# Anyone using Palette Gear Controller?



## Jim Martin (Mar 28, 2018)

https://palettegear.com/midi

I recently bought this and it's built nice, but pretty expensive. I'm trying to use it with cubase, but it seems kind of flaky. Often times I have to first load cubase and then unplug the palette gear device from usb and then plug it in again before it's recognized. Anyone else using this and liking the results?


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## packetslave (Mar 28, 2018)

Jim Martin said:


> https://palettegear.com/midi
> 
> I recently bought this and it's built nice, but pretty expensive. I'm trying to use it with cubase, but it seems kind of flaky. Often times I have to first load cubase and then unplug the palette gear device from usb and then plug it in again before it's recognized. Anyone else using this and liking the results?



I believe @christianhenson uses it, but with Logic, not Cubase.


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## Jim Martin (Mar 28, 2018)

Thanks, I think the MIDI stuff is an afterthought so may be sending it back. They have some work to do on this before it's worth the $300 as a midi controller.


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## artomatic (Mar 28, 2018)

Working great here using Pro Tools 12 on a Mac.
I had to do a little digging to finally make it work!


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## AndyJH (Mar 29, 2018)

@Jim Martin — Andy from Palette Gear here. Mind sending us a message in regards to your kit? Palette MIDI mode is admittedly pretty basic so far, but you shouldn't have connectivity issues—mine is working quite well w/Cubase, mapped to VST Quick Controls.

Visit our support page and select "Submit a Request" at the top right.

For anyone following: I'll update the thread here with any useful fixes we come up with.


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## Anders Wall (Mar 29, 2018)

ProTools 2018, soon Ultimate, and Mac all is fine.

@AndyJH
One improvement would be if the OSD would show the CC value 0-127 when moving faders/knobs
Another would be if one could assign a CC number AND a value to the knob/press function.
As far as I know you can only assign MIDI note numbers to knob/press.

Best,
Anders


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## AndyJH (Mar 29, 2018)

Anders Wall said:


> ProTools 2018, soon Ultimate, and Mac all is fine.
> 
> @AndyJH
> One improvement would be if the OSD would show the CC value 0-127 when moving faders/knobs
> ...



Thanks Anders! Mind posting your thoughts to the feature requests board on our site, for visibility to the rest of the Palette Gear team? 

(Note: Not familiar with the etiquette on this particular forum; I hope this is allowed—not trying to poach users, but it helps to have all our feature requests in one place).

- Andy


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## Anders Wall (Mar 29, 2018)

AndyJH said:


> Thanks Anders! Mind posting your thoughts to the feature requests board on our site, for visibility to the rest of the Palette Gear team?
> 
> (Note: Not familiar with the etiquette on this particular forum; I hope this is allowed—not trying to poach users, but it helps to have all our feature requests in one place).
> 
> - Andy


Did send that to support, like, half a year ago ... to no avail 

Best,
Anders


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## AndyJH (Mar 29, 2018)

Anders Wall said:


> Did send that to support, like, half a year ago ... to no avail
> 
> Best,
> Anders



That's frustrating; my apologies, Anders. For what it's worth, one of the big reasons behind adding a public feature requests forum was to make all these suggestions more visible and to keep us @ Palette more accountable.


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## Jim Martin (Mar 29, 2018)

AndyJH said:


> @Jim Martin — Andy from Palette Gear here. Mind sending us a message in regards to your kit? Palette MIDI mode is admittedly pretty basic so far, but you shouldn't have connectivity issues—mine is working quite well w/Cubase, mapped to VST Quick Controls.
> 
> Visit our support page and select "Submit a Request" at the top right.
> 
> For anyone following: I'll update the thread here with any useful fixes we come up with.



Thanks Andy, It's actually on its way back to Amazon because I couldn't justify the cost along with the constant disconnect issues. With regards to my setup, I noticed that in order for it to work at all in Cubase I had to go into Studio -> Devices -> Palette Gear and check the box that said do not use the joystick. After I did that then once Cubase loaded I could at least unplug the usb cable and then plug it in again and Cubase would recognize the device. I was doing all of this using the midi monitor insert on Cubase to debug. Never could get it to work very well. I think you guys have a nice product here, but expand on the MIDI side, I would think that would be your biggest audience.

For now, until the bugs are worked out, I'm going to stick with my FaderMaster Pro. Thanks for the help! BTW, I'm on cubase 9.5 Windows 10 if that helps at all.


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## Jim Martin (Mar 29, 2018)

Anders Wall said:


> ProTools 2018, soon Ultimate, and Mac all is fine.
> 
> @AndyJH
> One improvement would be if the OSD would show the CC value 0-127 when moving faders/knobs
> ...




+1 on this. This would make a huge difference to the MIDI community and honestly I'm surprised it doesn't already work this way.

Also, if you could make it somehow operate in standard midi mode so that you could connect it via USB to something like the iConnectivity USB interfaces that would be awesome!


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## AndyJH (Mar 29, 2018)

Thanks for your insight Jim; I will share your experience with the relevant teammates—that's frustrating for sure. 

To be clear RE: development...CC for dial/button press and class-compliance are both part of the planned long-term MIDI improvements already.

The question is moreso priority versus other Palette Gear modes (Lightroom, Photoshop, et al.); hence the need for feature requests posted on our site. Customer feedback holds a lot of sway and helps us prioritize future development.


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## Dewdman42 (Mar 29, 2018)

Looks really net, but too expensive for me unfortunately.


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## W Ackerman (Mar 29, 2018)

I'm using Palette with Studio One and the Adobe CC 2018 applications. I used to have intermittent connectivity issues until I got on their beta track. Somewhere along the line, those problems went away and now it is pretty solid. My impression is that they are a small team and don't give the applications that matter most to me (AE, Pr) much priority. But MIDI support for offboarding instrument articulations to the Palette works fine for me. I would like to add more modules, but am holding back to see how committed they are to the apps I use. New modules (x/y pad, motorized fader) would help convince me.


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## Tomas Simon (Apr 5, 2018)

I am way too late to help but for what it's worth I am having the exact same problem with a Korg Nanokontrol 2.

Meaning that it doesn't work until I unplug and plug the usb cable again.

Maybe this issue is not due to the controller but Cubase? 

I would appreciate a solution for this problem if anyone can help.


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## tomhartmanmusic (Apr 21, 2018)

This video shows it being used fine in Logic...


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## Geoff Grace (Jun 9, 2018)

I'm considering purchasing the same Palette Gear configuration as in *Christian*'s review above to use with Pro Tools 2018.4 on macOS 10.12.6. But first, I'd like to be confident I'll be able to use it without bugs or crashes.

@artomatic: What did you need to do in order to get it to work with Pro Tools 12 on your Mac? Any advice from @Anders Wall would be appreciated as well. I presume Palette Gear has to be configured as a HUI controller in the MIDI Input Devices window. Is that right?

@AndyJH: Are there any updates since your first post a couple of months ago?

Thanks, in advance, to all for any advice.

Best,

Geoff


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## SDCP (Jun 10, 2018)

Geoff Grace said:


> I'm considering purchasing the same Palette Gear configuration as in *Christian*'s review above to use with Pro Tools 2018.4 on macOS 10.12.6. But first, I'd like to be confident I'll be able to use it without bugs or crashes.



I don't think you can use it without bugs. I use it with Logic 10.4.1 (High Sierra), and I have learned that I have to open my Logic project first, then plug the Palette Gear USB cable in, then start the Palette Gear software. Then it works fine. I've had problems if I have Palette Gear connected before I open the Logic project.

Hope they can customized Palette Gear for Logic so that the bugs go away. However, I really like the Palette Gear unit, and use it all the time.


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## Anders Wall (Jun 10, 2018)

SDCP said:


> I don't think you can use it without bugs. I use it with Logic 10.4.1 (High Sierra), and I have learned that I have to open my Logic project first, then plug the Palette Gear USB cable in, then start the Palette Gear software. Then it works fine. I've had problems if I have Palette Gear connected before I open the Logic project.
> 
> Hope they can customized Palette Gear for Logic so that the bugs go away. However, I really like the Palette Gear unit, and use it all the time.


Is this a logic "feature"?
Mine load with the rest of the system and is working with no probs. whatsoever.
OSX 10.13.4 and PT2018.4
/Anders


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## SDCP (Jun 10, 2018)

Don't know Anders. A couple of times Logic would not open the project when Palette Gear software was running. Didn't happen every time, but enough that I tried a few things, and found that if I open Palette Gear after Logic, it works fine.
(Logic 10.4.1, OS 10.13.4)


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## MOMA (Aug 13, 2018)

Im using Reaper and I have issues all the time as long as the Palette is connected and the drivers installed. Removing them make the system work like clockwork. Its sad because I do like the device, but Reaper keep freezing and Im left with a blue screen when I shut down. There is something with the Palette driver that doesn't work with DAWs. But what is it???
/B.Tidelius, Sweden


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## JohannesR (Aug 13, 2018)

Mac/Cubase here, and I constantly experience connectivity issues and bugs. Sadly so, because it would have been absolutely great if it worked!

The most annoying issue that it sends CC data randomly without moving the faders. Very annoying to have to edit the CC information out afterwards.


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## midiman (Feb 24, 2019)

AndyJH said:


> @Jim Martin — Andy from Palette Gear here. Mind sending us a message in regards to your kit? Palette MIDI mode is admittedly pretty basic so far, but you shouldn't have connectivity issues—mine is working quite well w/Cubase, mapped to VST Quick Controls.
> 
> Visit our support page and select "Submit a Request" at the top right.
> 
> For anyone following: I'll update the thread here with any useful fixes we come up with.



Hi Andy, do you have it on cubase on Mac or Windows? Do you know if it works on Cubase 9.5 on Windows? Thanks.


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## AndyJH (Feb 27, 2019)

midiman said:


> Hi Andy, do you have it on cubase on Mac or Windows? Do you know if it works on Cubase 9.5 on Windows? Thanks.



I've personally used it with Cubase 9.5 (LE/Elements) on MacOS. Tested it briefly with the VST Quick Controls across some stock plugins and it was a super smooth process. 

Have not used it with Kontakt inside Cubase yet. I don't check the forums here super often so please email from the Palette site if you have any specific questions; will help any way possible from my side.


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## Michael Antrum (Feb 27, 2019)

I use mine on a Mac Pro 5,1, iMac 17,1 and a MacBook pro when I'm travelling. 

The only problem I ever had with with the specific build of the software which meant it wouldn't run if I started the app with wireless networking enabled (only on my MacBook Pro for some reason). They did me a special build within 48 Hours which I thought was fantastic support.

I've never had any connectivity issues, and I've never experienced it sending random CC data without moving the faders.

I've found it to be a great bit of kit.


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## artomatic (Feb 27, 2019)

The issues that I've encountered is that in my case, when using the fader assigned to cc1 and cc11, Pallete would also spit out two additional cc#s such as cc21 and other unused cc#s consistently in PT Ultimate. When using my keyboard's mod wheel, no glitches. 

Anyone using a Mac (I have the iMac Pro) experiencing this as well?

Other than that, it's a great tool!


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## Michael Antrum (Feb 27, 2019)

I have three sliders, which I normally set to CC1, CC11 & CC21, and in Cubase 9.5 & 10 on Mac I've not had any issues. 

I really like this product.


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