Alesis Studio Interface MasterControl User Manual

REFERENCE MANUAL

8 (C) DAW CONTROL: MULTI-FUNCTION KNOBS 312 1. TEMPLATE OVERLAY – Place the long plasticized overlay (included) that matches your currently sel

9 (E) DAW CONTROL: ASSIGNABLE BUTTON BANKS 1. TEMPLATE OVERLAY - Place the short plasticized overlay (included) that matches your currently sele

10 2. DIRECT MON LEVEL – This knob raises or lowers your entire direct monitor mix. This allows you to blend your direct monitor signals with the

11 4. EDIT – In Edit Mode, you can change the assignments for the A and B banks of the ASSIGNABLE buttons – a total of 16 assignable functions. Up

12 CONFIGURING YOUR DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION SOFTWARE FOR USE WITH THE MASTERCONTROL Once your MasterControl is connected to your computer, th

13 CUBASE AND NUENDO SETUP: SELECTING THE AUDIO DRIVER (WINDOWS ONLY) This discussion addresses Cubase. Nuendo setup is similar. 1. From t

14 CUBASE AND NUENDO SETUP: CONTROL SURFACE (MAC AND WINDOWS) 1. Again from the menu bar, go to Devices f Device Setup… 2. Click

15 3. Under Remote Devices f Mackie Control, select “Alesis FireWire” from the MIDI Input and MIDI Output drop-down menus. 4. Press “OK” to acc

16 6. In this first tab labeled “Inputs,” you can decide which of the MasterControl’s channels will be routed to the Cubase’s inputs. Click the en

17 8. If you want, you can rename channels by clicking on the entry under “Bus Name.” This is useful for keeping track of which instrument is on

18 2. Click the MIDI/Sync tab. Select “MackieControl” from the Control Surface drop-down menu, and select “Alesis FireWire” for the corresponding

19 4. Click “Input Config.” In the window that appears, select the inputs from the MasterControl that you want to be sent to the DAW, then click “

20 6. Close the Preferences window. 7. From the menu bar, go to Insert f Audio Track. 8. Be sure the circular button on the right-hand side of th

21 11. Underneath “Monitor,” select the monitoring configuration you want. “Auto” will monitor the channel when it is “record-armed” or recording.

22 CAKEWALK SONAR SETUP 1. From the menu bar, go to Options f Controllers/Surfaces. 2. Click the button with the “star” icon to add

23 4. From the menu bar, go to Options f Audio…” 5. Click the “Advanced” tab. Select “ASIO” as the “Driver Mode.” Most users will find that

24 6. On the “General” tab, select any available MasterControl channels as the “Playback Timing Master.” We recommend “ASIO Alesis FireWire Master

25 8. Move to the “Drivers” tab. Click on each input pair and also on the output pair to make them available to Sonar. The available input channe

26 LOGIC PRO SETUP 1. From the menu bar, go to Logic Pro f Preferences f Control Surfaces f Setup. 2. Click on “New” and select “Install” from

27 3. Select “Mackie Designs > Mackie Control > Logic Control” from the list, and click “Add” at the bottom-right. Close the window. 4. S

TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...

28 SAMPLITUDE SETUP 1. From the menu bar, go to MIDI f MIDI Options f System Options f Hardware Controller. 2. Click the “Add New” button and se

29 AUDIO INPUTS AND OUTPUTS  Channels Sent from the MasterControl to the Computer The FireWire port sends every available individual MasterCo

30 WINDOWS AUDIO CONFIGURATION CHOOSING THE MASTERCONTROL AS YOUR DEFAULT AUDIO DEVICE To use your MasterControl as your default Windows sound d

31 DISABLING WINDOWS SYSTEM SOUNDS Windows System Sounds – the sounds that Windows plays to signal starting up, shutting down, alerts and so forth

32 ALESIS FIREWIRE CONTROL PANEL (WINDOWS) Open the Alesis Firewire Control Panel from the shortcut on your Desktop, the Programs menu, or from wi

33 4. Adjusting the sample rate: You can change the sample rate that the MasterControl uses in this area. Some audio programs require that you cha

34 MAC AUDIO CONFIGURATION AUDIO MIDI SETUP On Mac, after you install the drivers, open the Audio MIDI Setup utility. Choose “Alesis Firewire”

35 ALESIS FIREWIRE CONTROL PANEL (MAC) On Mac, buffer sizes are controlled by individual applications, and clocking and sample rates are set in Au

36 GLOBAL MENUS Press the GLOBAL button to edit the MasterControl’s configuration, including where you want to route which channels, talkback and

37  Direct Monitoring When the MasterControl’s Direct Monitoring function is enabled, the signal you are hearing is taken directly from the

2 INTRODUCTION Congratulations on your purchase of the Alesis MasterControl! The MasterControl is Alesis’s most advanced computer recording p

38  Factory Reset Activating a Factory Reset will restore all default settings and Preset configurations. If you want to reset, select “

39 MONITORING & CONTROL ROOM FEATURES  Speakers / Outputs Controls The SPEAKERS / OUTPUTS buttons allow you to monitor the MasterContro

40 DIRECT MONITORING The MasterControl contains a hardware-based, DSP mixer which enables you to route the inputs to the outputs directly, bypassi

41 CREATING A CUBASE LE PROJECT FOR RECORDING Once you have set up Cubase to work with the MasterControl, you’re ready to create an audio project.

42 4. Now, you have a blank project. Add an audio track for recording by choosing Project f Add Track f Audio. 5. Be sure that the “inspector

43 6. Choose an input for your track by selecting it from the drop-down menu of available inputs. By default, the input will be the first stereo b

44 IMPORTANT POINTS FOR USERS OF VARIOUS DAWS When using the MasterControl with various Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), you will find the contr

45 LOGIC PRO y Ensure that you choose a “Mackie Control” control surface. The “Logic Control” control surface uses a different set of MIDI messa

46 DIGITAL PERFORMER y Row 2 of the MasterControl is not mapped. y Vertical Zoom is not possible from the MasterControl. y MasterControl’s ZOOM

47 PRO TOOLS y JOG is unavailable in Pro Tools. This is a limitation of the HUI protocol used by Pro Tools. Pressing the SCRUB button puts the

3 FIRST THINGS FIRST: DRIVER INSTALLATION If your computer has Internet access, go to http://www.alesis.com/mastercontrol. It’s possible tha

48 PLUG-IN 1, 2 y These presets are designed to control virtual instruments and effects plugins. If you are using a virtual instrument within a

49 SIGNAL FLOW DIAGRAM

50 SPECIFICATIONS  Microphone preamplifier Gain range: +9.1dB to +59.2dB Impedance: 3.67K @ min gain; 3.33K @ max gain  Line preamplif

51 TRADEMARKS All trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Specifically: “MasterControl” is a trademark of Alesis, LLC. “Soundt

www.alesis.com

4 REAR PANEL FEATURES 1 12 23 3455 5 555 5 556 6 656 6 677 89 910 10 10 11 11 1213 1. MIC / LINE INPUTS – These two inputs can accept microphone

5 8. FOOTSWITCH – You may connect a remote footswitch to this jack. This can operate either as a control option surface or as a toggle switch to t

6 TOP PANEL FEATURES This section breaks down the control surface into its functional areas. The area being discussed is shaded in the accompanyi

7 (B) DAW CONTROL: CHANNELS 561 243333 1. CHANNEL FADER – Use this 100mm, touch-sensitive fader to adjust the volume levels of each channel. T