DAW controllers and surfaces

[oscillat0r]

Try moving 2 faders with just one mouse

In Sonar anyway you can group multiple controls and then adjust how they scale, or even invert them so that raising one fader will lower the other. I've used this many times so that I could mix two sources with my eyes closed so i could focus on just listening.

Totally agree that physical controls are better and when mixing 3 sources, essential.

 

[LeSedna]

I think most (and I say "most", not "all") of those saying that a mouse is quite as good as a controller have never put their hands on a real controller.

You're so right, I had one, but not a "real" one and I still think a good controller is THE way to go even if my attempt was a big fail, and I'm still with a mouse (but a good one, for my defense )

 

[JoergieN]

So what's an example of a good home budget controller?

 

[MetalSound]

behringer bcf 2000

 

[Cryo114]

MetalSound do you own/tried this controller?

I'd love a control surface but "behringer" worries me.

 

[JoergieN]

I'm on the exact same page as Cyro

 

[Uros]

^^actually, you are not

 

[JoergieN]

Hahaha!!! You clever fuck

 

[JamesNorman]

iPhone, touch osc, osculstor!

 

[hct]

TouchOSC is a poor replacement for a real control surface if we are talking about mixing work. Yes, it allows you to move several things (not only faders or pans) in the same time and is much better than going crazy with mouse, but it doesn't replace real physical faders and knobs. But ToucOSC also gives you a customizability physical controllers don't have. There are DAW controllers with touchscreens, but they can't beat TouchOSC in this regard and even less in price .

Ideally I'd love to have both - TouchOSC on iPad (no, iPhone isn't enough ) and a real controller with real faders and knobs.

 

[JamesNorman]

TouchOSC is a poor replacement for a real control surface if we are talking about mixing work. Yes, it allows you to move several things (not only faders or pans) in the same time and is much better than going crazy with mouse, but it doesn't replace real physical faders and knobs. But ToucOSC also gives you a customizability physical controllers don't have. There are DAW controllers with touchscreens, but they can't beat TouchOSC in this regard and even less in price .

Ideally I'd love to have both - TouchOSC on iPad (no, iPhone isn't enough ) and a real controller with real faders and knobs.

Haha yeah man, i know what you mean but mapping it to control certain aspects of the recording process makes workflow loads easier.

Saying that i use a novation nocturn to control plugins for the knobs aspect. But i don't mind using it for faders at all.

Ill take that back by saying iphone, touch osc, osscualtor, nocturn then haha......

 

[The Unavoidable]

I'm interested in the BCF 2000 as well, anyone ever used one?

 

[Trevoire520]

Got a BCF2000 and it works great. Was initially a bit of a pain to set it up in Protools but I found a tutorial on the interwebz and it was plain sailing after that.

The only thing that bugs me about it is that there's no LED scribble strip to let you know which faders assigned to which channel, but I just right click the channel I want and click "scroll into view" and that sets that channel to be the first on the controller.

Overall for £100 you can't go wrong!

 

[Cryo114]

I am tempted to spring for one but after reading up on it there's a lot of talk about the motorized faders being noisy as hell. What are they like on yours, Travis?

 

[setyouranchor]

I use a FrontierDesign Alphatrack, got it for £70 and works amazingly!

 

[LeSedna]

I have sold my BCF2000, because yeah you have faders, but that is almost all it gives. Yes you have buttons everywhere but it's hard to tell which one does what especially since it's remapped with the MCU stuff. With a BCF2000 you have to understand you'll have no ergonomy. I've been so tired to use a switch button to access some functions, to use alternate ways to understand where my faders are. It can be good if you work with projects with not too many tracks. I know some can handle sessions with it but I cannot justify the effort you have to do to get to that level.

I would recommend to try it though considering it's super cheap and easy to sell if you're not convinced like me.

I had considered chaining 3 and just using them as faders but still, I cannot personnally be used to the fact you are 100% lost when you are watching the unit and not the screen most of the time if you have many many tracks. It made me lose time most of the time once past the volume/panning start of a mixing project (which is the fastest part).

 

[LeSedna]

I am tempted to spring for one but after reading up on it there's a lot of talk about the motorized faders being noisy as hell. What are they like on yours, Travis?

They are quite noisy yes. I cannot tell if they are "too" noisy since it's the only unit i've ever had with motorized channels, but they are, you can hear them over mixing if they move a lot. I didn't find this "that" inconvenient but some would. But that's also why it's so cheap. I found overall they did a good job considering the price it's selling.

 

[Jarkko Mattheiszen]

I seriously considered getting a couple of BCF's, but after endless rants about the noisy faders and considering if I could get on with having no scribble strips I decided against getting them. I'll rather wait until I can afford it and get an Euphonix MC Mix now that PT has EuCon support. I've used an MC Pro before and it's a ridiculous unit!

 

[Raptor7]

I have this http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct04/articles/keystation.htm

 

[Trevoire520]

I've not found them to be so noisy to the point that it actually causes me any problems. Sure it's not as quiet as some others but then it's about one 7th of the price of say a command 8.

At the end of the day this is the internet and people will bitch all day long about something that's not really much of a big deal just because they can. Hell there was a guy on Gearslutz the other day who started a thread moaning about the Audio Technica 40 series shockmounts and how he didn't know how to use it. And the a whole bunch of other people started whinging about it too. FFS stick you mic in it and get on with your session!