Controller for automation? What do you use?

Avid S1 is the best one probably. But it only speaks Eucon so make sure whatever DAW you have does that. Works way good with Protools obviously. If you don't want 8 faders and just like riding 1 then the Dock is the way to go as you get a transport which honestly is far more useful IMO than 8 faders. Plus jog wheel. With the Avid Control app you can do A LOT of stuff. Its very very powerful combination. I use one often as I like to ride faders still. It's not as nice as my S6 as work but still very handy.


It is annoyingly a bit too large, wish it didn't take up as much space. Like the older artist series ones were much better foot print wise. 

YMMV

Sounds really cool. My question to you is, do you use the multiple faders of the S1 when automating? Or do you tend to use mostly one?

I bought a Faderport 16.

But my workflow has developed into the Faderport 16 being useful at the writing stage for quickly controlling
adding new sounds as I fly aloing writing and arranging.

When I mix, being somewhat an "anal-retentive" by nature - I draw in my automation :-)

I draw it in.

I wish you could just hit a button and have a snap shot…then skip to next section adjust faders and hit Ana shot again…,,

That’s what I want

Oh the world of DAW controllers, we suffer from the fact that HUI at over 25 years old is still the standard, it was outdated after 5 years. Eucon is a vast improvement but limits you to AVID controllers.
The Yamaha stuff for Cubase is nice limited but nice.

Oh if only AVID would open Eucon to all hardware vendors and update it, or give us a open source version of what their large scale live boards use.

Artist Mix here. And I go between that and writing automation with a trackball which also works great for me. Personally, I rarely ever "draw" in static automation. It's always dynamic and flowing. Either via the artist mix or via trackball.

I use the Nuances Controller built by a fella in France named Pierre. It is lovely and has a decent-sized throw with three faders, although I have not used many others for comparison.

Eucon isn’t really open, all the DAW licenses pre date AVID’s ownership of Euphonix, and any requests by any type of hardware manufacturer has been met with a very firm “NO”.

We really need a protocol with a very open plugin control architecture.

Also keep in mind AVID kept HUI closed until it was cracked, Mackie developed it for Digidesign with an agreement that Mackie was the only other company allowed to use it.

As an industry we have a pretty shitty record when it comes to protocol standards ( we can’t even agree on what pin on an XLR should be hot). While Dante is emerging as the standard for audio over Ethernet, how many standards are there?. Lone Wolf tried in the 90’s to at least standardize control of networked systems ( most of their protocol was developed by Intelix, at the time Full Compass’s sister company), but even that quickly fell apart. Everybody see’s proprietary systems as a way to drive sales, but imagine the sales if people could innovate both analog signal processing and controllers with an open protocol or even a true standard. Digi originally touted the whole TDM environment as an open developer friendly system, Rember the Lexicon card? UAD on TDM? The days when you could run DP or logic on TDM ? That lasted about 2 years, keep in mind this open concept is what allowed AVID dat the time to incorporate Digi hardware and made AVID Digi’s biggest customer.

HUI was excepted because it was a giant step for PT, I can grab a fader, but from day one many felt it was a giant step backwards. It was slow and 12 bit fader resolution was one of the biggest disappointments of VCA automation so why are we back here? The Crack was great in the sense that we got a bunch of cheap controllers but ended the development of something that would have great plugin control ( god the Mackie was clumsy and yeah I have owned 2).

We couldn't even agree on the proper biasing between different makes of 2" tape. My Quantegy GP9, as you know... ONLY works on Studer A800's calibrated to.... ah, you get the idea.

Thats where Volume Trim is handy. You can tweak certain sections, say Verse 1 needs to be 1 dB hotter but chorus 3 need 0.5dB less or whatever. I go to volume trim for that. Then you have to do it again you conform trim to automation and do it again. simple and easy. 

Not saying a control surface replaces a mouse/trackpad/trackball these days. But it can augment and make it better. 




Another option for folks is to use other desktop controllers. Streamdeck is awesome, I use that too. And a nOb too. There are lots of options for devices like that. 

Yeah Avid is evil, there was a time when it wasn’t, they never should have gone public but they were a “tech company “ at the right / wrong time. The problem was none of the “tech analysts “ understood AVID was going up against to giants in a buisness they both loved the prestige and profits of. AVID had to keep a high debt ratio to keep the accounting departments of Sony or Panasonic from approving a take over. Why do you think Sony Bought Sonic Foundry instead? On this one I know way to much I can never say from all sides, the power of New Glarus is very strong for getting people to share their secrets.