CMC-AI knob and VST2.4 vs. VST3 plugins

Steinberg Hardware Legacy Steinberg Hardware
1

Hi everyone,

I am still loving the combination of CMC-AI+CH+TP, and most of the time actually prefer this over the CC121 (already having a separate fader controller for faders).

The AI knob works brilliantly on many of my most important plugins, including all the UAD, SoundToys and Waves stuff, but seems dead with plugins from Native Instruments, Sonnox and Exponential Audio. Is this simply because these are VST3 plugins, and the AI knob only supports VST 2.4…?

Has anyone got plugins from Sonnox, Native Instruments, Izotope or Exponential Audio working with the AI knob, if you opt to install the plugins as VST 2.4? And, is there a difference between the AI knob on the CMC-AI and the CC121 here? Is the CC121 knob more compatible with VST3?

When/if eventually UAD, SoundToys and Waves give us VST3 versions of their plugins, does that mean that the AI knob will stop working on these too? I really hope not…!

I have an iMac 2015 model running macOS Mojave and Cubase Pro 10.5 (soon 11).

2

I have the CC121 only so I can’t make a comparison, and I’m on Windows so much of a difference but it seems to be a function which has to be implemented by the developer. I once asked Greg Ondo about it and he said it could be a captured Mouse wheel behaviour but this doesn’t seem to be true as I have plugins with MW support which don’t work with the AI knob and some other plugins which work.

So we depend on developers effort which is sad because in my opinion the AI knob is just great.

3

Thanks for your input. Yes, the AI knob is fantastic and IMO one of the really big things that makes Cubase workflow so great. With UAD and Soundtoys plugins it is awesome, Waves also. I guess when it was a new thing maybe there was a bigger focus among developers to actually support it. But since there hasn’t been any new hardware with the AI knob for so long, maybe developers think that it is not being used anymore… Perhaps we should contact developers and urge them to implement it. I will contact Izotope for sure. (Love the Exponential Audio reverbs - but really wish they supported the AI knob!)