Digidesign has decided to expand the ICON D-Command with a keyboard. I bet I’m not the only one who says “about time” (not that I have a D-Command, but it’s my damn right to complain about these things anyway!).
I hear someone go “dude, it’s just a keyboard”, and yes sir, I agree, but it will bring class to your room. It looks like it has a nice hole to attach your monitor (either that, or this desk has some pretty wicked moles) but doesn’t it suck a little that it doesn’t has a mouse? Sure, you can attach one and there’s room for it, but a built-in mouse?
I’m also afraid to ask what the price for “just a keyboard is”. Still, don’t take these complaints too hard Digidesign. I’m the one asking for a more modular Pro Tools environment every other day. While this is a baby step, perhaps even only a baby crawl, it’s at least a little bit on the way.
And somewhat introduced in the dark I must say. As with the D-Control ES this is mainly just a darker colored version. Some claim that these are better on your eyes. I find it annoying that almost no controllers these days have proper channelstrips. D-Command at least have a ‘channelstrip section’.
If you’re looking to get one of these, or are not yet on HD but looking to make the jump, perhaps the ICON bundles on Digidesigns website can be of interest.
Here’s a video of the new Euphonix controllers that I found. It’s from SOS.
Does it look good? Yeah, it does. Will it be a Mackie-killer? Most likely. Is it optimal for Pro Tools? I bet not. Actually, from the looks of this video it doesn’t do much more than a 003 control-wise. There seems to be a couple of additional features (”layouts” seems like a very good idea) but there could also be a lot missing that isn’t on the LE surfaces. Also remember that this is showing it running with EuCon, for Pro Tools it would have to be as emulating HUI.
I think we at least can conclude that the parallels some have drawn to ICON is way off. You’ll still have to go into a way more expensive Euphonix territory for that. I still think Euphonix is sitting on a potential gold mine here, and I can’t wait to try it, both with Pro Tools and EuCon hosts.
Following the monumental success of Novation’s revolutionary Automap Universal, (a protocol exclusive to Novation controllers, providing automatic and intelligent control of your music software), NAMM 2008 sees the arrival of the eagerly awaited Automap Universal 2.0. In 2.0, RTAS and TDM plug-in support is now included. The mapping options available go way beyond those offered by existing HUI-based controllers. This latest release ships with Novation’s new Nocturn controller, and will also be compatible with Novation’s ReMOTE SL and ReMOTE SL COMPACT ranges. Read more →
Euphonix have for a while hinted about an ‘Artist series’ of controllers, something that have made many hope for an actual affordable controller from the high-end company. It seems like we through Sweetwater actually have gotten a sneak peak of it! The two products are called MC Control (at Sweetwater) and MC Mix (at Sweetwater). And guess what? They actually look pretty affordable! Read more →
Native Instruments just announced that KORE 2, the second generation of its advanced multi-functional host system, is now available in stores worldwide. Read more →
Digidesign is proud to announce that it’s now shipping the new C|24®, Digidesign’s next generation, professional control surface that’s easy to use, full featured, and aggressively priced. Unveiled last month at the Audio Engineering Society (AES) Convention in New York, the sleek and stylish C|24 provides direct hands-on access to Pro Tools® mixing, recording, and editing functions, and offers a complete array of high-quality analog inputs, superb mic preamps, and a professional 5.1 analog monitor section to use with your Pro Tools I/O.
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I just noted a little detail about the C|24 that I didn’t know about before.
Pro Tools LE 7.4 software (shipping soon) is required to use C|24 with Pro Tools LE systems.
