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EUPHONIX ARTIST SERIES CONTROL SURFACE


Anderton

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Euphonix Artist Series: Prologue

 

Anyone who's read my articles over the years knows I'm a huge fan of control surfaces when running DAWs. I was brought up in the days of analog mixers, and while I certainly like using a mouse for editing, it's a "serial" device in a "parallel" world--there are so many times when mixing that I want to grab multiple faders that using a mouse by itself is just plain frustrating.

 

So I was pretty stoked when I heard Euphonix was coming out with the Artist Series control surfaces at Winter NAMM, for a couple reasons. First, Euphonix's reputation is such that I figured these would be pretty classy little controllers. Second, they wanted to do a pro review to help get the message out, so I figured I'd get a chance to really run them through their paces.

 

As it turned out, the Artist Series controllers were a big hit at NAMM. They're beautiful and functional, and surprisingly inexpensive given the specs and pedigree. There are two videos in the HC Theater as part of our NAMM 2008 coverage; when the video player appears, scroll down to the two Euphonix videos. I've also attached a couple pictures that Euphonix provided (top view and angle view). I'll be taking additional pictures as well.

 

Here's the press release from Euphonix that came out at NAMM:

 

Euphonix Announces MC Control and MC Mix Professional Control Surfaces for the Personal Studio

 

Euphonix, a world leader in large-format mixing consoles and controllers for over twenty years, has announced the MC Control and MC Mix professional control surfaces for its new Artist Series line of products that boasts revolutionary ergonomic, slim-line designs and brings the unparalleled speed, resolution and DAW integration of Euphonix's high-end professional consoles to the personal studio. The MC Control and MC Mix easily integrate into any studio, fitting perfectly between a computer keyboard and screen, and up to four units can be connected to create a larger, integrated control surface.

 

The MC Control and MC Mix feature EuCon, a high-speed control protocol developed by Euphonix that enables simultaneous control of multiple applications and even workstations over an Ethernet cable at 250 times the speed and eight times the resolution of MIDI. EuCon automatically detects whatever application is in the foreground and instantly sets the high-resolution touchscreen and OLED displays, motorized faders and arsenal of controls to match.

 

Euphonix has worked closely with the world's leading software developers like Apple, Steinberg, MOTU and others to deeply integrate native EuCon support into their DAWs to provide high-resolution, high-speed control over almost all DAW functions for an unmatched editing and mixing experience. The MC Control and MC Mix also support the HUI and Mackie Control protocols for even greater flexibility, at a faster speed and higher resolution than any other controllers. The new Euphonix MC Mix will ship in late January 2008 and be available at authorized Euphonix retailers at an estimated street price of $999.99, while the MC Control will ship March 2008 and sell at an estimated street price $1,499.99.

 

About Euphonix

 

Euphonix, a leading manufacturer of large-format digital audio consoles and controllers has provided customers worldwide with trusted broadcast, post, live sound and music production solutions for 20 years. Key products in the Pro Series line include Max Air, System 5 and S5 Fusion consoles as well as the System 5-MC and MC DAW controllers. The new Artist Series line includes the revolutionary MC Control and MC Mix controllers.

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I don't want to get too deep too fast here, but the heart of what makes this tick is the EuCon protocol. This is a high-speed, Ethernet-based protocol that transfers data at a higher resolution and faster speed than MIDI. Here's what Euphonix says about the protocol on the Euphonix site:

 

EuCon is a high speed Ethernet control protocol that allows the MC Control and MC Mix to seamlessly connect to any Mac OS X application. EuCon has been developed by Euphonix working closely with industry leading media application manufacturers such as Apple and Steinberg to implement this next generation MIDI control protocol.

 

EuCon is 250X faster and 8X more resolution than MIDI. Because it's faster, its control connectivity is much more responsive and feels like a real console. Euphonix implements EuCon in all of its large format pro consoles such as System 5, S5 Fusion, System 5-MC and MC Pro used by thousands of professionals throughout the world to mix movie, TV, music and live venue performances.

 

With the MC Mix and MC Control you get the same high-speed, high-resolution connectivity and control as the pros. The great thing about EuCon is that it not only works with applications that directly support EuCon, such as Nuendo and Logic Pro, but also with applications that support HUI, such as Pro Tools, or Mackie Control protocol applications, such as Final Cut Pro. There is no other protocol out there with this amount of versatility and power.

 

Multiple Workstations

Thanks to the EuCon protocol, any combination of the MC Control and MC Mix units can connect to a second Mac workstation.

 

Any Mac computer such as a Mac Pro, Macbook Pro, Macbook or an iMac, can act as the master Artist Series workstation. It runs both the EuControl and the MC Client applications which are included with each Artist Series unit.

 

EuControl not only manages how the MC Control and MC Mix units connect to the main workstation but also handles passing on EuCon commends when a second workstation is connected - all this is done seamlessly in the background.

 

The second workstation has the MC Client application installed to communicate EuCon commands from the first workstation with the applications on the second workstation. Workstation control selection can be done from a dedicated button on the MC Control or MC Mix units.

 

Keyboard commands from the first workstation can be passed over the EuCon connection to the second workstation or a second keyboard can be used. Preferences in EuCon allow either mode of operation.

 

DVI switching of the two workstations screens is required, or just simply use two monitors.

 

Audio from the second workstation needs to be fed into the Studio Monitor Express monitoring application in the first workstation - in the example above the Mac Pro's digital optical ports can be used.

 

No other controller has this type of architecture for easy switching between two workstations.

 

For the record, currently supported products include Digidesign Pro Tools, MOTU Digtal Performer, Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Soundtrack Pro, Propellerheads Reason, Ableton Live, Steinberg Cubase, and with version 7.02, Cakewalk Sonar. But wait - that's not a Mac OS X application. Well, apparently I need to hook the Euphonix into the Mac, then go to Sonar from there...or something like that. I'm sure I'll find out the full story during the course of writing this review, but I have plenty of Mac programs to keep me occupied in the mean time.

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Before getting into the review itself, for all the tech-heads out there, Euphonix did a detailed white paper on the EuCon protocol at the October 2006 AES. It's downloadable from the Euphonix site but as a convenience, it's attached here for downloading. It's a bit technical but hey, so are a lot of the people reading this.

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And while we're at it, here's the brochure about the Artist Series that you can download as a PDF file. It serves as a good introduction to the unit.

 

Okay, now I'm going to set up my photo studio (i.e., put a piece of cardboard on the floor and open the shades all the way so the sun comes in!) and take some photos.

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The packaging is pretty substantial; thick cardboard, with lots of foam inserts that look like they could withstand even the baggage handlers at Atlanta-Hartzfield airport.

 

The attached photo shows what comes with the unit. Clockwise from upper left:

 

* CD-ROM. This includes software for installing the Euphonix Artist Series, as well as software for specific applications, and the user manual.

 

* The unit itself.

 

* Ethernet crossover cable.

 

* Power supply.

 

*Optional mounts for angling the control surface.

 

* IEC-type line cord for the power supply.

 

* Quickstart guide and warranty information.

 

The Quickstart guide has instructions in English, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, and Korean. Each section is mercifully brief - you only need to go through seven pages for the English section.

 

Although you're advised to go to Euphonix.com/artist/support for the latest updates to the software and manual, it was a dead end. I presume the product is so new that it's simply not there yet.

 

In case you're wondering why there aren't pictures of the insides, which I usually do for Pro Reviews, the screws holding on the bottom plate need a small star-type wrench to undo them. I'll be going out after I post these photos to go get a set :)

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The eight faders on the front panel are long-throw faders with a good feel. The long-throw aspect is important, because the EuCon spec allows for 1,024 steps of resolution for faders, as opposed to MIDI's 128 steps.

 

This makes a big difference. I have a Panasonic DA7 digital mixing console that interpolates MIDI's 128 steps to generate 1,024 steps, and the feel is much more like an analog console. There's no "stair-stepping" and the sound is just plain cleaner. One of my pet peeves is control surfaces with short faders, so I'm glad these babies give you some room to move.

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Above each fader is a group of switches and a knob. The switches have a "soft" touch, sort of a rubbery feel. They don't click, which is kind of nice when you're trying to keep noise levels down in the studio.

 

In the first photo, you can see that some of the Solo and On buttons do double-duty as transport controls. You can also see the Select buttons.

 

The little Euphonix logo shows up in the display for each channel when you turn the unit on with nothing connected...I couldn't resist showing it :)

 

The second photo shows the page buttons to the left of the channels.

 

As someone who "plays" EQs and aux sends instead of treating them as set-and-forget parameters, I do wish the knobs had just a slightly larger diameter. I realize that there's a tradeoff, because if the knobs were too big, then that would interfere with using the switches and you could also hit the switches accidentally. But I think even an extra 1/8" or 1/4" of diameter would make for a bigger "target" if you have relatively big hands (as I do).

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The first photo is a close-up of some of the navigation buttons. The second photo shows selection buttons that give you an idea of what to expect in terms of parameters you can control: buttons for inserts, EQ, aux, pan, etc.

 

That's pretty much it for a guided tour of what the front panel looks like. As luck would have it, I have a loaner Intel Mac here that I'll be setting up tonight to use with the MC Mix for this Pro Review. I do have a dual G5, and the Artist Series will work with that; but I think that the Artist Series is the type of product line that will probably be used by a more "cutting-edge" type of musician, so it's probably important that I move some things around in the studio so I can use the Intel Mac for testing. As a bonus, it has the latest version of Logic installed so we'll see how the Artist Series works with that as well as other apps I can install such as Cubase, Reason, Live, etc.

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I finally found a set of Torx wrenches with tips small enough to take the case apart (thank you, Ace Hardware). By the way, I like to take gear apart not just out of a love of undressing a nice piece of gear and seeing it naked, but also, because I'm always curious whether something is easy to service or not. When a unit contains things like faders--particularly motorized faders--this is an important consideration because if you can repair something in the field, you'll save yourself the time of sending it back to the factory.

 

When I took off the back (where I saw that the unit is made in China, so don't feed it to your pets), I was pleasantly surprised to see a wrap-around metal grounding sheet (first photo) to minimize any possible EMI. They could have saved a few bucks by not including this, and no one would have noticed (well, at least until this Pro Review went live!). So, props for helping promote a cleaner studio environment from an electro-magnetic standpoint.

 

I started poking around to find the brains of thing, which appears to be a Freescale Semiconductor Coldfire MCF5328 (second photo). If the name Freescale rings a bell, then you might have seen the video from AES where Marcus Ryle of Line 6 talks about using their development system to let basically anyone with rudimentary DSP chops program their effects units for custom effects.

 

Anyway, the MCF5328 is a microprocessor that handles the LCD but also includes a fast Ethernet controller, timers, clocks, and the like. The core system clock runs at up to 240MHz, which is pretty speedy for an embedded controller.

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The first photo shows a close-up of the moving faders. I tried to see the brand, but couldn't make it out...maybe someone from Euphonix can chime in.

 

As to service, it seems that Euphonix follows the old maxim: The products that are easiest to service hardly ever need servicing. Euphonix has a good rep for reliability, but if a fader should go, it appears to me that the technically adept could replace it easily.

 

Moving faders take some current, so I wanted to check out the power supply. The second photo shows what I'm pretty sure is the power supply, what with its regulators and electrolytic caps.

 

Finally, the third photo shows an overall view of the circuit board. As you can see, it has a fairly spacious layout...not a lot of parts crammed close together, which promotes cooler operation and less component stress. You can make out the white Ethernet connector in the upper right.

 

Okay, bottom line: Despite the sub-$1000 price, the MC Mix is well-designed and doesn't seem to cut corners on construction. It's eminently field-serviceable, either by simply swapping out the board, or in the case of the faders, being able to replace them without much effort.

 

I don't mean to dwell on this except for the fact that Euphonix makes pro-level gear, and people using it probably can't tolerate much downtime. Even if a product is 99.999% reliable, if you're that 0.001% and something goes out just before you're scheduled to take something to the Fed Ex dropoff, it makes a big difference whether you get back up and running in minutes or whether you have to run to an authorized service center or worse yet, send the product to the factory for servicing and wait a few days.

 

Well, I like to put in at least an hour a day for a Pro Review, and...time flies when you're having fun, but it also seems to fly if you're taking units apart and photographing them. Next up: Installing the software, and plugging in the magic Ethernet cable. The suspense builds! See ya tomorrow.

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All right...software time. I had mentioned that the Artist Series URL at www.euphonix.com/artist/support was a dead end. Well, not anymore...I went there again, and it's fully populated with downloads, support, FAQs, etc.

 

So I downloaded the new software to check things out.

 

First, I'm in the middle of getting the system going and so far, I have to say that the manual and installation software really holds your hand throughout the process. (I might not be saying this if I was going through a router instead of directly to my computer, because networks and I don't seem to get along very well. Maybe I'll get to check it out at some point.)

 

That process basically involves double-clicking on a .DMG file, sitting back, and letting it install its applications or drivers or whatever it needs...all I know is I just followed the directions, hooked up the Ethernet cable, and the controller was definitely communicating with the computer.

 

I figured I'd start off with the Mackie Control emulation thing as I'm very familiar with Digital Performer. For Mackie Control, you drag the application icon over to a preferences pane, select Mackie Control, then reboot. I noticed, though, that if you call up the preferences pane after rebooting, it doesn't show the application...we'll see if it "sticks" or not.

 

Well, off to the other computer to set up DP for Mackie Control. I haven't done this before, so hopefully I'll be back in a couple minutes and report all was well.

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For some reason, the controller is just kind of sitting there. I can't enable buttons, and moving controls doesn't do anything in DP.

 

The only two things I can think of are 1) pilot error, like I'm missing some preference in Performer, or 2) the fact that the Euphonix window under System Preferences doesn't list the application after a reboot, and you need to reboot it in order to (at least in theory) save the preference.

 

I think I'll quit for tonight, and try again with Logic Pro tomorrow.

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This was the complete opposite experience...can't get much more plug and play than this:

 

* Installed software in Intel Mac.

* Plugged in Artist Series MC Mix.

* Opened Logic.

 

Everything worked! Yup, faders faded, panners panned, select buttons selected, etc. etc.

 

I'll get more into this tomorrow, and maybe someone from Euphonix can tell me what I'm doing wrong with the Performer/Mackie emulation thang. I'm a little short for time today because I'm fixing two older computers (one fixed--I needed to swap out the motherboard--and one to go, it just needs a new power supply) and it took me longer than I had hoped. But I must say, having the MC Mix work perfectly with Logic Pro was a nice way to close out the day.

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The more I think about it, the more I think I'm doing something wrong...I've never used a Mackie Control with Performer before, so it's very likely I don't have Performer set up properly. However, the fact that the Preference doesn't "stick" makes me wonder if there isn't a bug. Maybe I should try the older software instead of the update and see if that makes a difference.

 

Oh by the way, one more P.S.: The faders are indeed Alps faders.

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I have been awaiting a Euphonix product release like this for at least a year now.

 

I am very excited by the Logic Pro integration. My primary curiosity is how well one can navigate plug-ins and the mix process in general while concentrating on interacting with the surface more so than the computer display.

 

Any possibility you will have the change to test third party plug-in support such as with the UAD-1? It would be very nice to know how well these plug-ins can be nagotiated directly from the control surface...?

 

Thanks Craig and thank you Euphonix for filling the void :-)

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I am very excited by the Logic Pro integration. My primary curiosity is how well one can navigate plug-ins and the mix process in general while concentrating on interacting with the surface more so than the computer display.


Any possibility you will have the change to test third party plug-in support such as with the UAD-1? It would be very nice to know how well these plug-ins can be nagotiated directly from the control surface...?


Thanks Craig and thank you Euphonix for filling the void :-)

 

 

I will be checking out the integration, for sure. I haven't used Logic much recently, but Logic Pro 8 is changing that...so this will provide an excellent opportunity not just to learn about the MC Mix, but also, it should help hone my Logic chops.

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I got a call from Euphonix today about my Digital Performer problems. Seems they'd encountered this a few other times in the past, and repairing permissions solved the problem.

 

So I repaired permissions, and...yes! Everything works fine. The track names show up in the display, the faders and panning moves, etc. etc. The integration is clearly not as tight using Mackie emulation as it is with Logic Pro, but hey, it does what a Mackie Control does :)

 

I also checked the System Preferences > Euphonix pane and the MOTU DP settings now "stick."

 

Props to Euphonix for getting on this so fast. I realize this is a high-visibility situation, but based on what I've heard from others, Euphonix in general is good about tech support.

 

Note to Euphonix: May I suggest adding something to your FAQs about how people should try to repair permissions if Mackie Control mode is non-functional.

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Question...

 

When I'm using my G5 Mac, which has only one Ethernet port, I'd like to be able to run the MC Mix and access the internet so I can post here while using the setup. My internet comes from a router.

 

What's the simplest/cheapest way to be able to run both internet and MC Mix at the same time? I'm really a moron when it comes to networks, so be patient...

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I am very excited by the Logic Pro integration. My primary curiosity is how well one can navigate plug-ins and the mix process in general while concentrating on interacting with the surface more so than the computer display.

 

 

I think that's a very good standard by which to judge the MC Mix, and I'll concentrate on that next.

 

I started playing around by calling up the various projects included with Logic Pro. Interestingly, they all worked fine except for "Le Disko" by Shiny Toy Guns; whenever I called it up, the EuControl application crashed although Logic remained open. If I tried to re-open EuControl, it just crashed again. It was the only song that did this, so there must be some element about it that EuControl doesn't expect. About the only clues I have are that it opens up with a movie window, and that if you click on play, it goes through a process of rebuilding fades and such -- none of the other files did this.

 

I mention this not as a diss, but because it seems so repeatable that hopefully Euphonix can call up that tune and see why this happens.

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Let's look at the basics. When you turn on the MC Mix with Logic, it's ready to go:

 

* The display shows the track name.

* The knob defaults to pan.

* Each channel's mute/solo/on status is reflected on the control surface.

* The fader settings are reflected on the control surface.

* The selection buttons toward the lower right default to the Mix/Pan function.

 

Let's look at each aspect in a little more detail.

 

Track name: The Euphonix display is 8-10 characters wide, and very readable, with yellow lettering on a black background (which implies to me that the Euphonix engineers know about the study showing that yellow on black is the most readable color combination). You can see this in the attached photo.

 

A word of advice: A long time ago, I got into the habit of naming DAW channels using 8 characters because then even if I made the channel view narrow so I could fit more channels onscreen, I could still determine what the track was. I would recommend taking this approach with the MC Mix -- or any controller, for that matter -- because if you switch banks, seeing a channel change from BACKING to BACKING isn't as helpful as seeing BCKVOC1 change to BCKVOC2. I'm not sure why some MC Mix channels show 8 characters and others show 10; that's not a complaint, as I'm used to naming with 8 characters...I'm just curious.

 

The selected (what Euphonix calls "attentioned") track is underlined, which is helpful. As we'll see later on, the left side of each display shows a meter (either mono, stereo or 5.1, depending on the type of track) with clip indicator, while to the right of the knob strip you'll see the automation status (R, W, RW). To lengthen the life of the OLED (organic LED) display, it dims after a user-settable amount of time (from 1 minute to never), as determined in the EuControl application. After dimming occurs, you can return the display to full brightness simply by touching or moving anything on the control surface.

 

Pan knob: When you turn the panning knob (which of course can control other parameters, this is just the default), a numeric value appears above the pan knob graphic (the strip that shows the pan position). As soon as you stop turning, the label goes back to identifying the control. This is smart, as opposed to showing the value continuously, because you always know a a glance which parameter is being controlled by the knob. But wait -- it gets better! The knob is touch-sensitive, so you don't need to turn the knob to see the value: Just touch it. If you've ever had devices where the only way to see the value was to actually move the knob, you'll appreciate this to no end. Very cool.

 

Mute/on/off: This is pretty obvious. Again referring to the photo, each channel has an On button and a Solo button, which work the same way as on a normal console. If On is not enabled, then the channel is muted. Solo, of course, mutes other channels while soloing the selected one; but the Solo function is additive, so you can enable multiple Solo buttons to solo multiple channels -- you don't need to do Ctrl-Solo or anything like that. I haven't figured out a way to cancel all Solos at the same time, though, and didn't see anything in the manual that explained how to do this. Maybe someone at Euphonix has an answer...if not, I have a suggestion: It seems that hitting Shift then hitting a Solo button doesn't do anything. Perhaps a function could be added where going Shift/Solo button disables all solos.

 

It's also worth noting that at least with Logic Pro, this is all bi-directional: Click Solo on Logic, and the Solo button lights on the MC Mix. Ditto channel on/off.

 

Fader settings: Yes, the faders reflect what's on screen, and if you move either the physical or on-screen fader, the other fader follows suit. Like the knobs, these are touch-sensitive: Touch the fader, and the track name is replaced with a numeric value representing the slider setting (e.g., -3.85 for -3.85dB). I didn't find any way to "fine-tune" the fader setting (e.g., holding a shift key while moving the fader), but we're talking about pretty fine resolution anyway -- for example, the fader value passes through eight discrete values while going from 0 to -1dB: -0.04, -0.16, -0.28, -0.40, -0.53, -0.65, -0.77, and -0.90.

 

The only questionable aspect was moving ganged faders, as the ganged fader you're not moving follows along, but with a lag. That's to be expected; every device I've seen with moving faders works this way. However, when you stop moving one of the faders, the other usually ends up in the same physical position, but not always; there was often about a 1/8" offset. Fortunately, the fader value does not reflect this offset -- both faders are set to the same electrical level, even if their physical position is slightly offset.

 

Also, due to fact that we are dealing with mechanical devices, a quick flick of one ganged fader will often cause the other to appear to "overshoot" before settling back to the correct position. However, this most definitely does not overshoot at Logic Pro's mixer, which follows the motion of the fader you're moving faithfully, and the ganged fader follows suit perfectly within the program. My advice is to just consider the fader you're moving as "the real thing," and not be concerned about any apparent discrepancies with the ganged fader, as these do not affect the program at all.

 

Selection buttons: We'll get more into this subject later, but these are the buttons that select various functional groups. For example, if you want to control EQ with the knob, you can hit an EQ button and now the knobs are in "EQ-land." Hit the Mix/Pan button, and the knob goes back to being a pan control.

 

Next time, we'll check into how to move beyond the default control functions for the knob.

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