Reference Guide

1224 External devices

Cakewalk Generic Surface plug-in

Assigning Forward and Rewind buttons

The Forward and Rewind assignments are special cases in the Cakewalk Generic Surface property

page. When you click select either of these parameters, notice that Literally/Toggle field becomes

greyed-out, and the On/Off fields become available. This is because the Forward and Rewind

commands both require two different MIDI messages to function: one MIDI message to turn the

operation on, and a different message to turn the operation off. This kind of operation is best

assigned to a button that sends out one MIDI message when you hold or push it down, and a

different MIDI message when you let the button up. The property page can usually fill in the On field

and the Off field correctly if you push the desired button a few times and then click the Learn button.

But it helps if you know exactly what MIDI messages the desired button sends out. That way, you

can fill in the correct trigger values in the On and Off fields if the displayed values are incorrect.

Conserving knobs and buttons

There are a few tricks you can use if you’re running out of buttons, or if your controller/surface only

has a couple of buttons on each strip, and you want to control more parameters on each track:

• Assign a two-way knob or button to control two different parameters. If a knob sends out

one MIDI message when it’s turned to the right and a different MIDI message when it’s turned to

the left, you could use it to control 2 toggle-type parameters, such as Solo and Arm. For example,

if a knob sends out NRPN # 5000 with a data value of 1 when you turn it to the right and a data

value of 16383 when you turn it to the left, you could use a Trigger Value of 1 to turn the Arm

button on and off, and a Trigger Value of 16383 to turn the Solo button on and off. That way,

each time you turn the knob to the right, the Arm button turns on or off. Each time you turn the

knob left, the Solo button turns on or off.

• Assign a two-way knob to control a continuous parameter. If your fader is assigned to

control Volume, you can use a two-way knob to control Pan or some other continuous parameter

such as Send 1 Level. For example, if a knob sends out NRPN # 5000 with a data value of 1

when you turn it to the right and a data value of 16383 when you turn it to the left, you could use a

value of 1 in the Increment/Decrement Plus + field, and a value of 16383 in the Increment/

Decrement Minus - field. That way, each time you turn the knob to the right, the Pan parameter

(or whatever parameter you want) increases by 1. Each time you turn the knob to the left, the

parameter decreases by 1. The parameter continues to increase if you keep turning the knob to

the right, and decreases similarly if you keep turning the knob to the left.

• Use multiple strips to control one track at a time. Assign as many knobs and faders as you

want to control lots of parameters on only one track (leave the Configure Strip Number field set

to 1 while you’re assigning faders and knobs). Then assign a couple of buttons to Move 1 Left

and Move 1 Right, so you can shift your controller/surface one track at a time.