up to the default.

I just click the track and all of them follow.

But sometimes just moving the fader isn't enough to select the track. Also I have noticed that if I use the buttons on the Alphatrack to change tracks, it starts from wherever the selection was before via the Alphatrack. Not where I last clicked for selection... if that makes sense.

Not perfect but definitely works well enough. It certainly is a great piece to have around.

 

[Ermz]

Turns out that "Sync Project and Mixer Selection" option was already ticked for me.... no go.

I have a white vertical bar on the channel that's presently selected by the Alphalink, so I know which it is at any point in time. That white bar never moves along with the track selection that I make. It has to be scrolled via the unit.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

That sounds like a huge pain in the ass. I can't say for sure, but the one time I've used an AlphaTrack I'm pretty sure it was following the selections in Nuendo just fine. Haven't been in that studio in a while, though.

 

[exoslime]

i used to have an alphatrack too, but that was one of the main reasons i have sold it again.. the channel jumping was a pita..

 

[Ermz]

Oh boy, starting to regret this one already. Not as much as the Faderport... but it's getting close.

Really the only use this thing is, is as a fader. The pan encoder needs to be twisted so many bloody times to get something from the center to the sides that I might as well use a manual crank. All the other features are much easier to access from the keyboard so.... I have to sit there scrolling through my 100+ track sessions one track at a time to get it to somewhere I can actually use it???

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

Oh boy, starting to regret this one already. Not as much as the Faderport... but it's getting close.

Really the only use this thing is, is as a fader. The pan encoder needs to be twisted so many bloody times to get something from the center to the sides that I might as well use a manual crank. All the other features are much easier to access from the keyboard so.... I have to sit there scrolling through my 100+ track sessions one track at a time to get it to somewhere I can actually use it???

I think Loren Littlejohn had the same issue with the rotary encoder. Not sure though. Anyway, maybe you could get an MC Mix for a test run and see if it's worth the money yourself? Seriously, with the amount of grief these cheapo controllers have already given you, I think I would've broken down and got one already

 

[aortizjr]

Sorry to dig this up from the grave.

But I just ran into this problem with my Alphatrack and Cubase 6 (32-bit) on Windows 7 64-bit.

Exact same thing Ermz was describing. Where the Alphatrack wouldn't follow mouse clicks but you could see the position on the bar beneath the mixer.

It was driving me bat shit crazy and I went through all the preferences and options, etc.

The fix was to separately download the Cubase/Nuendo plugin. Even though the Windows installer puts one in, it doesn't work right. But manually getting the driver directly and manually installing it made the following work properly.

Had the thing 5 years now, still working. I was worried that I would have to find something else. Dropped support is an issue like their cool wireless controller. But nope, still good for at least another version of Cubase.

 

[C-Martin]

I think Loren Littlejohn had the same issue with the rotary encoder. Not sure though. Anyway, maybe you could get an MC Mix for a test run and see if it's worth the money yourself? Seriously, with the amount of grief these cheapo controllers have already given you, I think I would've broken down and got one already

+1

I've had a fader port and i barely used it in the 2 years that i had it. It constantly pissed me off so I ended up selling it. Recently i was offered a killer deal on a brand new command 8, i was skeptical but i figured that was my chance to try a control surface that's not just a single fader and see how i liked it in my workflow. The difference between the fader port and the command 8 was huge to me. I'm actually quite happy with my setup right now and even though i'd like to have something like a Pro Control, i can't really complain with how cheap i got it. With the multiple faders/encoders for volume, pan, automation and plug-in controls i'm reaching less for the mouse than i initially thought i would. I would definitely look into the euphonix stuff if i were you, i know if my c8 dies or starts to crap out on me i'm gonna be thinking seriously about getting a pair of MC Mix. Control surface has changed the way i do things so much that i find it hard to go without now, my workflow is just more efficient with it.


EDIT: ahhhh crap.. I didn't notice this was a necro bump, oh well.. damn you aortizjr lol

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

i used to have an alphatrack too, but that was one of the main reasons i have sold it again.. the channel jumping was a pita..

Same. Sold it shortly after getting a Mackie control.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Oh boy, starting to regret this one already. Not as much as the Faderport... but it's getting close.

Really the only use this thing is, is as a fader. The pan encoder needs to be twisted so many bloody times to get something from the center to the sides that I might as well use a manual crank. All the other features are much easier to access from the keyboard so.... I have to sit there scrolling through my 100+ track sessions one track at a time to get it to somewhere I can actually use it???

Yeah I complained about the pan thing to Frontier Design and they were like "derp what derp."

Funny thing is it works fine in pro tools.

 

[Loren Littlejohn]

Woops, shit didn't see the date haha.

 

[Ermz]

The fix was to separately download the Cubase/Nuendo plugin. Even though the Windows installer puts one in, it doesn't work right. But manually getting the driver directly and manually installing it made the following work properly.

Good to know!

So basically just overwrite the .dll in the Cubase directory with the one downloaded from the Frontier site, and all is well? It actually tracks with mouse clicks after that?

 

[Ermz]

Well, doing this appears to have broken Alphatrack compatibility in Cubase altogether. Doesn't even light up.