What Control Surface Do You Use?

I've used the Mackie MCU but I need to purchase a system for a new job. What's good out there now? Is the Mackie still the best. I've seen that the Tascam 1082 works as an analog mixer too. Is it as fast and accurate as the Mackie?

Thanks!

I have only used the original Mackie once on a gig and I liked it. I do know that Mackie has just realeased a new series of control surfaces (a Main mixer, 8 channel extender, and an all knob/plug in board) So you might want to look at that.
I think the Tascams were problematic at first but they worked hard to make them work well with FCP. I am not a fan of the idea of having to choose a board for audio and control as one will always be a compromise. For that reason I won't be using the Tascams as both.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

I wonder whether any Control Surface things are changed in FCP 6? Maybe more buttons will be enabled!

I tried an M-Audio Ozone USB-- it actually moved ONE of the track sliders. lol

Pretty lame.

- Loren
Today's FCP 4 / 5 keytip:
Preview unrendered effects with Option-P or Option-Backslash!

The FCP KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I bought the Tascam 1084 as it has 2 midi i/o ports built in & so can control Motion as well as sound mixer in FCP & Soundtrack Pro. The flying faders are noise free Track select Solo & Mute work fine. Can get the Pan to work on all tracks if you use the Cubase control rather than Mackie.

Dave

I was very pleased with Tascam FW-1082 that I used for a while.

Would love to discover increased control / support for extended functions with FCP6. I remember that the jog/shuttle functionality was limited to jog only, which bugged me a bit

[www.tascam.com]

hey, Loren.

i use the cheap-as-chips Behringer BC2000.

at first i couldn't get it to work,
then discovered that i had to set the Control Surface Type to Logic, not Mackie
(in Tools Menu > Control Surfaces)


nick

It ain't cheap by a long shot but this
[www.jazzmutant.com]
is my hearts desire.
With the addition of Colour to FCS2, one of the next steps to getting high end colourists to even slightly consider ever using something as (I am quoting )"mickey mouse" as FCS to grade a movie will be the controls.
When you se how many knobs and trackballs there are on a DaVinci or it's equivalent and see how fast good colourists can work it's unlikely they'd want to do the same amount of work with a mouse.
A flexible control surface like the Lemur would be amazing if it could be a audio mixer one moment and a plug-in controller the next.
So slick...

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

Mackie is great - expensive - but great - and you can switch from 8 to 16 channels on the 8 channel board we have on the fly if you are mixing more than 8 at once. use it for our final mixes...just great for finessing a good mix without having to stop and start and stop again with the on screen mixer -- record your keyframes on the fly -- if it's not right hit undo and make another try. Andy

>I was very pleased with Tascam FW-1082
Myself as well, funny it works great with FCP, Soundtrack Pro, Motion but I have had not too much luck using it with Logic Express.

------------------------
Dean

"When I see you floating down the gutter I'll give you a bottle of wine."
Captain Beefheart, Trout Mask Replica.

Hey, Nick -

[i use the cheap-as-chips Behringer BC2000. ]

I will look at that. Already use a cute MX602A mixbox. I LIKE matched accessories!

[at first i couldn't get it to work,
then discovered that i had to set the Control Surface Type to Logic, not Mackie
(in Tools Menu > Control Surfaces) ]

Noted! That makes sense, I hear tell Mackie and Behringer are mortal enemies.

- Loren
Today's FCP 4 / 5 keytip:
Preview unrendered effects with Option-P or Option-Backslash!

The FCP KeyGuide?: your power placemat.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Control surfaces on Color are not a problem at all:
Tangent Devices CP-100
Tangent Devices CP-200

There's also the JL Cooper devices but it's unlikely that a high-end colourist would be happy with those, they are nowhere near the quality (or indeed price) of the Tangent stuff.

Martin Baker
[www.digital-heaven.co.uk]
Unique plug-ins and tools for Apple Pro Apps

Wow, those Tangent devices are slick. I have never seen one. What's their market penetration like?
Uses ethernet like the Lemur device. I wonder if they're any use on non-Colour plug-ins in FCP?

Trackpads
Mixer control surface
Colour control surface
Trackball
Mouse
Keyboard
I need a new desk....

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

you know, I was aware that theMCS Spectrum would work with Final Touch, and also that a similar model was an option for Color Finesse 2, but I didn't know it would work as is with FCP (5) ... is this for real?

this little snippet from [www.4rfv.co.uk]

"The JLCooper MCS-Spectrum colour grading panel now connects directly to Final Cut Pro to create possibly the most cost-effective pro colour grading system currently available.

The MCS-Spectrum features the traditional triple trackball and ring interface allowing, for the first time, quick and intuitive adjustments to the Hue, Saturation and Value settings of Dark, Mid-range and Bright pixel via the dedicated three-way colour correction tab in the Final Cut viewer.

This powerful new capability may be further enhanced with the editing and timeline control of the MCS-3000 or editing, timeline and fader control of the MCS-3800. Control systems for Final Cut Pro can be built using MCS-Spectrum alone or as a pair either of the MCS-3000 or MCS-3800 controllers to give the maximum capability for the most demanding professional editor."

anybody know anything about this, or can confirm or deny?

Andrew Kines Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> It ain't cheap by a long shot but this
> [www.jazzmutant.com]
> is my hearts desire.
...
> So slick...

My dear lord! Thank you for directing us to that. I haven't experienced gear lust like this for years.

EDIT:

It would be great if everyone posted up the model # along with the brand of mixer/control surface.

Does anyone use the Novation Remote SL 0?

It would be good to know if thias works as a much cheaper alternative to the Mackie Control.

Cheers,
Daryl

i saw you other post on that, Daryl.
should have replied there, but anyway here you go...

seems to me that's only faders on that?
do want to be able to drive FCP as well?

daryl Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Does anyone use the Novation Remote SL 0?
>
> It would be good to know if thias works as a much
> cheaper alternative to the Mackie Control.

Daryl, if you are talking about the recently released version of the Mackie Control unit, the base unit costs over a grand and the add on modules, I believe, are in the $800 range. The Novation ReMOTE 0 SL that you speak is in the $300 range. Both are very different in terms of practicality and use. I have experience with the ReMOTE 0 SL and have spent a long time thinking about getting the Mackie Control unit along with other MIDI control surfaces particularly with motorized faders.

If you are a musician the ReMOTE 0 SL is great because you can add it to your desk and it takes minimal screen real estate, as it can straddle an LCD monitor stand (base). The Auto Mapping feature is theoretically good, in practice it is OK. Some apps are recognized right away and others not. Also if you are new to MIDI controllers doing custom mapping well and with a confidence has a relatively steep learning curve. MIDI is really arcane and the tools to upload to controllers are arcane as well and finally the way in which you do things is highly non-intuitive to a beginner. You will not find a lot of hand holding material on the net to program your ReMOTE unit, although Novation has not bad (not good) FAQ's on their site.

If you are thinking about the ReMOTE 0 SL and don't have a MIDI keyboard, you might as well get the ReMOTE 25 (or 37) SL which includes a high quality but small keyboard. Dollars to donuts if you are getting into MIDI say to use the MIDI stuff in Apple's Motion you will find yourself wanting to get into synth noodling before long. MIDI will lead you down that path almost without a doubt.

I am not quite sure where you are coming from with your controller needs so I have thrown out a few ideas here.

The Mackie Control unit is relatively expensive compared to virtually everything else on the market. It is JUST a MIDI controller and not an audio mixer with analogue ins, outs and send/returns and it takes up gobs of real estate on your desk. It looks sweet but it is aimed at a really serious pretty much dedicated audio production environment that is focused on MIDI based instrumentation. The ReMOTE is cheap, takes up little desk space and can be thrown into a knapsack if you are a gigging musician or a road warrior that does video and sound design.

Hope this helps.

-Andrew

Thanks Andrew for your most informative reply.

What you wrote settles the Mackie question.

The only other unit to compare with now is the Behringer BCF2000 which is both cheaper than the Novation models (both 0 SL and 25 SL), and has motorised faders which the Novation doesn't have.

Otherwise the Novation is looking good.

One hiccup with bother the Behringer and the Novation is that which you mentioned: the Midi custom mapping of the controller.

Have you had any experience with the BCF2000?

Many thanks,
Daryl

No not the BCF2000. I have heard it is good bang for the buck. I seem to recall the product is end of life meaning they will be blowing them out. I could be wrong on that but something tells me I heard this a couple of weeks ago.

Sure looks like a good unit. Behringer gets slagged a lot by some musicians as being low brow product but the reality is that some of their stuff is really high quality and stoopid cheap. An obvious example of how offshore manufacturing benefits the consumer.

You know if it is cheap enough it might be worth just buying it. Seems to me at worst the sliders and pots might oxidize and get noisy within a couple of years but it is cheap, so...

Did you see the other post about the X-Station which is more expensive but does so much more?

hey, Daryl.

i have a Behringer BCF2000.
works fine for my needs, which are very simple:
faders only
haven't mapped the pots to anything.
i assume they're mapped to panning, by default??

no hassel set up, once you know how.
(i have a how-to i can copy paste if you decide to get it)

hang on, i've said this already!
phew! there's lots of control surface threads at the moment


nick

Following up on the Novation part of this thread:

I bought the Novation SL Remote 0.

I used it with Ableton for a while and the faders controlled the levels well, but the encoders and pots didn't respond at all. This was despite the big sell of the product: automapping. I also found that the Instruction Manual was poorly written and confusing to read, so when you're reading an already confusing sybject, the whole experience becomes extremely frustrating. The Novation Answers Forum didn't yield much useful information, although there are some people on board trying to make sense of it and are genuinely helpful. Although there is a Novation template (somewhere!) for Pro_Tools that uses a Mackie HUI I was unable to get the device and connection between FCP and the Novation device. FCP control surfaces are Mackie and/or Logic controls.

I returned the Novation and exchanged it for a Behringer BCF2000 and $210 cash (australian dollars).

The BCF2000 faders are not as smooth and are a bit noisy but it's cheaper! I was also able to map it onto FCP and Ableton within 15mins of pulling it out of the box which is more than I could do with the Novation.

Don't manufacturers understand how important decent instructions are to the success of a product! I noted some complaints about the Behringer manual but the Novation manual is useless. Grrr.

Amyway I already I feel more comfortable with the purchase.

Thanks to all for advice and suggestions.

Cheers,
Daryl