Looking for a control surface

  • Thread starter Thread starter thebigcheese
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thebigcheese

thebigcheese

"Hi, I'm in Delaware."
I really hate mixing in the box. Generally speaking, I set one level for everything and then leave it for the whole song. If, on the other hand, I had faders to play with, I think I would be much more likely to put some actual effort into my mixing. So I'm looking at getting a control surface, but I'm having some trouble deciding what I actually need/want.


The Behringer BCF2000 seems nice and it's reasonably priced, but it's not touch sensitive, so I guess I couldn't grab a fader in the middle of listening to try out a different approach.

The Korg Nanokontrol is nice and cheap, but I watched a review and it seems that the button LEDs don't react to changes on the computer side. So if I pushed "mute" on the DAW with my mouse, the LED on a button wouldn't show that change, which seems to mean that I would have to push the button once to get it to where it should be, then again if I want to actually change the value. If I'm only using the controller it's not a big deal, but it's worth considering. The faders are also not motorized, but that might not really matter that much in the long run.

Are motorized faders really worth it? Do you find that it sucks to not have the knobs click into place in the middle of their range like a normal pan knob would? Are there other cheap options I should consider? I'd like to have as many faders as possible (buttons are less important, but I like transport controls if possible) for under $150. Used is fine. Ideally it should be configurable to ignore tracks in folders in Reaper--for instance, I generally put both overheads in a folder track so that I just set the balance and then use the folder's fader to adjust the volume, so I would want the controller to control the folder track but skip over the tracks in the folder.

Edit: I guess there's also the Oxygen49. Not quite in the same vein as the others (and not as many buttons for sure), but it would give me knobs and faders that appear to be assignable, plus then I'd have some velocity-sensitive keys in case I ever decide to do some virtual instrument work.
 
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I don't really want single faders. I'm not really sure why anyone would... I'd just use a mouse if I wanted to do one at a time.
 
Well, they are motorized and touch sensitive which is great for mixing not to mention controls for EQ etc. high accuracy tactile control is a big step up from mousing around and you wont find anything beyond those in that price range. Besides how often do you mix a bunch of faders at once?
 
in studio perhaps not a bunch, compared with total time mixing

but one feature of faders is to fine tune one track against another

and typically for morning after what I hope to be the final mix I'll use ears and faders (on all tracks or groups) just to see if chaos improves on obsessive focus . . . so while I've tried lots of options (and hoping touch screen tech improves to point to be usable) a single motorized fader remains, for me, just another accessory to track ball & pen tablet.
 
At least for me, the whole point of having faders would be to adjust multiple levels at the same time, or at least very close to one another in time. If you start changing around one level, you might have to mess with a bunch of others to keep the mix sounding right and I'd like to be able to do those all at the same time instead of one at a time.
 
I really hate mixing in the box. Generally speaking, I set one level for everything and then leave it for the whole song. If, on the other hand, I had faders to play with, I think I would be much more likely to put some actual effort into my mixing. So I'm looking at getting a control surface, but I'm having some trouble deciding what I actually need/want.


The Behringer BCF2000 seems nice and it's reasonably priced, but it's not touch sensitive, so I guess I couldn't grab a fader in the middle of listening to try out a different approach.


Help me out here....what is the impact of having/not having a "touch sensitive" fader? Seems to me that, in the middle of mixing if I grab a fader, move it and the level changes, it works. I'm pretty sure the BCF accomplishes this, as does virtually every control surface on the planet. I'm missing something here.:confused:

I have a ZOOM R16 interface/control surface. It's not touch sensitive, I guess, since I don't know what the hell that is, and it's certainly not advertised with that capability. But when I'm mixing, if the bass track is hot on channel 2, then I grab the fader for channel 2 on my ZOOM and pull it back. I do wish it had motorized faders tho...it would be nice to have them snap to the opening settings when I load another tune up in SONAR.
 
Help me out here....what is the impact of having/not having a "touch sensitive" fader? Seems to me that, in the middle of mixing if I grab a fader, move it and the level changes, it works. I'm pretty sure the BCF accomplishes this, as does virtually every control surface on the planet. I'm missing something here.:confused:

The touch sensitive faders detect when your finger is on them it so that it knows to 'punch in' on writing the automation curve and disengages the motor so that you don't fight against it (and very possibly cause damage).

Is a small thing that does make a reasonably large difference. When it works well, you shouldn't know its there!

This is largely what put me off the BCF and made me go for a Faderport instead.
 
The touch sensitive faders detect when your finger is on them it so that it knows to 'punch in' on writing the automation curve and disengages the motor so that you don't fight against it (and very possibly cause damage).

Is a small thing that does make a reasonably large difference. When it works well, you shouldn't know its there!

This is largely what put me off the BCF and made me go for a Faderport instead.

Ahhh...I get it now. Yeah, that would be pretty nice to cue the automation instead of having to bump the fader to trigger the automation writing. Thanks, man. I knew I was missing something here.:D
 
Just out of curiosity, what gear do you have that has midi I/O?
The reason I ask is that "Surface Controller" was one of the things I wanted to buy until I realized that I already had one. (Korg D3200).
 
My MOTU interface can take MIDI. Otherwise, all I have are two crappy keyboards (with no faders or knobs).
 
Pity but at the end of the day a surface controller is more of a "Nice to have" than a "Must have".
I'd suggest that if you really want one, choose something that does more than just serve as a surface controller.
The Zoom R16 would be my first choice then the price jumps dramatically.
Keep in mind too that many of the more affordable ones, good as they are, are only 8 + 1 channels.
The natural choice for seamless control would have 16 faders + master faders.
All I need is faders and pan knobs but I think you mentioned somewhere that you are looking for "Mute" buttons and other options too.
That's going to send the price up a bit.
 
Pity but at the end of the day a surface controller is more of a "Nice to have" than a "Must have".
I'd suggest that if you really want one, choose something that does more than just serve as a surface controller.
The Zoom R16 would be my first choice then the price jumps dramatically.
Keep in mind too that many of the more affordable ones, good as they are, are only 8 + 1 channels.
The natural choice for seamless control would have 16 faders + master faders.
All I need is faders and pan knobs but I think you mentioned somewhere that you are looking for "Mute" buttons and other options too.
That's going to send the price up a bit.

The ZOOM supports Mute and Record functions on individual channels. It has a button on each channel that you can toggle between these two functions.
 
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