The mcu pro is very new so I would be shocked if there were more people using it. I'm using the regular mcu connected to my midi in/outs of my presonus firebox.

Did you download the latest firmware patch for the mcu pro? When you first turn on the mcu what revision does it say?

When you connect the mcu to your pc via usb does it ask you for any drivers? My m-audio midisport 2x2 needed drivers to be seen by vegas.

In vegas's midi tab [in the preferences page] do you see the any additional ports for the mcu pro there? What is it supposed to be labeled as?

It's nice to know I'm not the only one using it. You'll like it.

Ed.

The MCU Pro is the same.

The MCU has a built in MIDI interface that is a "compliant" USB device which means it will use the Windows Supplied MIDI drivers.

What you need to do is figure out which of these devices shown in Vegas' MIDI Prefs page belong to the first set of MIDI ports on the MCU and enable them.

What MIDI ports are displayed in Vegas' MIDI Prefs page?

Once you determine this, then you should be able to just follow the white paper on using the MCU with Vegas.

Peter

For general MIDI-debugging I've used an app named MIDI-OX. It's free for non-commercial use.

It gives you "direct" access to MIDI-device (i.e. no need to worry about application settings, etc). If your MCU is not shown on MIDI-OX there is no way you can get it working under Vegas.

MIDI-OX -page

Thanks everyone for your replies. In the meantime I did determine that the unit I received is defective and an exchange is in transit (Full Compass is a very good company BTW). I do have plenty of midi options (Multiface-2 and a midi-sport) but I am wanting to use the USB connection if possible. Thanks again Peter for explaining this.

So the MCU Pro's MIDI ports did not show up?

There is a know bug in Windows XP that can hide ports from the user. Essentially if too many ports have been added/removed in the past XP hits a limit and there will be no ports shown.

The fix is painful and relates to mucking the registry.

However, I believe that on m-audio's site, there is a little utility that is free that will clean things up.

Peter

Thanks Peter - I never got that far because I definitely discovered that the unit was defective (2 of the faders failed calibration) so I am in the process of an exchange. To my knowledge, I've never used Windows midi ports in my current system - only the Layla 24 midi and an older USB midi-sport. I just upgraded to a Multiface 2 for a new quad core system that I'm picking up tomorrow. At any rate I don't think I'm experiencing the problem you describe but I'll know more after I receive the replacement MCU and try it out. Thanks again!

Just in case you (or anyone else) do run into the Windows 10-MIDI-devices-only limitation, in addition to the MAudio MidiFix utility Peter referred to there is a nice description of the problem and how to resolve it on the RME site here.

Mark

UPDATE: Received the new replacement MCU Pro and installed in my new system (quad core Q6600 w/Asus P5K mobo, 3 gigs ram, Seagate drives, RME Multiface-2, XP Pro). The MCU shows up fine via USB with Acid 6.0d but won't show in Vegas 7. It shows that the same 4 USB audio device ports are available as in Acid, but no Mackie device is detected. I experiemented with choosing Mackie emulation and it does work but of course if I wanted to work with "emulation" I could have saved $950 and kept my BCF2000. BTW, I also tried using a midi connection (midi-sport-2) but I couldn't get Acid or Vegas to detect the MCU although the ports do show up as choices. Also, I haven't yet installed Vegas 6 or 8 but will try that later today. So Peter, any suggestions? Thanks!

EDIT - Update: Installed Vegas 6 and Vegas 8. The MCU Pro is detected properly in Vegas 8 but not v.6. So there seems to be an issue here with Vegas 6 & 7 with the MCU Pro - they won't detect the "Mackie Device" and only work in emulation mode. Any thoughts?

Bump

The original MCU works as expected in 6 and 7. I cannot explain why the MCU Pro works in 8, but not 6 or 7.

The only difference between the emulation mode and native MCU mode is automatic detection. If the emulation mode works with the MCU Pro in 6 and 7, you should use it. You are not loosing anything.

Peter

NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT to use the MCU driver that comes with Vegas 8. It is NOT compatible with previous versions of Vegas and will crash Vegas 6/7.

"The original MCU works as expected in 6 and 7. I cannot explain why the MCU Pro works in 8, but not 6 or 7.

The only difference between the emulation mode and native MCU mode is automatic detection. If the emulation mode works with the MCU Pro in 6 and 7, you should use it. You are not loosing anything.

Peter

NOTE: DO NOT ATTEMPT to use the MCU driver that comes with Vegas 8. It is NOT compatible with previous versions of Vegas and will crash Vegas 6/7."

Thanks Peter. I'm not sure about "not losing anything" in emulation mode. The MCU Pro does not show the master track properly. In my very quick analysis of how things were working, I discovered that depending on the project, the master could show on any of the other 8 tracks. For example, I put up 2 tracks into a project in Vegas 6/7 and the master showed up on track 3 - it should show up at the master, correct? It does so in Vegas 8. So it appears that what I lose with emulation is accurate MCU mapping. Do I have to assign the mapping to get it to operate correctly? This is something I wanted to avoid by purchasing the MCU. Thanks again.

It shows up on both.

The master bus will be part of the 8 tracks faders and ALWAYS be on the master fader. (I answered the why here and in a number of previous posts on this and the ACID forum.)

I tested an original MCU as an emulated device when I wrote this code. There is no difference in behavior or functionality between emulated and real. There cannot be, otherwise the emulated devices would not work correctly.

If any differences do occur, then it is related to the MCU Pro and not the emulation.

Understand, even if there were difference between the MCU and the MCU Pro, only Vegas 8 would recieve an update.

Peter

OK, I appreciate the clarification Peter and thanks again.

I try<g>

I am trying to get my hands on a MCU Pro so I can have a look see. I am very surpised that there are problems.

Peter

Peter - Please post back if you are able to test an MCU Pro. It seems quite weird that it works fine with Acid 6 and Vegas 8 but not Vegas 6/7.

ACID 6 and Vega 8 use a new and updated driver for the MCU. This could be the cause. Vegas 6 and 7 essentially use the original driver.

As I stated the Vegas 8 driver will never work in older version of Vegas.

However, you could TRY using the ACID 6 driver with Vegas 6/7, but it may crash Vegas. No promises.

Locate

C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas 6.0\External Control Drivers\spmackiectrlopt.dll

and rename it to spmackiectrlopt.foo or cut and paste it to a safe place.

Locate

C:\Program Files\Sony\ACID Pro 6.0\External Control Drivers\spmackiectrlopt.dll

and copy it to

C:\Program Files\Sony\Vegas 6.0\External Control Drivers
Do all of this while Vegas is NOT running.

Start Vegas 6. If you don't crash and the MCU pro comes alive, then all is well. If you crash out or have other problems, then reverse the steps above.

Peter