DP 8 and external control surface (pre-sales question)

[shasha]

Hello, I am looking to put together a small home studio and am considering all the DAW's out there and DP is high on the list since I already have a MOTU 828MKIII interface. I figure that compatibility should be a non-factor if I keep it all in the family.

Anyway, I am looking to add an external controller here and I am thinking hard about buying an old Mackie Logic controller that has had the firmware updated to MCU. The big question (and apparent problem with a lot of DAW's out there) is whether it actually works completely.

Of importance to me are:

1. Touch automation works
2. Transport works correctly (the jog/shuttle knob is a primary concern)

If this hardware controller isn't going to work properly is there a recommended one that is motorized?

Thanks.

[Killahurts]

MCU works great in DP on the Mac side. Transport, etc. works fine. My controller (SSL Matrix) uses Mackie control, actually mimics an MCU.. only thing is, the buttons that control MCU functions in Logic are very different than the layout for DP. That's why you'll need the DP "overlay" with your controller, which is essentially a plastic sheet that goes over the buttons and shows what they actually do in DP.

The Matrix doesn't have overlays, which means I had to reprogram every button one at a time by hand, since the Mackie controllers all come out of the box prepared for Logic. Took me a month.

DP also has Eucon control (Avid), so you can get the Avid Artist controllers for DP as well. I used that for a while too.. Eucon is a newer and more robust controller platform than MCU, but there have always been issues with CPU performance when running MC Artist with DP, and the more you have, apparently the worse it gets (I had 4 MC Mix and 1 MC Control and it brought my 12 core to its knees!). Avid is not in a hurry to ever fix this, of course, because they think you should be using Pro Tools anyway.

You also have the "Open Sound" protocol available in DP, for iPad controllers/DP Control app, etc.

What's great is that in DP, you can use more than one of these protocols at a time! I use the DP Control app on my iPad, along with MCU and all is well.

[Dwetmaster]

Been using my MCU rIg with dp for almost ten. It's always one of the most reliable part of my setup. Everything works as expected.

But the shuttle function is not always the most practical. It is always dependent of the zoom level. So if you're zoomed in it's hard to move the playhead as it becomes too precise. Because of that, I rarely use the jog wheel.


Believe it or not, is the only thing I envy from logic. My jog wheel work so great in logic.

[shasha]

Thanks for the info. Funny that you bring up the whole AVID thing. I've been dealing with them on the video side for over 20 years now and we're finally moving away from them for most of our operations and I'm not going to miss them one bit. Don't get me wrong, the people that I've dealt with have always been fantastic, but the business model and upper management decisions have really grown tiresome. So basically anything with their label will not be in my house.

[Killahurts]

Believe it or not, is the only thing I envy from logic. My jog wheel work so great in logic.

I don't use the jog wheel much, but the one thing I envy about Logic with MCU is touch select (where simply touching the actual fader selects the track).. I've never been able to get that to work with DP and MCU, although my Artist controllers did with Eucon..

[bralston]

If you really want to take things "into the future" (So to speak)...DP works great with Neyrink's V-Control on the iPad as a DAW controller.

http://www.neyrinck.com/news/99-neyrinc ... -performer

[bralston]

Here is a better link.

http://www.neyrinck.com/v-control-pro-d ... enuTopjump

[Klaus]

Sorry to speak up...

The MCU protocol *ISN'T* working as expected.

I posted many times about the hardware playthru bug :

http://www.motunation.com/forum/viewtop ... ug#p439459

In short, the monitored levels when recording are *NOT*
equal the monitored levels when played back.

I start to wonder why this doesn't get fixed, since it dates at least from DP 4.61

Since the original question mentioned compatibility,
this is one 'noncompatibility'

And it's confirmed by others here on the list, and MotU
knows about it...

Take care

Klaus

[Dwetmaster]

Sorry to speak up...

The MCU protocol *ISN'T* working as expected.

Klaus

Hey Klaus, I'd like to understand how is HW playthru affected by the Mackie Control Surface. Do you mean, moving a fader on the mackie is not the same as moving it with the mouse?

I never use hardware playthru, I should investigate.

Thanks!

[shasha]

If you really want to take things "into the future" (So to speak)...DP works great with Neyrink's V-Control on the iPad as a DAW controller.

http://www.neyrinck.com/news/99-neyrinc ... -performer

Been looking at mobile device solutions and I do have a Droid laying around and tried out TouchDAW with another DAW I have. Was not really feeling it with the touch screen vs real hardware faders. I have really thick fingers (they're big boned) and it's not pleasant trying to do anything on a mobile device. I can swipe really good, but that's about it.

[Klaus]

Sorry to speak up...

The MCU protocol *ISN'T* working as expected.

Klaus

Hey Klaus, I'd like to understand how is HW playthru affected by the Mackie Control Surface. Do you mean, moving a fader on the mackie is not the same as moving it with the mouse?

I never use hardware playthru, I should investigate.

Thanks!

Maybe I should have replied 'DP and the MCU protocol isn't working as expected'

The MCU protocol works, but DP interprets it wrong when input monitoring / hardware playthru with Motu hardware is used to listen to the input signal.

- At unity gain all is fine
- lowering the fader by an amount, i.e 12 db, will lower the monitored input signal by half the fader reduction, > 6 db in this case.
Every setting of the fader will result in half the reduction of the actual input signal heard .
- playing back, all is fine.

If one wants to use only DP for a recording session - without Cuemix FX -
listening to a certain input mix during recording via hardware playthru / input monitoring,
and listening when played back isn't equal - thus.

Sounds like the programers 'just' have to clear out a factor of 2 somewhere

best

Klaus