Introduction

Quick Controls is a group of controls that allow you to assign up to eight individual controllers on the Inspector of a track. You’ll be able to control these settings easily via the Inspector, saving you the time and effort in configuring these setups. 

Assigning a setting to the Quick Control is a very simple and easy process that helps you work on the music than on the technical aspects of the software. 

Setting Up the Device

If you have an external device that has knobs or controllers
for controlling various settings via MIDI, you can use that controller with
Cubase to control up to eight individual settings of a track.

Ensure that you have installed the correct drivers and software
for the MIDI controller and then connect it before opening Cubase. 

To add the external control device, navigate to the Device Setup option. 

Click on the Devices menu and select Device Setup. Select Quick Controls under the Remote Devices folder. 

Select the MIDI device from the MIDI Input dropdown menu. After selecting the appropriate device, click
on Apply to save the changes made. 

In the table below the drop-down menu, you will be able to see the eight Quick
Control settings that you can use in a project.

Select the QuickControl1
and select the type of MIDI Status, then, click
on the learn button and move the controller’s fader or knob. 

The MIDI signal
of that specific button or knob will be assigned to the first Quick Controller.
This table has many other options which will help you in changing the Quick
Control setup. They are:

• Control
  Name: the option to change the name of
  the Quick Control. Double click on this column for a control and type in
  a new name

• MIDI
  Status: determines the type of MIDI message that is
  being sent by the device. Choose from Controller,
  Program Change, Aftertouch, Polyphonic Pressure, Note On, Note Off. Other
  types of controller, called Continuous Control messages, such as Ctrl JLCooper
  and Ctrl Houston are also available. Choose the type of control according to
  the type available on the device

• MIDI
  Channel: choose the channel on which the MIDI signal is
  being sent. Choose from 1-16 channels

• Address: usually contains the pitch of a note or the Continuous Controller number

• Max. Value: used to find out the
  range of the values that pass through this controller. Choose
  from 0-127

• Flags: determines how a signal is to be processed

There are three types of flags:

• Receive: The
  MIDI message will be processed as soon as it is received

• Transmit: sends a MIDI message as soon as the corresponding value in the program
  changes

• Relative:
  considers the controller to have no end. There are no limits
  for this controller, such as a rotary dial available in certain keyboards and
  mixers. It is endless

After assigning a controller to each Quick Control,
click OK. If you have an already prepared XML file with the controls set up,
you can use the Import button. 

In order to use this same setup in another
machine, click the Export button and save the file. 

Note that the Quick Control
settings that you made are global, that means they are not project dependent.

Without a Controller

If you do not have a MIDI controller, but want to set up the
shortcuts anyway, click on the Inspector of the track and select Quick Controls
from it. Click on an empty slot and select the attribute to which to assign the Quick Control. 

By default it is set to No Parameter. Click on the various folders to select the
correct control. 

Once you have selected the required attribute, double click on
it and it will be assigned to that specific Quick Control. Change
the value by dragging the slider left or right.

In order to select the global functions that are available
in the project, click on the empty Quick Control slot with the Ctrl key and you will find all the
attributes that can be controlled or automated.

To rename a Quick Control, double-click on
the name of the control and type in the new name. 

To delete a Quick Control,
select the No Parameter value from
the list and that control will be disabled.

Conclusion

With the help of Quick Controls,
automating values for tracks is now easy. Activate the Read and Write
Automation of the track and control its value via the Quick Control. 

Ensure
that you’ve selected the correct track and the values for automation are set properly.
The next time that you need to do some quick and easy automation, boot up some
Quick Controls and make your work easier.