N5 with Mackie Control pro or Euphonix Artist Mix ?

Given I have 100’s of tracks I need a robust automated mixer. i have read many posts here where the Euphonix is not performing well in a windows environment. Can anyone chime in on both of these? How its working for you? i am leaning towards the mackie because it offers more control options f keys etc, and I owned the first version years ago.

Thx much :slight_smile:

At one time I owned 32ch of mackie control. Works great with nuendo and the F-keys can be assigned to pretty much anything. I even built a custom desk around them, I really really liked them.

Then I bought an mc transport. This was my first experience with Eucon control. It only worked in nuendo 5.1 32bit but I really liked what I was able to do.

When 5.5 came out along with 64bit eucon support, I packed up the mackie rig and when with Avid all the way. I did experience a few of the weird behavior claims but since the there have been free software and firmware updates that have solved them. No more jitters or noise.

The latest eucon update also solved a long standing issue for me. I think the nuendo automation window is just way too big. I hate having to keep it in view to remember what auto modes I’m in. Now the eucon touch screen buttons dynamically get brighter and blink to show that something is active. I really don’t need to look at the panel at all any more.

I do not miss my mackie set up. In fact I finally sold the whole lot last week. The best thing about the eucon controllers how you can constantly add to their functioality and program your own controls. I’ve gotten used to the knob behavior and I think its actually pretty smart. I will definitely be adding a second MC Mix to my set up and I would recomend them over Mackie control

Start with a Control, you’ll be glad you have it. It does a LOT that the mix doesn’t do

I think the mackie HUD defaults to controlling all faders in order,
WIth the mackie were you able to assign tracks of your choice to the faders in your order needed? I need to control group channels (stems) and audio tracks as well as mute midi thru on midi tracks on the fly (fast way to turn off brass section and give the vst a rest vs muting brass audio) when sketching ideas… :nerd:

Yes Mackie will reflect the Nuendo mixer. You can set up mixer saved nuendo mixer views and trigger them directly from the control surface. The faders will always match what you are seeing. Truth be told, I was really disappointed at first that Avid didn’t do this. Avid has a different approach called Layouts. Lay outs take more time to set up but you can trigger them from the Control or the Transport. Layouts are saved with the project file. A major downside to Layouts is, (I have 12 faders) I can’t build a layout that is more than 12 faders and keep it useful. When you are in a layout, you can no longer bank. So I use it sparingly and it’s a big reason why I’m getting another MC mix (or 2)

As far as executing the idea you are describing goes, you can use either controller and still do it using the Project Logical Editor. If all brass channels have the name BRASS in them, you can tell PLE to find and select “brass” and mute them. You could have that whole thing on a single button that is completely independent of what your faders look like.

For example, I have buttons that will select all tracks that have “FX.a” in the name. That same button also brings up a panel of new controls on my screen, like, mute,solo, link, unlink, select all, group, lock etc etc etc. You can tell the Mackie F buttons to trigger these also.

It doesn’t matter where I am in the session, this button will always select my FX.a tracks. I have a couple pages of these. I have another group of pages that just names tracks… If I find I need a couple more dialog tracks in DX.c group… I just add them, select all DX.c plus the new tracks and hit the rename button… all the tracks will be renamed and numbered, colored, and the new tracks will be part of the matrix of commands.

The whole system takes a bit to set up, but once it’s done, you can stay in that creative mind set and just work

Wow thx for the ple tip. Are you saying that I would be stuck with the mixer order that I see in n5 using mackie, or you mean that is the default and I could assign faders in any order I choose regardless of track order in sequencer? I like the recall feature I will need to pull up drums or maschine banks on the fly. I think you are referring to banks meaning a mixer profile saved. What makes the avid difficult after 12 faders? John

Mackie control will mirror the nuendo mixer. If you hide tracks in the nuendo mixer, they will no longer be on the controller. If you save mixer views, say tracks 2,8,22,44 only, you can recall that via the mackie control default buttons and the control surface will only show those 4 tracks. If you save a mixer view that has more channels than available faders, that is fine, you are able to bank left and right to access the rest of your view. If you go down this road, read “how to create mixer views on the fly” http://www.gearslutz.com/board/post-production-forum/629890-couple-tips-nuendo-users.html Also check this out. http://www.gearslutz.com/board/post-production-forum/622152-desk.html

You can show/hide any channels on the mackie, but you can NOT assign them to a different order.

The 12 fader problem with the avid specific to me because I have 12 faders on my control/mix combo. The core of the problem is, when you recall an Avid layout, that’s all you get. For example, if I have 13 tracks that I want to focus on, I can’t because I can no longer bank left or right with in the saved layout. I believe that this will be fixed one day, but currently this is how it is.

You can assign any channel order on the avid controllers, but it’s done with in the layout. You are not able to quickly set up a layout using macros the way I describe in the thread above. There are a few steps and it’s definitely a mental break from what you are doing. Best to set up the layouts as your edit.

The avid mixers reflect the protools mixer in the exact way the mackies reflect the Nuendo mixer. I do a fair amount of protools work too and my main concern was a mixer that will work with both platforms. Mackie control only works in HUI mode with protools.

WOW Kid Dropper, thanks for that info. I have to assign buttons then.
Agree on the size of N’s automation window…

Ollie

excellent information, I didnt use track views before and now see the purpose ( well one purpose of many) , ok, I am going to try the mackie first, its a workhorse, has a large transport, and has a host of buttons f keys, bank left and right forever… :mrgreen: will send an update in a few weeks. You have been a great resource thank you for that.



EuCon is where the Euphonix shines - no contest with a Mackie Control in my opinion. I haven’t missed my Mackie Control units since replacing them with Euphonix.

Hi guyz…

Anyone interested in the Mackie…be aware there is an ongoing issue with the backlight.

Mine is 10 months old, and the light has died…very hard to read the scribble strip…
There own forum has numerous unanswered mails about this…
There are solutions, but none offered as far as I can see by Mackie…

My backlight died, it was my first push to euphonix. After about 3 weeks, the backlight suddenly come back to life and worked as good as new. I don’t think it dies, I think it gets confused. The timeout dimmer gets stuck in the off position. I have no idea what I did that made it come back.

Mackie has had manufacturing problems. I did speak to a support rep that was very knowledgeable though. All in all, the eucon controllers are the future . A mix/control combo does everything mackie does and everything mackie doesn’t… except follow the freaking mixer show/hide

I will not speak of the zero problems I have had with my (1st gen emagic) mackie controllers!

klonk on wood

I record and mix mostly music and they work great for that. The mackies are not my sole control though. I do wish they worked better with pro tools and didn’t need to be rebooted and function changed every time I switch between nuendo and pro tools. They also just don’t work well at all with protools and I haven’t been able to figure out why.

Yes, I looked into this , and I see the posts for issues with the backlight, thats too bad, mackie has been an iron horse, so I am going to to try both controllers and take one back, if the Artist mix works well within windows 64 bit, it will be hard to return it, but I owned the first generation makie controller and really liked it…

I am about 4 hrs into the Artist Mix, its sleek, and I see it can controll my 2nd PC ( 2nd workstation of 4 on my network) mixer running Cubase with a flip of the switch , wow. But, in order to lock the faders to tracks I select, and then recall the fader set, I need to spring for the Artist Control and spend another 1500, thats not fair, otherwise, the only other complaint is I cant see a way to assign key commands like the mackie can, so its a very expensive mixer with access to inserts and other workstations…thoughts? not drinking the coolaide just yet, :mrgreen:


Use EuControl application to lock particular faders to particular tracks. You can store these as layouts and then recall them from EuControl (or set up a EuCon command to recall them).

I just have the artist mix for now, and didn’t see a way to recall the layout with the mix, I tried key pad, no luck, how are you pulling the layouts up with mix ?

I tried the Aritst mix and Control, I think 3K is way to steep for this set up , the HUD on the control is small, positioned on top instead of center or closer to your body, not easy to ready, you can enlarge the font on soft keys, but not on the tracks ( I think)…the mix and control together take up alot of desk top realestate, .so, given the rapidly evolving application world,…I am Going with TouchOSC , I think thats the future and a twenty dollar investment for app and internal midi connectors ( plus Ipad, which you can use for home as well ) - note I am not a post house but a composer doing post for scores I pick up, so its all about workflow I need to recall custom fader sets by instrument ( brass, strings, sound design, etc) and jump to tracks ( out of 100’s) , mute, solo, and midi thru enable - disable most of all - :bulb: