Control Surfaces with SONAR

[punkin]

I'm going to catch hell for this since technically it's a double post. I originally put it in the "Other Equipment" section but didn't get any bites. It came recommended to move it over here in the SONAR area. Here goes...

I've had it with mousing my faders. I've been looking around at some control surfaces. I'm looking for a nicely featured unit with sliders (not like a couple of the Behr units). It needs to fully functional with SONAR 4.

The Mackie MCU is looking pretty good right now as does the Motormate. The JL Cooper line doesn't look like it will work out but to be honest, I find their website a little difficult to follow.

I really like the jog/shuttle wheel and touch sensitive faders. I'm thinking these as must have features.

Tell me what you've got what you like and don't like about it.


Thanks

[crosstudio]

i've got the tascam fw-1884 and i dig it. the faders move smoothly and the pan/aux knob works pretty good.

the only thing i'm not too thrilled with is the EQ section which really does nothing, but i don't really make EQ changes in real time anyway, so thats no big deal.

oh, and i keep forgetting which button is the "enter" button, when i do copy/paste. there should be an ENTER button.

edit: oh, and i forgot to mention that you can switch the pan/aux control to the fader, so you can get finer control of those parameters since the pan/aux knob makes jumps rather than smooth changes.

[punkin]

Thats a pretty good looking unit. The audio interface is a little over kill for me though. I already have all my audio i/o's worked out. A full featured unit for sure.

Thanks for the review...I'll consider it if I don't find something that more directly satisfies my needs.

[deepwater]

If you have your I/O taken care of then 'd look at the Tascam US2400 - which I plan on adding to my setup even if I don't need it - those 24 faders just look so good . Otherwise If the FW1884 is to much look at the FW1082 for $799.99 just a smaller version


http://www.americanmusical.com/item-...%20US2400.html


http://www.americanmusical.com/item--i-TAS-FW1082.html

[laptoppop]

I use the Mackie MCU -- and it totally rocks with Sonar 4. Solid, smooth, fast. It is configurable, and already has more features defined than I use regularly.

-lee-

[James Argo]

Once ther was Roland Studio Package Pro, now it's discontinued. But if you like, you can buy some new Roland SI-24 for ~$250, and look for used Roland RPC-1 card (Or M-Audio R-Bus) on eBay for about same price... Connect 'em with RBUS cable. If you're lucky, for total ~$500 you'll get pretty cool control surface with 13 motorized fader, extra 8 audio analog I/O (10 with digital) 24/96, 8 phantom powered mic preamps, joystick equiped 5.1 surround capability, big jog shutle knob, etc etc... Not to mention it's FULLY supported by Cakewalk!

Just google for it


Jaymz

[punkin]

Thanks guys.