For Houston users

Before things get lost in the mists of time

Just things not in the manual

Hidden modes and calibration

After installing Houston there is one important thing that you must do. Houston’s faders are touch sensitive and the calibration of the touch sensitivity in important for correct operation.

Switch Houston OFF and hold down the ‘SEND MASTERS’ and ‘EQ1’ buttons.
Now Turn Houston ON and release the buttons - the unit will now perform its position and touch sensitivity calibration on all faders.
While this is in progress DO NOT touch the faders or the calibration results will be wrong. It is also a good idea to stand well back, while the faders are calibrated. It may sound dramatic, but does give the best results.

Once calibrated the unit retains these values, and this process only need be performed if the Houston is moved to a new environment, or there is a huge change is air humidity where the Houston is used. For instance, you should perform this calibration again if the table the Houston sits on is changed from a metal to a wooden one.

There is another ‘soak test’ which is available by holding down ‘Send Masters’ and ‘FX Send 1’ while powering up; this does a long test, whose function I’m not sure of, but it does give a chance to check all the LEDs are working properly on the unit. Finally, pressing ‘Send Masters’ and ‘EQs’ gives a mode which allows the readings from the soak test to be read, particularly the amount of time that was taken (shown in the top left corner).

Switch Houston OFF and hold down the ‘SEND MASTERS’ and ‘EQ2’
Another test mode

Hidden Commands

press + …

now you’re able to control the current funtion of the rotary control panorama with the faders.
(The rotary and fader swap funtion)

It works also with + while the “fx send X” is activated
then you can control the Aux-Sends with your Faders. (It’s really good for making Submixes for e.g. the singer pre cubase 4.5 (For another method for versions 4.5 and up see later in this post).

Or + while “inserts” is selected, then you can control the insert-FX parameters of the selectet channel with the faders…

“Shift”+“Undo” - “Edit”, “History”
“Shift”+“Save” - “File”, “Save New Version”
“Shift”+“Motors” - Fader/Encoder flip
“Shift”+“Bank Left” - one Channel Shift Left
“Shift”+“Bank Right” - one Channel Shift Right
“Shift”+“Rewind” - “Transport”, “Return to Zero”
“Shift”+“Forward” - “Transport”, “Goto End”
“Shift”+“Play” - Cycle on/off


New in SX3/ C4
Jog - Turn scrub while positioning on/off
“Shift”+“EQ” - EQ variant display (all parameter of one eq band in the
display + eq bypass)

operational changes for N2/SX2

  • 8 parameter per plugin
  • exchange parameter name and value for accessed parameter only in the
    display
  • show all input and output busses with (Bus fader bank), scroll
    through all of them
  • edit MIDI inserts on MIDI channels

From C4.5

Control room

[Dyn/User1]: Studio Send for selected channel (I use with an 8 stem submix system and fader reverse for fast even user controled headphone mixes)

• Page 01 – Level
• Page 02 – Enable
• Page 03 – Pre/Post
• Page 04 – Pan Left/Right

[User2]: Instrument for selected channel (Instrument
tracks and MIDI track to VSTi from the Rack)
• Page 1 – Select instrument
• Page 2-n – Instrument parameter

Fader Set Section:
• [Shift]+[FX Send1]: Studio Send 1
• [Shift]+[FX Send2]: Studio Send 2
• [Shift]+[FX Send3]: Studio Send 3
• [Shift]+[FX Send4]: Studio Send 4
• Page 1 – Level
• Page 2 – Enable
• Page 3 – Pre/Post
• Page 4 – Pan Left/Right

Best Wishes

Hippo

2 Likes

Hi Hippo!
I use a Houston, so thank you for this list. I need to do a recalibration for sure.
-Eric

I am looking for the Midi Implementation Codes for the Houston Controller to write a bit of code to use it with Pro Tools 9…

For anyone in the UK considering a HUI, there are currently Houston units listed on Ebay, one is currently sitting at £9.99… I picked mine up for the same price as the dreadful Behringer BCF unit and couldn’t be happier with it. It works nicely with N5, as well.

Regards,

John

Just an FYI to cubase users, I have a great condition Houston for sale. I’m in Sacramento CA. Asking $400 for it. Email me if interested.

chris@ctmsound.com

I would be VERY interested in this. Please keep me updated, thanks!

I noticed Fader 8 of my Houston is faulty. Also when I do the calibration, the Houston doesn’t recognize the position of Fader 8 properly. The fader goes up faster then the rest of the Faders. “Fader 8 gain out of range” is the error message.
Is there a way to fix this? Can I open up the unit and clean the fader to fix this? I’m a electronics engineer, so this shouldn’t be a problem…

I noticed a lot of people on a thread name "midi learn were using houstons but had 64 bit systems how do you achieve this?

just connect it via a midi interface :slight_smile:


I have a very nice Houston for sale if anyone’s interested.



MC

How do you setup/program the user buttons on the Houston?
thanks,

I know there is no support for this unit anymore. I want to put this in if anyone has the problem I got. The unit wasn’t working other then the Master fader and when running the fader test it would error. Unplugging it and letting it sit didn’t help either.

Here is the fix.
Unplug everything connected to it and power cable then take the fuse out. Let sit for 5 minutes and put fuse back in and then re-run the fader test.

I hope this helps you guys.

Thank you SO much for this!
I am a little disconcerted about why this information is a treasure hunt, though.
Why are things like this hidden?
Anyway, I just got my Houston yesterday and am pretty thrilled :smiley:
Paid $300 and everything works great with SX3.

I’m wondering about those User buttons up in both the Fader Set and Selected Channel matrices.
I don’t think I’ve encountered any info on how to make use of those.

I’ve got two UAD-1 PCI cards. I’m hoping to be able to control those somehow. That would be the best!

Perian

Does anyone know if it’s possible to control the Cubase Control Room section with the Houston? I’d like to control the Volume Knob, mono/stereo switch, Talkback buttons etc. etc.