Q: Why am I having to switch banks every 8 tracks while using the FaderPort with my DAW?
A: In certain DAW software, it is required to use the Mackie HUI protocol to interface with the FaderPort. The HUI protocol was designed by Mackie to operate with their specific controller hardware which has eight faders, so by design, HUI deals with tracks or channels in banks of eight. Because of this design, it is not possible to select tracks with the mouse that are outside the "bank" of eight that your current faderport-controlled track is in without switching banks. The following DAWs require HUI support with the FaderPort:
- Ableton Live
- Cubase (64-bit mode only on Mac)
- Nuendo (64-bit mode only on Mac)
- Pro Tools
In these DAWs, it is necessary to use the Faderport Bank Select function to switch between banks when needing to select and control a track outside of the current bank of eight.
Note: You'll notice that if you click on any one track in the current bank with the mouse, the Faderport focus follows, but once you click outside that particular bank, the track will be selected in your DAW, but the Faderport is not focused on that track.
When this occurs, press the Bank button, switch to the desired bank, then select the track with your mouse. Alternately, you can press the Bank button again to go back to Channel mode, then use the channel select buttons to switch to the target track.
