Good control surface for plugins?

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 8:59 pm

It's driving me nuts to use the mouse for software instruments. The simpleton approach to some of DP's own instruments leads me to believe a control surface would be a great benefit. Plus, having some real sliders would be nice!

What options do I have for a control surface? I'm guessing Mackie Control Universal, HUI, or Radikal SAC 2.2. The Novation Remote SL looks cool but doesn't directly support DP and may work in HUI mode I gues.

Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks.

Mark

mikebeckmotu · Post by **mikebeckmotu** » Mon Oct 23, 2006 9:51 pm

Native Instruments Kore, maybe?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 1:15 am

This is a two-fold issue here:

1. HUI Control of DP
2. Parameter control for VIs and plugins

Finding an all-in-one solution is not an easy one, but settng up a DAW layer on a mixer is probably easier than dealing with a possible 127 CC# for any given plugin.

NI Kore is great-- for NI Kore rather than a universal plugin controller.

For DP:

1. Mackie Control
http://www.mackie.com/products/mcu/

2. Frontier Design Alpha Track
http://www.sweetwater.com/images/items/AlphaTrack.jpg

3. PreSonus Fadeport
http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/fit,32 ... 405893.jpg

--- then there are some other solutions which have their pros and cons: price and bulk topping the list.

4. Mack d8B-- combo HUI for DP, mixer, etc. (available only as refurb)

5. Tascam DM 3200/4800 mixers: come with DAW layers including those for DP.

For plugins:

1. Behringer BCR2000-- KNOBS
http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/fit,32 ... 4d9bb5.jpg

2. Behringer BCR2000--FADERS (with a few knobs)
http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/fit,32 ... 769537.jpg

3. Evolution UC33
http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/fit,32 ... b58f61.jpg

Slightly OT--

It sort of gets me that Garage Band now has its own control surface especially designed for it, but DP does not!

http://cachepe.zzounds.com/media/fit,32 ... feba2e.jpg

I may have to design a DP-only control surface myself!!

BKK-OZ · Post by **BKK-OZ** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 2:21 am

I recently got the Novation Remote 61 sl - it has keys as well as lotsa buttons and knobs. They also now have the 'zero' which has no keys - just the other controllers.

I can say I am pretty happy with the 61sl, although the manual is worse than useless- it reads as tho they wrote it in Chinese and then just put it thru babblefish for the translation. They haven't got their automap/templates working for anything I use other than Guru, but on the whole, its a solid, well-designed thingy.

The cheapest solution is the Behringer device - they have been out for awhile so I imagine you could e-bay one.

(Don't get mad Mr Frodo, that way leads to the dark side... oh wait.... I think I am mixing up my mythologies.)

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 2:31 am

BKK-OZ wrote:(Don't get mad Mr Frodo, that way leads to the dark side... oh wait.... I think I am mixing up my mythologies.)

LOL. Same story, different day.

jlaudon · Post by **jlaudon** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:14 am

How about the CME Bitstream 3x?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 4:54 am

jlaudon wrote:How about the CME Bitstream 3x?

32 assignable knobs, 8 assignable faders, 16 assignable buttons

13,000 presets, 100 snapshot scenes

LFO

Backlit graphic display window

Transport control

No slouch, this one. Nice call, j!

jlaudon · Post by **jlaudon** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:09 am

MOTU - take note!

I figure since MOTU does hardware so well, they might even have a control surface in the works - maybe it would even have an audio interface built in with at least a couple Hd192 quality pres, and onboard DSP like the Saffire (not just no-latency monitoring, but the ability to use plugins as you record as well, either for monitoring and/or recording aliong with the track), mainly configured for DP (and M5, etc...) but usable with other DAWs as well.

Whadyathink?

Resonant Alien · Post by **Resonant Alien** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:41 am

jlaudon wrote:MOTU - take note!

I figure since MOTU does hardware so well, they might even have a control surface in the works - maybe it would even have an audio interface built in with at least a couple Hd192 quality pres, and onboard DSP like the Saffire (not just no-latency monitoring, but the ability to use plugins as you record as well, either for monitoring and/or recording aliong with the track), mainly configured for DP (and M5, etc...) but usable with other DAWs as well.

Whadyathink?

That would be so logical and make so much sense.....sure bet they won't do it

(Just kidding)

I would actually be happy if MOTU would update the driver of the Mackie MCU to fix some minor issues there, and also come out with a driver for the Mackie C4. The Mackies are great units, and the C4 would be awesome for controlling plugs if only it worked with DP.

MarkH · Post by **MarkH** » Tue Oct 24, 2006 5:17 pm

Resonant Alien wrote:The Mackies are great units, and the C4 would be awesome for controlling plugs if only it worked with DP.

Thanks for all the replies.

The C4 is sort of the "dream" instrument control surface if DP supported it. I'm guessing Mackie was expecting more companies to support the C4 which is why they now have a PC/Mac application to manually map the C4 knobs to MIDI paramters. I think Logic and Tracktion are the only DAWs to natively support the C4.

I'm still not sure what I'll go with. Tranzport seems like it takes care of most of the hands on control for navigating around and controlling the DAW.

Even though the Novation Remote SL doesn't support DP directly, I know they have Automap 2.0 which supports HUI for Pro Tools, which technically means it should work in DP too? Can you still control plugin instruments too?

Resonant Alien · Post by **Resonant Alien** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:54 am

MarkH wrote:I'm guessing Mackie was expecting more companies to support the C4 which is why they now have a PC/Mac application to manually map the C4 knobs to MIDI paramters. I think Logic and Tracktion are the only DAWs to natively support the C4.

I didn't know about the mapping application. Do you know anyone who has used it and if it works with DP?

monkey man · Post by **monkey man** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 8:39 am

jlaudon wrote:MOTU - take note!
I figure since MOTU does hardware so well, they might even have a control surface in the works - maybe it would even have an audio interface built in with at least a couple Hd192 quality pres, and onboard DSP like the Saffire (not just no-latency monitoring, but the ability to use plugins as you record as well, either for monitoring and/or recording aliong with the track), mainly configured for DP (and M5, etc...) but usable with other DAWs as well.
Whadyathink?

I share this dream, jlaudon. Been waiting years, myself.
For me, it would tip the scales in favour of going exclusively ITB.
You'd think MOTU would be able to "do it right".
M

jlaudon · Post by **jlaudon** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:45 pm

monkey man wrote: I share this dream, jlaudon. Been waiting years, myself.
For me, it would tip the scales in favour of going exclusively ITB.
You'd think MOTU would be able to "do it right".
M

Forgive my ignorance - what is ITB? (it's probably something simple, like half the DP problems i come across, but need someone else to tell me - sure is good there are other people in this world

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:52 pm

jlaudon wrote:
monkey man wrote: I share this dream, jlaudon. Been waiting years, myself.
For me, it would tip the scales in favour of going exclusively ITB.
You'd think MOTU would be able to "do it right".
M
Forgive my ignorance - what is ITB? (it's probably something simple, like half the DP problems i come across, but need someone else to tell me - sure is good there are other people in this world

ITB stands for 'in the box'. It refers to the process of keeping all the audio on the computer and using only external controllers rather than using external signal processing or other external audio routing.

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Wed Oct 25, 2006 6:55 pm

MarkH's sig wrote: 30" Cinema

Hoooooo, baby!!

That's a nice peeper, the 30".