I love my Nektar Aura, but the manual on MIDI and DAW-specific implementation is decidedly lacking. They don’t even provide a MIDI Implementation chart, which I thought was a standard required by all MIDI-gadget manufacturers, but I guess I was wrong!
First though, Robert has a great video on setting up the pad sensitivity on YouTube… which I consider ESSENTIAL, since the pad sensitivity out of the box is zero on every pad, making it practically unplayable.
But, this post isn’t about that… this is for getting Cubase Pro to slave to the Nektar Aura transport buttons (I’m using Cubase Pro 10.5). The method might be obvious to veterans of Cubase… but it wasn’t to me, and took a while to figure it out! That said, you should probably still have at least a basic knowledge of MIDI… and write down your old settings before you change/test them!
First, note that all the transport buttons on the Aura are MIDI CC assignable… but where in Cubase do you assign them? … and which CC#'s?
- Open Cubase and make sure that the Aura pads can, at least, play sounds.
- On the Aura, press the Global button, and choose your global channel. I usually use 16, but it can be whatever you want as long as you remember it!
- In Cubase select: STUDIO–>STUDIO SETUP.
- Select “Remote Devices” from the devices tree on the left. Click the “+” button at the top to add a device, and choose “Generic Remote”.
- “Generic Remote” should now be in your list under Remote Devices. Select it to bring up it’s properties, which contains two windows on the right.
- Right above the top window is “MIDI Input” on the left, and a pull-down selection for it on the right. Use it to select the AURA. “MIDI Output” should remain “Not connected”.
- In both the top and bottom windows, you should see a bunch of default Faders. Notice that the bottom window lists the same faders, but with more options.
- The following are MY choices… please bear in mind that your studio setup might differ a bit. Change the following parameters:
–Upper Window–
CONTROL NAME: Stop
MIDI STATUS: Controller
MIDI CHANNEL: 16 (<— Should match the global channel on the Aura).
ADDRESS: 100 (<-- Again, this is my choice. You should choose an unused channel).
MAX.VALUE: 127
FLAGS: R, (Receive)
–Lower Window–
CONTROL NAME: Stop
DEVICE: Transport
CHANNEL/CATEGORY: Device
VALUE/ACTION: stop
FLAGS: , (no selection chosen)
This will set up your Aura to STOP the transport in Cubase. You will have to set up the other buttons similarly. The Address is your chosen CC#. Note that the Max.Value has to be 127… otherwise, you’ll have to hit the button twice for it to work. Here’s another example, which uses the Cycle button to issue a command to move the cursor to the left locator (the start of your cycle):
–Upper Window–
CONTROL NAME: GotoLeftLocator
MIDI STATUS: Controller
MIDI CHANNEL: 16
ADDRESS: 105
MAX.VALUE: 127
FLAGS: R, (Receive)
–Lower Window–
CONTROL NAME: GotoLeftLocator
DEVICE: Command
CHANNEL/CATEGORY: Transport
VALUE/ACTION: Go to Left Locator
FLAGS: P
Hope this helps someone out there! I love my Aura and think it’s perfect for Cubase. But, you can always use Nektar’s DAW software Nektarine. It’s perfectly fine, but I prefer the workflow in Cubase.
Cheers all!