Budget Control Surface for Pre-Mixing in 2012?

[Noiz2]

Have you thought about something like V-Control Pro for iPad?

Just personal taste but I cant stand mixing with a non tactual surface. You have to take your eyes off the picture to find the fader, no feed back and you could have slid off the "fader" on to another "controller" while "mixing". To me this is a bit like the non motorized control surfaces where you have to "catch" the controller.

Someone who grew up on virtual devices might feel differently, but I hate them.

[qwerty123]

@noiz Yeah, I agree. I just got a magic trackpad and even that is not a good alternative....

There was a nice mackie universal midi that looked like it was hardly touched that sold for a little over $300 on ebay. I could've snagged it, but when I thought about it and looked at my wallet... I balked.

On the look out for a good single fader unit now....

[qwerty123]

Here's another question in my quest: does anyone has experience using the Tascam fw-1082 with pro tools--using it as a control surface?

I just came across someone who is local to me that is a selling a used tascam fw-1082 for a low price ($100) because the audio coming out of the computer will not work. They had the unit repaired, but tascam was unable to sell them the final needed replacement part. BUT all of the control surface functionality works on the machine.

The thing that I'm a little concerned about is that it's a firewire machine. I already have an mbox pro connected via firewire 400, and a harddrive also connected via firewire. My machine--a now old late imac 2007--has only one firewire bus. Some I'm wondering about whether it would bring things to halt etc.

EDIT--Just realized that the tascam has midi out and in. So I'm guessing the firewire won't be an issue as I can use the midi connection to interface the tascam with the mbox?

[ryanjf]

I sold my Tascam FW-1082 a few years ago. For the most part, I was dissatisfied with it. The faders didn't really give me that "feel" of mixing and mixing in the box certainly felt better than touching the Tascam. I apologize - I didn't read this entire thread, but was the MC Mix or MC Control ever mentioned as a possibility? The first version of those are selling for cheap ever since V2 came out. The motors/faders on the MC Mix/Control are somewhat noisy, but it's fully integrated with PT10.

[qwerty123]

Thanks for the response ryanjf! Are you talking about the Euphonix Mc Mix and Euphonix MC control? Those are a little out of my price range.

The Mackie Master Control Universal was mentioned (the midi version).

[ryanjf]

Yes, I was talking about the Euphonix/Avid MC Mix and MC Control. I would get the MC Control alone just for the darn automation "preview" shortcut (can't believe there's still no keyboard shortcut for that besides using QuicKeys...)

I sometimes use the Mackie Control at work at it does the job just fine. Aren't those for selling around $1000? You can find a used MC Mix or Control for around that price. I've seen them sell for about $700-$900 on eBay sometimes.

[qwerty123]

Old midi Master Controls are going for just over $300.

[Nickpickles]

I own a FW-1082. Compared to long-throw faders, they're a bit short an squatty but I've never had a problem mixing with it. For your application I'd go with the other options because who knows how long Tascam will keep making updates for it. I really like mine, but use it as an all-in-one solution for my desktop.

[ggrantly]

Though I agree with Noiz on tactile sliders, I have embraced the idea of virtual surfaces in some cases. In my case, I have a Traveler Mk3 which is a great piece of kit, but lacks a bit for live recording via the Cue-Mix control software and LED metering on the Traveler box. Enter the iPad. The CueMix software presently has the ability to interface with a HUI device and a couple of outfits have made software converters to turn the iPad into a HUI. Tried that and despite my best efforts, this was a fail. I got it to work on one channel, and the general impression I got was that it had great potential for very portable laptop recording system.

Fast forward; Motu has announced a soon(?) to be released CueMix software upgrade which will include the ability to use the iPad as a control surface without the HUI interface mess. They are also implementing this feature with their other editing-recording software. Stay tuned.

Grant