The problem is the same. It is you who have rediscovered it. This issue is ALWAYS due to routing!

When you say the Knobs are stuck, we take it to mean the red lights that surround it are not moving when you turn the Knob.
This will happen to when you are *no longer in MIDI communication with the MIDI Channel of the Part the Assign Knob belong*.
Additionally, the MW, PB Wheel, Pan, Volume, Sustain Pedal, Foot Controller, etc, assigned to the Part you are attempting to control, are also NOT WORKING. I guess you think it is just the Assign Knob, but in fact, you likely are not even hearing those Parts.

Each of the 16 Parts has its own 8 Assign Knob. They will move when you properly *select* the Part and ensure the routing - to and from Cubase.
Each of the 16 Parts are likely on their own MIDI Channel, 1-16; the Channel number matches there Part number.

When Local Control = Off (normal during DAW MIDI Track Record, and Arp Record), you must complete the routing circuit from the Part (or Parts) to its MIDI Track and back to the Part. When you see the Knob are stuck, see it as an error in returning the MIDI signal back to the MONTAGE Part you wish to trigger.

If you *select* a specific Part… say you *select* “Part 8”, the MIDI data of its AssignKnob will travel to Cubase on Channel 8. You must *select* the MIDI Track in Cubase designated to record and return data on Channel 8. When you do Part 8 will be heard, the MW will work, the PB Wheel will work, the Foot Controller will work, the Pan will work, the Slider will work, and naturally the Assign Knob for Part 8 will all work.
Make sure [ASSIGN] is lit — the Knobs are NOT Assign Knobs unless the [ASSIGN] light is illuminated.

The Super Knob will work any time you are communicating with a Track set to receive its data (usually Channel 1).

If you are in a Performance with multiple KBD CTRL parts linked, you need only select any one of them or place the cursor over the Performance Name (called HOME) — it is under these conditions that the MONTAGE transmits on all the channels represented as KBD CTRL-linked.

If you still cannot correct this… please give details:
What Part?
What Performance?
On what MIDI Channel #s?
To which Cubase Track, on which MIDI Channel #?

Hi Bad Mister, I am doing all these things. MW, PB Wheel, Pan, Sustain Pedal, Foot Controller are working. part Volume is not working. The knobs aren´t working. Something is totally messed up again and I cannot figure out how to get my new Cubase Elements 11 to work.... the driver is now called Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO. Is this even the right driver?

I´m trying with a single part performance right now, Dance Synth MW DA. I have one midi track with all channels, os with midi 1, it doesn´t matter, never works..

when I said assignable knobs, what I really meant if I want to play around with cutoff, resonance and so on, so I suppose I need to press the TONE button and not ASSIGN.

UPDATE: CUBASE ELEMENTS 11 is not working. I tried with Cubase 10, all the knobs work. the settings are the same. So how do I make this work in Cubase elements 11? here some screenshots of the settings. I cannot figure out what is going on here,. once again. BTW the superknob recording doesn´t work either. If I exctract the automation I can see the superknob movements have been recorded, but they aren´t playing back. basically, nothing works with Elements 11 cos I cannot set it up. the "setup" interface has changed and therefore the old Montage - Cubase setup tutorials don´t help me anymore. what can I do now?

Hi Bad Mister, I am doing all these things. MW, PB Wheel, Pan, Sustain Pedal, Foot Controller are working. part Volume is not working. The knobs aren´t working. Something is totally messed up again and I cannot figure out how to get my new Cubase Elements 11 to work.... the driver is now called Yamaha Steinberg USB ASIO. Is this even the right driver?

when you do any updates, the folks who create those updates be they the DAW software folks, the writer’s of the Driver, or the computer manufacturer… they issue documentation. No one reads them (or so it seems) — just realize if you don’t, you may miss such changes in how things are referred to. Yes, that is the correct Driver.

when I said assignable knobs, what I really meant if I want to play around with cutoff, resonance and so on, so I suppose I need to press the TONE button and not ASSIGN.

When I said step on the pedal, what I really meant was I wanted you to step on the BRAKE, Ooops! 🙂

When you press TONE, to get the “Cutoff” Knob, it tells you what Cutoff it is… is it addressing “Common” or a specific “Part”?

All kidding aside, and to answer the question, No, you could use either TONE or ASSIGN… you can actually assign an Assignable Knob to control a specific Filter, or any combinations of active Filters… remember each Element has its own Filter… the CUTOFF in the TONE section will either Offset all Filters in the entire Performance (when “Common” is indicated) or all Filters in the designated Part (a “Part #” is indicated).

UPDATE: CUBASE ELEMENTS 11 is not working. I tried with Cubase 10, all the knobs work. the settings are the same. So how do I make this work in Cubase elements 11? here some screenshots of the settings. I cannot figure out what is going on here,. once again. BTW the superknob recording doesn´t work either. If I exctract the automation I can see the superknob movements have been recorded, but they aren´t playing back. basically, nothing works with Elements 11 cos I cannot set it up. the "setup" interface has changed and therefore the old Montage - Cubase setup tutorials don´t help me anymore. what can I do now?

First screenshot is wrong! You do not want a check mark next to Port 2, in the “In ’All MIDI Inputs’” column, please remove it. You only want Port 1 to have access to the Inputs of your MIDI Track (and while this will not fix your issue, it will prevent others from arising, trust me).

Contact Steinberg… your MONTAGE IS working… they will be able to tell you what is different between Cubase 10, and your current Cubase Elements 11. At least give them a chance… you have a MySteinberg Account… use it! They have people waiting to hear from you!

there is definitely something wrong with the connection between the Montage and the PC, cos it works at random. the issue I described (not being able to move the knobs) didn´t work all day and then suddenly it did, without me making any changes to the setup. not stable means not working, really. if I cannot rely on it, then it´s not working. period.

Until you admit to yourself what you don’t understand, and that it is NOT magically suddenly working, but the problem is that you are really not sure what should happen.

At first you were trying to extract [ASSIGN] knob data, then it’s TONE Knob data. Admit it, you are not sure what data you are attempting to work with. You don’t refer to the MIDI messages Expression CC11, Cutoff/Brightness CC74, Resonance/Harmonic Content CC71.

Do you know how to view and identify the Control Change messages in the Cubase Editor?
Are you in touch with Steinberg through your MySteinberg Account? You never answered (or it’s in another thread — that’s getting very confusing to follow.
Do you think it is a bad idea to contact them? Or what? Have you already burned that bridge?

Let us know… it is not really that hard, and since you seem to admit here in this thread “it works at random”… in my experience, that is never the case. It works when used properly.

Give us the step-by-step of you recording a Track and then extracting the Automation. Instead of just saying it doesn’t work again… try writing down exactly what you’re doing, step-by-step, I bet someone will see exactly where you go off the rails! Try it.

And please use just one thread, I thought you gave your MONTAGE away, then I read “it works…” — which is it?
Try using one thread, please. I’m beginning to see why you have difficulty with this stuff…

I am about to start thinking about what "extracting the Automation" might mean and what could it possibly add to my music.

To step back a second - you've recently updated. You stated your settings are not carried over. That's probably it. A setting.

You say some things are working (pitch bend, mod wheel, etc) and some things are not. Although you are not fully descriptive with what is not working - I have to make some inferences. I say not fully descriptive because the knobs do not always send the same kinds of MIDI messages. Sometimes CC - sometimes SysEx. Even when in [TONE] mode - it depends on which level is selected (an individual Part or the entire Performance).

So let me make the possibly incorrect assumption that your problem is only with MIDI messages sent by Montage that are SysEx and that's it. Any message which is NOT SysEx I therefore would assume is working.

Check the settings - make sure SysEx is not filtered.

Preferences -> MIDI
https://steinberg.help/cubase_elements/v11/en/cubase_nuendo/topics/preferences/preferences_midi_midi_filter_r.html?hl=midi%2Cfilter

Although not updated for more recent versions of Cubase - check out:

https://yamahasynth.com/learn/montage/mastering-montage-getting-started-cubase

Notice the section: "CUBASE MIDI SETUP" where it details to uncheck the SysEx filter.

Double-check the other configuration suggestions and ensure you have everything correctly prepared.

Good point! Jason! It’s fairly obvious although the claim is “nothing changed”…some thing or some basic setting is being missed.
That certainly was Gabi’s issue back on Nov 19, 2019… Super Knob Sysex
Link— https://www.yamahasynth.com/ask-a-question/cubase-and-assignable-knob-recording-problems

From the Getting Started article…..

CUBASE MIDI SETUP
In Cubase, let's make some fundamental Preference changes to prepare the program for the type of data that MONTAGE transmits. Cubase Preferences are settings you make within the program to tailor it to how you most often work. These are personal preferences and will be memorized so they only really need to be made once (not each time you use the program). They can be changed if you develop a new workflow. You maybe a long time user of Cubase, but lets see what changes, if any, might need to be made to your current workflow.

If you are on a Windows computer you find your Preference by going to FILE > Preferences
If you are on a Macintosh computer you find your Preferences by going to CUBASE > Preferences

In your Cubase "Preferences" > MIDI > MIDI FILTER

Make sure you remove the Filter check mark from SysEx for both Record and Thru.
Click APPLY
Click OK

It is the normal default for Cubase to filter System Exclusive data from being recorded, with MONTAGE, in particular, you will want to activate this feature because the Super Knob and several other control knobs stream Parameter Change messages (Sysex) - very exclusive to the Montage system! You will want to record their messages to capture every nuances of your performing with Montage. In many instances it is these PARAMETER CHANGE functions that make MONTAGE different from your other synths. If you've been used to using cc74 for example to change the CUTOFF FREQUENCY of the attached synthesizer's filter, you quickly start to realize that Filter movement can be so very specific that you can (via Parameter Change) be addressing just the FILTER assigned to ELEMENT 4 of PART 7 which could be opening, while the same controller gesture is closing the FILTER assigned to ELEMENT 2 of PART 3... just as an example. Parameter Change messages are System Exclusive.

This is part of how MONTAGE does its magic. If your Super Knob moves are not being recorded this Filtering of the messages could be the cause.

You can opt to filter, or not, Aftertouch. This will depend on whether or not the Performance includes this control category. If your Performance does not use this control message you may want to avoid it filling up your event list unnecessarily.

I am about to start thinking about what "extracting the Automation" might mean and what could it possibly add to my music.

it´s necessary to correct the automation. just like you correrct a note here and there when you made a mistake.

Until you admit to yourself what you don’t understand, and that it is NOT magically suddenly working, but the problem is that you are really not sure what should happen.

At first you were trying to extract [ASSIGN] knob data, then it’s TONE Knob data. Admit it, you are not sure what data you are attempting to work with. You don’t refer to the MIDI messages Expression CC11, Cutoff/Brightness CC74, Resonance/Harmonic Content CC71.

Do you know how to view and identify the Control Change messages in the Cubase Editor?
Are you in touch with Steinberg through your MySteinberg Account? You never answered (or it’s in another thread — that’s getting very confusing to follow.
Do you think it is a bad idea to contact them? Or what? Have you already burned that bridge?

Let us know… it is not really that hard, and since you seem to admit here in this thread “it works at random”… in my experience, that is never the case. It works when used properly.

Give us the step-by-step of you recording a Track and then extracting the Automation. Instead of just saying it doesn’t work again… try writing down exactly what you’re doing, step-by-step, I bet someone will see exactly where you go off the rails! Try it.

And please use just one thread, I thought you gave your MONTAGE away, then I read “it works…” — which is it?
Try using one thread, please. I’m beginning to see why you have difficulty with this stuff…

Thank you for your answers, and of course I admit that I don´t undertstand. I am a musician and not a midi expert. Just one thing I would like to know before I attempt to try to understand the answers here, which has nothing to do with how I record something in Cubase and what I possibly did wrong: can the TONE automation curves from songs recorded with the Montage sequencer be extracted in Cubase Elements: yes or no. My personal experience has been: no. Just wanna make sure this is the way it is so I can let go of that dream.

Most of what you need to have retained is already explained here: https://yamahasynth.com/ask-a-question/cubase-pro-10-advantages-with-montage/?start=20

CC messages are easy to automate and manipulate.

SysEx I do not believe can be easily manipulated like CC - although you can separate them from the rest of your data which can be useful.

[TONE] we're talking about 8 knobs here. In different modes - some [TONE] knobs create CC and some don't. Those knobs that generate CC can be easily automated. Those that send SysEx cannot. Look at that old message - you've already recorded and displayed SysEx with Cubase before. You can recognize what that data looks like and it's a lot different from CC. Then spin tone knobs and see what data you get. I could point you to other messages that map out what all of the knobs give you in every mode - but it's better to figure out how to get there on your own. To use Cubase itself as a tool to discover what data you're dealing with.

You cannot automate everything. You can automate CC. Not everything generates a CC. It's not random - it's the same rules every time and unique to Montage/MODX's particular implementation. The same goes for any keyboard. You'll find a different set of knobs on some other keyboard that elects to send/receive SysEx or some non-CC message in order to control or be controlled.

First thing is to make sure you're not filtering SysEx so you can even use the tool fully.

You don't have to - but I employ MIDI Monitors. There are DAW plug-ins and standalone (free). They show you the real-time activity on the MIDI bus and which commands are being sent. You can turn a knob and visually see if it's CC (0xB# messages) or SysEx (0xF0 messages). I use this to more quickly see what the instrument is communicating and typically use stand-alone tools. MIDI-OX for Windows, any number of free monitors for iOS, or Snoize MIDI Monitor for Mac.

it´s necessary to correct the automation. just like you correrct a note here and there when you made a mistake.

Just FYI. This can be easily accomplished in the MONTAGE’s internal Performance Recorder… both MIDI Song and Pattern.

Added in Firmware 3.50… from the Supplementary Manual …
Overdubbing
You can now use real-time overdubbing to record your Controller actions while deleting previous Controller events. This makes it easier to perform overdubbing using the Controller.
NOTE: You can now perform the same operation for overdubbing MIDI songs as well.

___ This newly added feature allows you to replace just your specific Controller moves. You place the Performance Recorder in REC TYPE = OVERDUB so as not to erase your Note performance… but if you engage a Controller from that moment forward you are replacing the previous controller movement. Back in the day, we referred to this as “updating” the existing automation.
___ Say you like everything except your MW movement between measures 6 and 11, by engaging OVERDUB, you can start updating by engaging the MW starting at measure 6… this will replace your previous MW movement.
If you don’t like your first attempt in “updating” you can Undo, and try another. Sweet!

BTW — Only musicians use MIDI (It’s almost 100% musicians) — the “M” in MIDI is actually, musical.
Yes, a few lighting people and DJ’s use MIDI but they are musicians at heart or musicians trying to do lighting! 🙂

…can the TONE automation curves from songs recorded with the Montage sequencer be extracted in Cubase Elements: yes or no.

Yes.
Again, clearly Steinberg would be able to tell you what features are in each version of the software. So I’ll mention it again (not expecting a response) but have you reached out to Steinberg via your MySteinberg Account, or via email, or in the Cubase Forum? There are videos on most Cubase features… the fact that they originated on the MONTAGE is completely inconsequential. Automation can be extracted from Cubase MIDI Tracks no matter where they originated.

A function like extracting Automation is in all versions, as far as I know.
Go to MIDI > FUNCTIONS > Extract MIDI Automation

If you see this option, then naturally, you can… extract MIDI Automation.
The different Controller (CC) messages that you have recorded will appear in an Automation Lane… (if you are not seeing them, it means you have not selected to “Show Automation” or you have not selected the option to show a lane for the Controller you recorded.

“Show/Hide Automation” is at the lower left corner of each MIDI Track — move your mouse in the space directly below the 5-pin MIDI icon to see the “Show/Hide” option.
Click it to add an Automation lane.
Need a second, click in the lower left side of the first Automation Lane to create another, and so on.

I have done all that: "extract automation" and "show automation". sometimes nothing happens sometimes automation tracks with curves are generated but the automation does not play back, and sometimes it actually does play back. I can ask Steinberg, but what am I going to ask them really? Yes, Cubase Elements has this feature.. There is "extract automation" and "display automation". Thank you all for your answers, I will study all of them and maybe I will eventually figure it out. Or maybe not. If not then I´ll do what works and overdub the animation. That has always worked, for some reason. We can close this chapter now. Thank you.

... there is no "the" [TONE] curves since support for CC is spotty. Depending on the mode the [TONE] knobs - there are a few that can be automated. Automation is not available for SysEx which many of the Knobs will be sending when the [TONE] button is lit.

I wouldn't as readily say "yes" - because there's a good chance the knobs you want to automate - like you can with CC - are not sending messages that are supported by automation curves.

https://steinberg.help/cubase_elements/v11/en/cubase_nuendo/topics/midi_processing/midi_processing_midi_automation_extract_t.html?hl=sysex%2Cautomation

If you weren't able to produce automation curves from these knobs - then it is likely because the knobs you were turning are SysEx.

SysEx is recorded - but not editable in any reasonable way. Not even with the Pro version. I see this as the general trend in the industry.