Artist Series Attention Fader (??)

Steinberg Lounge
#1

I got absolutely no response on the Avid Site. So, I thought I’d ask here, since a lot Nuendo/Cubase Users use these controllers.

I’m not sure I understand the “Purpose” of the Attention Fader.

I get how it’s used. I just don’t get WHY it’s used. You dedicate a fader as the attention fader and now you’ve got 2 linked faders doing the exact same function. If you’ve only got a MC Control, maybe then it makes sense. The second channel fader would, more than likely, be off the range of the controller. But if you’ve got a Mix or a Mix/MC Control combo, it doesn’t make sense. You’ve got ONE selected channel but 2 faders lit up on the hardware, but they’re not part of a group or VCA link or even a linked pair of channels. So, that seems like it would cause some unnecessary confusion.
How, exactly, is this supposed to make things more efficient?

And, speaking of more efficient, What on earth is the logic behind making the Volume Readout on the Artist Mix only visible when you touch the fader? It is ridiculous to have to TOUCH a fader to get a readout WHICH CHANGES the readout value the second you touch the fader! Why can’t the readout stay on, like it does with the MC Control?

I’m having a difficult time trying to adapt to this hardware. So any insight on this stuff would be most appreciated.

#2

My guess is that since Avid moved from their proprietary protocol to Eucon it probably made more sense to keep functionality parity between devices except where it helped business. “Don’t fix it if it ain’t broken” kind’a thing. So since you have attention channels on other control surfaces there might be little reason to cripple the Artist series.

As for the “Why?” I think it makes sense depending on the surface you’re using. If you have a surface that has one section with more knobs, a screen etc, all laid out (physically) in the center of the entire device, then it can be nice to call attention to a track and have that show up in the “widest” possible control area. So rather than having a “limited” set of “in-line” knobs and buttons all the way left on your 33rd channel strip you can move that to right in front of the center of the screen and get access to a touch screen and more buttons or whatever. Ergonomically that may make sense.

Additionally, as long as you keep track of how things switch around you might be able to keep that channel attended where you want it, so as you bank through and tweak other channels that one attention-called channel remains the same. “Locked” in place if you will.

Those are a couple of use cases I can think of, but to be honest most of my work actually does not include wide control surfaces so I’m just talking out of one of my chakras here… maybe…