I’ve just bought a CS12 to use with Cubase and I’m looking at control surfaces with multiple faders. Don’t really need anything with lots of fancy plug-in control options as I have that covered with the CS12 and a Softube Console 1 MK1. What I want is something that handles the basics of a channel, so volume, pan, mute, solo, sends etc.
I’ve looked at the UF8 and Softube Fader 1 MK3 - both look nice, but expensive. Behringer X-Touch/XT-Compact look ok too, as does the Faderport 8.
Comments from people who’ve used any of the above would be great, especially any annoyances & things not quite working properly.
would make sense to go with the softube since you already have the Console. I have a Faderport 16, it is solid and works for exactly that - controlling volume faders, pan, mute and solo. Also a nice transport bar and some other buttons. Solid in mackie mode with Cubase (both on Windows and MAC) and have been for years. I also tried the icon faders and it was a bad experience for me
I borrowed a FP16 quite a while ago, probably around 2019, and there were various odd character strings (things like 01101010) and other random stuff on the displays when I used it with Cubase. Do those sort of things still happen?
The Mkiii fader is a lovely piece of hardware, direct daw control is brilliant, no more loading plugs on every channel. If only it had a pan knob per channel it would be perfect but it’s pretty damn good as is. I hesitated a long while after bad experience with Mk1 fader software but no regrets with this one.
I think devices based on mackie MCU protcol is the the best choice in the long run. Products like UF8 and Softube are dependent on software. Icon and behringer have MCU based controllers. If there is no budget constraints here is also avid.
