This thread comes up in practically every single DAW forum in one form or another. IMHO this is a very real problem. Users want a hardware control surface that has a decent, say 8, number of motorized faders, decent scribble strip and EASY TO USE controls that duplicate keyboard/mouse clicks.
Q: Why is this so difficult to achieve?
A: Because the DAW software is a moving target.
As an example, the Alesis MasterControl, a real sleeper that never caught on due to poor marketing, has about 10 different pre-sets that you can choose from along with overlays like the MCU. You pick say Sonar and EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THOSE BUTTONS DOES WHAT IT SAYS IT WILL.
And that's key.
Now all is great assuming you are running Sonar 8.5. Move to X1 and now the EQ buttons (hardwired in the pre-set) are not working with the new ProChannel module and of course Alesis has no plans to update.
And there is the problem.
If you think Reaper has problems, head on over to the Presonus forum because your nice new MCU basically becomes a boat anchor with Studio One. Only the basics work.
The boys over there are using a program called " Bome's MIDI Translator" to customize things. Here is a video showing how it works.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrKPG...ayer_embedded#!
Reaper is actually one of the BEST at supporting the MCU and others via Klinke's plugin.
Klinke has brought control surfaces to life under Reaper.
As for Mackie, buy something else. My MCU is almost a year old and the blue scribble strip is already fading.
The Mackie forums are a graveyard as well.
They don't seem to care about the consumer anymore.