AVID Artist Mix+Transport owners - a question...

Hey guys!
Any of you own a Avid Artist controller?
I’m looking out to retire my old JL Cooper, and actually waiting for Behringer to finally come out with the X-Touch, but more and more I’ve been considering a combo of the Artist Mix and Transport. I really like the elegant appearance and it looks rock solid, but I do have some questions, if you’ve got the time:

  1. How does it play with Cubase/Nuendo? Would you say integration’s nice and tight, or does it have functional limitations á la MCP?
  2. It doesn’t look like either Artist sports an abundance of buttons. Is there something missing on the surface that would qualify as a grade-A PITA?
  3. The display on the Artist Transport LOOKS elegant, but is it large enough, what functions can you map to it and is it easily readable?
  4. How do the faders/jog-wheel feel?
    I’d love to hear about your experiences! Thanx a lot in advance! :slight_smile:

AVOID is a royal PITA, there is still no support for 10.9.5 or 10.10.x on macs.

The controllers are okay for levels. I use the MC Control for some extra features like write to start/end/loop and talkback or solo reset. That’s VERY handy because the automation panel on Nu 6.5. is still so annoyingly large and it’s nice to have a quick visual feedback.

Forget about the current version of EuCon and the transport!
It is in a COMPLETE MESS and causes Nuendo to crash regularly if you map the keys to anything other than the standard commands. I have finally decided to take it off my table, it was just such an annoyance to me, I could not bear this piece of junk anymore.
(My shuttle pro works like a charm on the same machine)

The units are quite cheap, so you cannot really go wrong if you want just levels. Anything other than that is just pure annoyance. AVOID has the tendency to ruin everything audio…

Hi

Working with a Control and a Mix since years - in the older days it’s called Euphonix :wink: , had to replace the Control with an AVID Artist Control - all works like a charme with the EUCON version 2.7.1 - all the newer versions are buggy (I think).

For me it’s a hugh time safer to have the commands right on the touch screen - no searching for menu’s or thinking about KC. As well as the physical handling of a real fader cannot be adapted into SW. I love to have the feeling in my fingertips.

But…

To get there, some programing work must be done.

Won’t miss it anymore… :stuck_out_tongue:


Cheers

I have a Control and a Transport, I’m on a Mac Pro OS10.8.5, running N6.5 and Eucon 3.1 and it works perfect. Once in a while the Eucon software freezes, but restart the app and you’re good to go.

The only thing I can think of is the touchscreen of the Control. It sometimes reacts a bit slow or inaccurate.

It is large enough, but if you work a lot on it you memorize the buttons, so I never reed the display anymore. Keycommands and Macro can be mapped to it.

The faders feel good, the first fader (out of four on the Control) I use the most and after 4 1/2 years of everyday use it sometimes begins to stutter a bit. The jogwheel is OK, not very solid, but OK for the money.

I think for a €1500,- set up it works perfect. I use it every day in audio post-production, for the last 4 1/2 years and never thought of changing to a different set. And yeah, you need to program it to customize it to your workflow, but it’s really easy.

Best, Alan

I love my MC Control. Miss it like crazy when I’m on the road!

Chewy

I have an MControl, Transport and Mix. The transport Jog wheel is fantastic, it has a nice weight to it and you can adjust the jog resolution, it is great for editing. There is a shuttle ring on the transport that is great too.
All the buttons are customizable, even the number pad can be programmed for key commands and macros. You can also program the Jog wheel to perform as an “assignable knob”, meaning any parameter you hover over that is controllable with the mouse, the wheel will control it. For example you can move the faders on the mixer with jog wheel, eq parameters etc. and also any VST3 plugin parameters can be controlled that way.
The Artist mix is great for plugin control too, one great thing is you can “flip” channels so the faders control plugin parameters.
You have to spend some time learning the shortcuts to get used to getting to the controls easily, but once you have the muscle memory down, they are great to work with IMO.
I have done a few tutorial videos on controlling Nuendo with an MC control, here is a link.

Thanks a lot for your input, fellas! :slight_smile: Looks like it’s something to consider. I’m gonna give the x-touch another month’s chance to be released, but if that doesn’t transpire, the Artist’s a go. Gonna have a look at it at the Frankfurt Musikmesse next month. Who knows, maybe I’ll fall in love on the spot!
Gonna miss the JL Cooper though, but after 13(!) years of rock solid service the faders are starting to glitch beyond recovery. I doubt I’ll ever again own such a dependable controller, though…

Eucon now supports os x 10.10.
Have not tried this yet.

It is better than earlier.