HUI & MCU

Published 2024-12-01.
Time to read: 5 minutes.

This page is part of the av_studio collection.

I have two Roland products that support MIDI:

I have not found much information on how to make Pro Tools work with these two products on Microsoft Windows. This article gathers all the information I could find about making Pro Tools on Windows work with these Roland products. Hopefully, something good will come of this.

Mackie Protocols

Two well-known protocols allow remote control of basic Pro Tools functions such as levels, panning, mutes/solos, and some plug-in features. They are called the Human User Interface (HUI) protocol and the Mackie Control Universal (MCU) protocol. These protocols have been around a long time: HUI was released in 1997 (27 years ago), and MCU was released in 2003 (21 years ago).

In 2010, Avid acquired Euphonix, the creator of the proprietary EuCon protocol. EuCon is not supported by MIDI devices, just by Avid control surfaces and tablet apps. For many years, EuCon was rather unreliable; however, that improved in October 2024.

While HUI and MCU are very similar, they are not identical or compatible. Mackie Control is a newer protocol than Mackie HUI and provides more options.

HUI

Originally developed jointly by Mackie and Digidesign (now Avid), the Human User Interface or HUI protocol is a means for non-Digidesign or Avid hardware (initially just the Mackie HUI controller), including some analog consoles, to have some basic control over Pro Tools, including levels, pans, and mutes, via a traditional 5-pin DIN MIDI connection (or more recently MIDI over Ethernet). Having become a standard control protocol, it does allow for additional control over some plug-in parameters via manual MIDI mapping, particularly with non-Avid software products. Although somewhat more limited in overall integration, and slower as a MIDI-based control protocol compared to EUCON (31.25 kbaud vs. up to 1 gigabaud), HUI does allow the added flexibility of DAW control from a range of high-end large-format analog (as well as digital) consoles.

Mackie Control

Developed by Mackie, Mackie Control is a proprietary control protocol used in conjunction with Mackie control surfaces. Like HUI, Mackie Control can be carried via a traditional 5-pin DIN MIDI, USB-MIDI, or MIDI over Ethernet connection. One of the advantages over HUI is that it eliminates manual MIDI mapping of parameters for extended parameter control, and allows for direct fader control of plug-ins. Some consoles, including analog consoles such as the SSL Duality, can take advantage of both HUI and Mackie Control protocols for their DAW control layer. Note that EUCON can be configured to work in HUI-emulation as well as Mackie Control modes, whereas a hardware Mackie controller that ordinarily uses Mackie Control must be run in HUI-emulation mode in order to work with Avid Pro Tools.

– Understanding Audio: Getting the Most Out of Your Project or Professional Recording Studio, 2nd Edition, page 280

With either HUI or MCU protocols, everything on the hardware is automatically mapped to on-screen controls. It's not like using a "dumb" fader/knob box where you have to manually set up how on-screen controls will correspond to hardware knobs by using the software's "learn" functions or whatever. That's kind of the whole point of HUI and MCU protocols - the DAW tells the hardware what parameters are available and the hardware does the rest.

– Mackie Control and HUI - what are they?

[The HUI] protocol was created by Mackie and Digidesign in 1997 for Mackie HUI, the first control surface for Pro Tools. HUI or Human User Interface allows for non-Avid/ Digidesign hardware such as the Mackie HUI to take control of basic features of Pro Tools such as faders, panning, mutes, solo, automation and some restricted plug-in control. HUI is a protocol that uses MIDI and is now a industry standard used very widely. Many hardware controllers/ consoles with a control surface layer such as the Yamaha DM2000, Novation Launchkey, SSL AWS900, etc use this protocol. Most if not all DAW software implement the HUI protocol.

– Taking Control of Pro Tools with a DAW Controller by ProToolsProduction

MCU Protocol is just a set of MIDI Messages and recommendations of how should the DAW interpret the MIDI Message.

So by default, the faders are sending PitchBend on Channel 1-9. By default, they control the Volume faders of the Channels 1-8 (plus the Master Fader on Channel 9). Then you have the Channel < and Channel> buttons. They should move the bank by 1 channel. If you press the Channel >, then the Bank is Channel 2-9, so the faders are controlling the Volume faders of channels 2-8. But this is the default setting. You can press the Flip button. Then the Faders are controlling the parameters, which were originally assigned to the V-Pots (encoders).

By default, the V-Pots are controlling the Pan. But you can press a button, to control the EQ, or the plug-ins parameters.

After the years, every single DAW modified the MCU to their needs. So the functions are not exactly the same in every DAW. But in general, they work similar.

And also every HW vendor modified the hardware itself. So some of them doesn’t have the full set of buttons or displays. So it might happen, some feature is not reachable from all hardware. There are some HW withuot the Navigation keys, some of them are missing the Track Selection buttons, some of them are missing the switcher to the Send levels, etc. Some of them are using only 1 channel, not the bank of 8 channels.

So yes, you are right. Not every hardware has to support all MCU features and functions.

If I’m not mistaken, to control the Channel Strip, you have to press the button, which was originally labeled as Dyn (on the original Cubase sheet). I can see the Dyn button on the SSL Nucleus. So after pressing this button, the encoders should control the Channel Strip the very same way, you do on your P1-M. If the Dyn button doesn’t do, what do you want to, try the Instrument button (this is the original Mackie Control label), please.

In any case, once you press the button, it should send the MIDI Note A2 at Channel 1. This is the button, which switches the Encoders to control the Channel Strip in Cubase (at any Mackie Control device).

– Noobie trying to understand - MCU Protocol

Pro Tools Works With HUI, Not MCU

I was at first unclear if Roland products support HUI protocol and / or MCU protocol. This sentence made it clear that HUI is required for Pro Tools:

Note that units that run Mackie Control must be used in HUI-emulation mode with Pro Tools.

– Taking Control of Pro Tools with a DAW Controller by ProToolsProduction

I found proof that Pro Tools in November 2024 still supports HUI and not MCU.

See the November 19, 2024, edition of Pro Tools Intro, Artist, Studio and Ultimate System Requirements and Compatibility for more information.

Old Advice, Now Invalid

According to the information I have found, the following old page is now completely false.

We are in the difficult situation where HUI hasn’t been officially supported since Pro Tools 11 but remains in the ‘Not Officially Supported (Untested)’ category in the Pro Tools Compatibility documents.

Our advice is don’t try and mix Eucon and HUI based control surfaces on the same system, stick to one or the other.

We recommend that you disable Eucon if you are only using HUI based control surfaces.

– Using a HUI Based Control Surface With Pro Tools? You Must Read This by Production Expert, 2019.

References

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