What's The Best DAW Controller For Logic Pro?

[777]

What's The Best DAW Controller For Logic Pro? Meaning most user friendly, & can access the most controls simultaneously with the greatest accuracy.



A 777 Subject.

[smoothmoniker]

mackie universal control. It has multiple software modes, one of which is specifically tailored to Logic.

Two complaints - the buttons tend to go bad, and the motorized faders are a bit loud.

One huge advantage for this in Logic is that it can toggle from a track controller to a plug-in controller. In other words, it will intelligently map to the plug-in you're using, and allow you to automate control parameters that are deep inside the plug-in using physical controllers.

[Dave Peck]

Have you seen this?:

http://www.euphonix.com/post/products/mc/mc.htm

Read about half way down the page, about the new Logic Update and the MC.

Disclaimer - I work for Euphonix, but not in sales or anything like that. This is just FYI.

DP

[Jay Lee]

I think the Euphonix MC price is about 25 000 $...

[Rufuss Sewell]

Wow, I looked it up. It really is $25K. Actually it STARTS at $25K. It looks pretty cool with a few buttons and knobs and 4 faders. Like maybe worth about $700 to me. I think I'll stick with my Tranzport for now.

[MattiMattMatt]

Originally Posted by Dave Peck

Have you seen this?:

http://www.euphonix.com/post/products/mc/mc.htm

Read about half way down the page, about the new Logic Update and the MC.

Disclaimer - I work for Euphonix, but not in sales or anything like that. This is just FYI.

DP

What justifies a price 25 times more expensive than a mackie control universal?

TIA

matt

[Jay Lee]

Yeah...LOL...That price is just ridiculous!!! When I first saw the price I almost dropped from my chair. I mean, what the hexx can that thing do that you cant do with other cheaper ones. You can buy Protools HD and control 24 and some control surfaces with just buttons for plugins for that price. The thing better crap gold with that price.

[BlueBird]

Does anyone know if the MCU is compatible with the Macbook/MBP???

[Dave Peck]

Originally Posted by Jay Lee

Yeah...LOL...That price is just ridiculous!!! When I first saw the price I almost dropped from my chair.

Yeah, it's a lot more expensive than the typical DAW controller, but it's in a different league. For example, it can SIMULTANEOUSLY control multiple separate DAWs running Logic, Nuendo, ProTools, etc. Press one button and the entire surface instantly reconfigures to the settings and displays of the newly selected DAW. It's not the most sensible choice for a project studio needing to control one DAW for basic mixing and editing, but if you have a complex high-end system and you want to efficiently use the more esoteric DAW functions that are sometimes neglected because they're too many mouse clicks away, or if you run full-time editing suites that require an engineer to do detailed work for ten hours at a time every day, it's a very efficient and creative tool. And when you add the channel strips it becomes a huge digital mixing console and DAW controller combined, especially well-suited to large-format film mixes.

The original question was "what's the best DAW controller for Logic?". For folks who are doing these kinds of big jobs, many consider the MC to be the best. Aw crap now I sound like I work in sales. Honest, I don't - I only mentioned this stuff in case someone might find the info useful.

DP

[hookedonhydro]

I bought a MC and two extenders when it first came out back in 2003, a month later one of the faders went on the month old extender. I sent it in to mackie and they shipped me out a replacement one right away. However.. the lcd display didn't say "control extender" on it, but C4 instead.. now I thought the C4 was cool looking and all but I wasn't sure how much I would use it.. i told em since they wanted to tease me with a C4 by sticking it's name on the LCD panel, they could have back this confused extender they sent as a replacement and ship me out a C4.. which they did. The pods are nice I must say, but overpriced imo.



I have the first gen axiom, I got it with a stand practically brand new for 220 on craigslist. A week later my buddy got the 2nd gen for like 275 from zounds and that supposedly is more plug and playish.. Best controller you ask? Have you considered getting a couple Griffin Powermates?


www.youtube.com/hookedonhydro
www.soundcloud.com/hookedonhydro

[Mad4Brad]

touchosc

[pathdoc]

I've got a fried Mackie control extender. I think the chip is bad.
Motorized faders are intact.
Anyone want it?

[SochiTag]

AC-7 Core v2.0 on the iPad
Saitara Software

I don't know how good or bad it is - but worth knowing about.

[crypticglobe]

Wow... this is a thread back from the dead 4 sure! Euphonix Artist Series is my vote though!! The c4 is cool, but you can use that and the artist series stuff together too.

[Mad4Brad]

Originally Posted by SochiTag

AC-7 Core v2.0 on the iPad
Saitara Software

I don't know how good or bad it is - but worth knowing about.

not that great. Rather bad latency and not much you can control. Touchosc is really great. I mean it is really that good.

[loopy]

Originally Posted by crypticglobe

Wow... this is a thread back from the dead 4 sure! Euphonix Artist Series is my vote though!! The c4 is cool, but you can use that and the artist series stuff together too.

Hahaha!
I didn't even realize it was an ancient thread till I read your post.

I guess some things never change!

[bjornkaft]

... or maybe it's simply so that there are still a lot of people out there longing for a decent hardware controller? In my humble opinion the lack of tactile feedback from faders and knobs is the biggest problem in professional audio (and amateur audio) today. I for one sure miss being able to just close my eyes and listen ...

/Björn

[charlieclouser]

I've used Mackie Controls since they were called Logic Control and came with the Emagic logo... and they are still the best, since support for them is "baked in" to the Logic app, and no external drivers or anything else are needed.

I also have the Euphonix Artist series, and have used the System 5mc, and none of them can compare to the Mackies, since the EuCon software adds another layer of tomfoolery to the system and in the end it is pretty laggy and crashworthy. My saved setups would not recall automatically, meaning I had to manually re-load the configs from the EuCon software panel every time I switched songs in Logic, the controllers would lose communication with Logic from time to time, and deleting empty tracks caused a 1.5 second lag for every track deleted, whereas with the Mackies you can delete tracks as fast as you can hit the delete key and the faders are updated instantly. I also found the touchscreen pretty much useless, as the text is microscopic and all it does is access functions which can be accessed by keycommands... so my Euphonix boxes are in the "to be sold" pile.

With the Mackie C4 you get access to functions which are not available on any other control surface, like using the knobs for zoom (and waveform zoom!), pressing the v-pots to jump to the first 32 markers in a song, etc. The C4 is out of production but they appear on eBay all the time. The displays are kind of old-fashioned looking, but still.... highly recommended.

I went to the Euphonix showroom a year or two ago to try out the System 5mc, as I'd gladly pay any price for a full control surface (and it does look sexy), but since it functions via EuCon it suffered from all the same problems that the Artist series does. Clunky.

I also recently tried the SSL AWS, which uses Mackie Control protocol, and it functions pretty much like a 24-channel Mackie Control setup. Not bad, but a Mackie Control with two fader expanders and a C4 is still a more flexible 24-channel controller.