Looks great. I think that would be a long reach to the faders for me.
I was just looking at the x1s the other day…
I debated that exact issue for a couple months and I know what you mean.
The solution right now is that the whole system can slide forward and back about 8 inches. However, I’m getting pretty used to the faders where they are. It isn’t all the time that I have to grab more than one, so the faderport is set up to always be on the selected track.
X1’s are awesome, I really can’t find anything wrong with them so far.
Oh… Is this your setup?
Edit… I just looked at the GS thread again and found the answer. 
Hmmm. I may get an X1 now having seen your success.
For me, I am usually riding a bunch of faders at once. I have also debated putting mu MCU in the middle of my 2 exts.
Anyway, question:
One thing I say with the X1s that I didn’t like were the non-continuous rotary encoders. They stop at the ends right? I saw you have send levels assigned to them. Hows that working out for you? Do they latch when you spin them to connect to the existing send level or are they jumping as soon as you turn the knob?
I don’t know if this is of any help to you, but when I am in mix stages, I set up mixer views so I don’t have to page around. For me, 24 ch views seem to work. Sometimes they are a little larger than the mix surface, but usually only a page of 2 max. I access these via the mackie mcu. You do have to remember that if you shift click across the faders and you have hidden ones in the mixer view, it also selects the hidden ones. Also, if you are having weird automation write issues where it falls out of writing or is sporadic, the auto select has to be deselected in the device setup.
You may already know this, but just in case, you may find this useful.
Looks really good. Looking forward to hearing how you incorporate those X1s.
If you check out the gearslutz thread there is a long bit about the X1’s and how they are set up a few replies down. I’m starting to get used to it and things are really moving fast over here right now. I’m very pleased.
The top 8 knobs are just pots… and they do not wait till you’ve crossed the line before they start writing. They are not touch sensitive though so you can just sit on them and not worry. I don’t always automated send levels I have an old habit of automating the fx return. For me, this works well and there’s no need for the endless encoder. If I do need to get deep, typically it’ll be on a boom channel where I only want to send bits and pieces to the subharm. I’ll use these sends to set and write my ball park level, then I can bring up this send on the MCU fader in flip and automated the moves.
The middle knobs are endless rotory though.
I would have been much happier if I could have the MCU job wheel on the left hand side, If only mackie made an MCU control section as a separate piece I could have done it. Overall though I’m a big fan of MCU in the middle. Though the first time I set it up this way, “show LVL/PRM” stopped showing me the little meters on the scribble strip and they never came back. They only work if the MCU is alone withe no ext’s… pain in the butt.
I do use the saved mixer views ALL THE TIME. Huge time saver. Like you most of my views don’t get to big unless they have too. A cool bonus with the fader port is… if I select a track on the MCU, the faderport also controls it. I can then switch to different mixer views to get access to the rest of the board. fader port still controls the original track that is selected and I have access to all the channels in the new view… this was a feature of the Euphonix MC pro that I really wanted to emulate and I sorta did… it’s good enough.
I also always leave a “custom” mixer view on button 8. I finally learned how to tick/untick multiple selected channels with Can Hide. I still think this should be a simpler operation… but… I can do it with out too much time wasted… If I want to see VO, just the piano in the score, a verb return and some foley up on the faders… it’s doable.
Just got my self some make shift VCA’s
Mixer window has to be open for this to work
Hold shift, select tracks on the mackie that you want to control…
button on one of the traktors links the selected channels and now I can grab them all with the faderport fader.
Then another button will unlink the channels
I’m still getting used to it but it’s definitely faster than clicking and menu’ing and has a much more ‘on the fly’ feel
I actually kind of like this better than if we had VCA’s since there is nothing to really set up… you just do it and undo it