Anyone get their little Euphonix yet?

[davidd]

My wotkaround for fader noise, until it´s solved by Euphonix:

Use a track without Fader moves as track 1, or insert an empty track there.
If you need to check your mix in silence, press "bank left", until only the empty track is assigned.
Pretty fast, too.

[MeloManiac]

Originally Posted by davidd

If you have a secon monitor, it is an option, cause you can keep the Eucontrol window
open and just doubleclick the layout you need.
Preety fast.
And with McControl I´m sure you can do the same with a button.

Nah I use both monitors for Logic windows:) Dunno about MC Control, time will tell.

[stealthmode]

Originally Posted by MeloManiac

Nah I use both monitors for Logic windows:) Dunno about MC Control, time will tell.

Geez man. You do a blow by blow account of how you can't read the manual then you just keep on posting skeptical stuff. What's your deal?

[jho]

Just got a MC MIX in today.

I am impressed with the build quality. The display is quite good.

It's better than I was expecting, after all the rants. The knobs seem fine to me.

For about 900 bucks this is an impressive little controller.

[MeloManiac]

Originally Posted by stealthmode

Geez man. You do a blow by blow account of how you can't read the manual then you just keep on posting skeptical stuff. What's your deal?

My deal? My deal is that I just want a product that works as described. And it's not very uncommon to use two monitors in a DAW setup. You really, honestly mean that I should dedicate a whole monitor of screen estate for he purpose of swithing layouts for the MC Mix?

And tell me what it is that I haven't figured out because I haven't read the manual? I installed the thing as advertised. I got some tips from Euphonix Support on how to improve performance, but nowhere in the manual or anywhere else are these described, so you can't really blame me for not doing lots of trial and error troubleshooting on my own, can you.

My biggest concern now is the very low frequency of the fader movement - it almost seems like the protocol can only send maybe 10 fader updates per second. If I have 4 tracks playing with volume changes, I can see each fader moving, slightly delayed from eachother - they are not moving at the same time, and not frequently enough for smooth (and more silent) operation. If you want to release a tool for mixing music on, it shouldn't be as noisy mecahnically as the MC Mix is currently. At least mine is and I can't see what the problem should be. I set it to the highest network priority, it has a whole 1GBit/100mbit ethernet port for itself, 9 GB of RAM etc., so it is not because my system isn't up to it.

Hopefully this upcoming software update will improve this.

[stealthmode]

Originally Posted by MeloManiac

My deal? My deal is that I just want a product that works as described. And it's not very uncommon to use two monitors in a DAW setup. You really, honestly mean that I should dedicate a whole monitor of screen estate for he purpose of swithing layouts for the MC Mix?

And tell me what it is that I haven't figured out because I haven't read the manual? I installed the thing as advertised. I got some tips from Euphonix Support on how to improve performance, but nowhere in the manual or anywhere else are these described, so you can't really blame me for not doing lots of trial and error troubleshooting on my own, can you.

Yeah but I don't want to know everything about it. Seems like someone's attention starved.

[MeloManiac]

Originally Posted by stealthmode

Yeah but I don't want to know everything about it. Seems like someone's attention starved.

You don't want to know about it? This is a discussion forum and this thread is for discussing and troubleshooting the Eucon Artist series controllers, which is what I and others are doing. If you don't want to read it, skip my posts, pretty simple. Move over.

[davidd]

Originally Posted by MeloManiac

Nah I use both monitors for Logic windows:) Dunno about MC Control, time will tell.

You don´t need a monitor only for EuControl. man!
I have the second monitor for fx windows and this kind of stuuf, and Eucontrol behaves pretty much like another window of my DAW.
Even in Logic (if I would use it)...

[MeloManiac]

Originally Posted by davidd

You don´t need a monitor only for EuControl. man!
I have the second monitor for fx windows and this kind of stuuf, and Eucontrol behaves pretty much like another window of my DAW.
Even in Logic (if I would use it)...

Right, but really, I don't NEED the EuControl window for anything, most of the time, so I don't want to waste space on it - I'd rather fill the screen with Logic content. And as I wrote in another response, I found a solution that doesn't require much use of the control panel, so I'm fine with that.

[mostlykeys]

Just a quick note to let everybody know that i ended up buying another MC Mix to try with the new software and the unit seems to work great with a few tweaks! I can bank with no issues. I had to do two things that improved the performance of the controller.

1. I disabled the Bluetooth discovery feature in Leopard. This interestingly stopped the disconnection that was going on - even with the new software driver.

2. I disable airport. Not ideal but doing this also helps my particular machine from disconnecting the MC Mix.

Again, not ideal performance but it is finally usable for me. I'm going to pick up 2 more.

Orlando

[yoink]

Originally Posted by MeloManiac

Right, but really, I don't NEED the EuControl window for anything, most of the time, so I don't want to waste space on it - I'd rather fill the screen with Logic content. And as I wrote in another response, I found a solution that doesn't require much use of the control panel, so I'm fine with that.

You can call it up at will pressing the Shift+Assign button for any channel and the EuCon window will come up to the foreground.

[yoink]

Originally Posted by mostlykeys

1. I disabled the Bluetooth discovery feature in Leopard. This interestingly stopped the disconnection that was going on - even with the new software driver.

Was that a known bug or something you were informed of by Euphonix. While I'm not on Leopard, I use both a bluetooth mouse and keyboard (Apple's) with my Tiger machine. So I'm curious, that's all! :)

[jhsign]

Hi everyone.

Please proceed with caution.....I've just done the update for the MC Mix v1.1.1 - updated the software and then the firmware. There was an error whilst the firmware update was happening and now my MC Mix won't even power on!!

Anyone else have this problem?

I advise extreme caution

J

[theRog]

I've just updated 3 workstations to 1.1.1 (an older 2nd generation G5, a last generation G5 and an Intel MacBookPro) and everything went very smooth!

Also the firmware upgrade from 1.0 to 1.3 was a breeze here!

After playing with it in different projects (Logic 8.0.1 as well as ProTools LE 7.3) I must say now I could work with this properly! Before it was slowing down Logic and ProTools wasn't really implemented well - but now I see me working with this thing on in Logic or even ProTools as the Plugin selection seems to work quite well (Parameters are still a bit cluttered).

Well done Euphonix :-)

Cheerio
Roger

[yoink]

Originally Posted by jhsign

Hi everyone.

Please proceed with caution.....I've just done the update for the MC Mix v1.1.1 - updated the software and then the firmware. There was an error whilst the firmware update was happening and now my MC Mix won't even power on!!

Anyone else have this problem?

I advise extreme caution

J

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to give it a shot later today anyway - I don't have any projects that absolutely need it right now so I might as well sacrifice it to the cause.

[davidd]

Originally Posted by theRog

Well done Euphonix :-)

Cheerio
Roger

+1.

Update worked fine with 2 McMix here.

David

[jhsign]

Just spoken with Obedia - apparently something went wrong during the update, and I'm going to have to send the unit back to Euphonix in order to get this sorted.

Pretty upset with that as I was really hoping that I'd speed up my workflow this week with the update!!

J

[jhsign]

Hopefully mines just a one-off incident.......

[yoink]

Originally Posted by jhsign

Just spoken with Obedia - apparently something went wrong during the update, and I'm going to have to send the unit back to Euphonix in order to get this sorted.

Pretty upset with that as I was really hoping that I'd speed up my workflow this week with the update!!

J

In this day and age one would hope they'd simply cross-ship you a replacement. I'm not a big far of the "send it back and wait" customer service mentality unless it's something really special. Great as the Mixes are, they're made in China, dime a dozen and all that.

That does disappoint me a little no matter what they (Euphonix) have to say about it.

[yoink]

Originally Posted by jhsign

Hopefully mines just a one-off incident.......

I updated my own MC Mix without issue and while I haven't had time to even test it out, the faders move much more quickly.

I will give it a whirl later today.

[Artist Support]

We are pleased to announce the release of EuControl 1.1.1
Users of both MC Mix and MC Control should upgrade to this version.

It is available at
Euphonix :: Downloads

New to EuControl 1.1.1 is the ability to update the firmware in both MC Controls and MC Mixes. To update, go to the Surfaces tab, select one or more surfaces in the My Surfaces list and press the 'Update Firmware' button. You are guided through the process. The new firmware is embedded in EuControl, so you don't have to download a firmware image or be connected to the Internet to upgrade. Several important bugs were fixed in the firmware, so all customers should update firmware in their MC Controls and MC Mixes. Please make sure you follow all instructions when updating firmware. DO NOT disconnect power cable while updating firmware.


Owners of the MC Mix and MC Control will notice substantial improvements in the speed of performance with Logic after updating to EuControl 1.1.1.

General stability has improved dramatically. Some users have seen intermittent "drop offs," which have been fixed for the MC Mix and MC Control in EuControl 1.1.1

Automation mode toggling from the surface when controlling Pro Tools has been implemented.

The fader oscillation that some users have experienced is solved with this combination firmware/software update. Fader movement is now more smooth, and adjustments have been made to improve accuracy.

Faders stay put when you switch from an audio to a non audio application.

Please don't hesitate to register your product at Euphonix :: Product Registration

Once registered you have access to phone support from Obedia, and unlimited email support from Euphonix directly.

Best regards,

Euphonix Support Team
Euphonix Inc

[mixable]

I installed the latest software / firmware this morning and afterwards tried my best to get this thing to crash or disconnect and so far it's been rock solid. Furious plugin knob - twiddling in Pro Tools is no longer a problem so for the moment this seems viable.

The big hurdle now will be dealing with the archaic HUI protocol - hopefully Euphonix will figure out a way to circumvent the very narrow capabilities that Digi has generously allowed for other manufacturers controllers.

Rumor has it that the Euphonix team had already worked out Eucon for Pro Tools, or some kind of reverse-engineering ICON protocol, but Digi threatened lawsuits, and so that is not a possibility.

Anyway for the moment, I'm hanging on to my MC Mix and am even starting to wonder if an MC Control might be in my future.

[MeloManiac]

I tried the new update and thankfully all went well:)

Definitely an improvement over the previous version, but the resolution/frequency of the EuCon protocol still seems much lower than the faders themselves and still makes quite a lot of noise with just two faders moving

When I have say 10-15 points of automation in Logic with different values, the MC Mix only seems to be sent 2 or 3, resulting in a "clack" sound each time it moves, often. It works better with big changes in volume actually - with smaller, finer changes, it seems to have the most problems running smooth. I hope we can expect further improvement in this department because this is a long way from Digidesigns controllers for ProTools which seem smoother and more silent. I hope it's a software issue still and not a shortcoming with the built quality of the unit.

Moving about in Logic has indeed become much faster, and e.g. turning on or off HIDE for a track is much faster than before:)

[jhsign]

Originally Posted by jhsign

Just spoken with Obedia - apparently something went wrong during the update, and I'm going to have to send the unit back to Euphonix in order to get this sorted.

Pretty upset with that as I was really hoping that I'd speed up my workflow this week with the update!!

J

Well....I have to say that it is extremely refreshing in this day and age to get good customer support but that's exactly what I'm getting from Euphonix.

JC has been corresponding with me a lot this afternoon, and I should be getting a solution sometime tomorrow.

Hats off to Euphonix.....and to JC....you've just restored my faith in the world!

J

[yoink]

Originally Posted by MeloManiac

When I have say 10-15 points of automation in Logic with different values, the MC Mix only seems to be sent 2 or 3, resulting in a "clack" sound each time it moves, often. It works better with big changes in volume actually - with smaller, finer changes, it seems to have the most problems running smooth. I hope we can expect further improvement in this department because this is a long way from Digidesigns controllers for ProTools which seem smoother and more silent. I hope it's a software issue still and not a shortcoming with the built quality of the unit.

I have to agree that this is still an important issue. While for the most part my use of the MC Mix has been to input commands/fades, it still is somewhat disheartening when you go to make an adjustment and the fader isn't in the right place because of the vague output sensitivity.

I was hoping they'd fix that as well... I also hope it's fixed in the next update.

As for my fader jitter, it seems that the update "supresses" the behaviour. Fader 3 on my console still WANTS to oscillate, but it stops. None of the other faders display the behaviour.

That being said the update did FIX the issue in that it doesn't oscillate more than a couple of times. I can live with it for sure though and again, at these price points - especially when you take into account the advanced nature of the interface and the options it offers - it's hard to be too critical.

Additionally, while I've been ready and quick to criticise the surfaces, overall they remain a joy to use and have sped up my workflow without having to purchase something less integrated or with the name "Mackie" on it. ;)

The fact that we've had nearly monthly (and in the first month bi-monthly) updates certainly helps to show that Euphonix is standing behind these things completely.

[drumkideric]

Glad this update is finally out. Can't wait to get it installed.

[MeloManiac]

I just got off the phone with an employee from Euphonix and I must say their support is excellent (he called me soon after I posted here). He assured me they are working on further improving the fader movement so that is great to hear! I wish all companies were so much in touch with their user base, especially Apple :)

[divingduck]

Originally Posted by Artist Support

We are pleased to announce the release of EuControl 1.1.1
[font=tahoma][size=2]Users of both MC Mix and MC Control should upgrade to this version.

Ok, hands up who's a user of MC Control already?.... where's mine?....

[Raven11]

all updates went easy... no issues... and I must say "WOW!!!!"
talk about a difference.

HAPPY HAPPY... Logic is SNAPPY

[yoink]

Originally Posted by Raven11

all updates went easy... no issues... and I must say "WOW!!!!"
talk about a difference.

HAPPY HAPPY... Logic is SNAPPY

Agreed. I've been using it for about 5 hours straight. No disconnects in Logic and everything is quite a bit snappier. I've found one little bug where the surface puts the Master and Output 1-2 randomly on the first couple of channels, but no biggie.

My fader 3 does still oscillate like I suspected, but it seems the surface gets it to stop. I believe they've skirted having to repair less-than-stellar performing faders with this software update - but honestly it's acceptable - and as Raven11 mentioned the surface flies now. I find myself using it to add plugins (whereas before I wouldn't bother) and I can't wait for the MC Control to get a better layout to edit the parameters in... but really the MC Mix is in full form. I'm quite pleased.