| Digidesign Control|24 Control surface for Pro Tools
by Rudy Trubitt
January 30, 2001 As the power and flexibility of Digital Audio Workstations grows, one persistent question is "do I still need a mixing console?" A legitimate point, since many console duties have been absorbed by computer software and hardware. Still, an experienced mixing engineer will tell you a mouse is a poor substitute for a handful of silky-smooth, long-throw faders. This desire for tactile controls and the availability of high-powered, affordable digital consoles has lead many to contemplate pairing a DAW with an automated digital mixer.
Perhaps Pro Tools developer Digidesign had these prospective buyers in mind when they began a collaboration with Focusrite that lead to the Control|24. First, despite appearances the Control|24 is NOT a digital mixer. It’s a control surface for Pro Tools that happens to include some analog audio elements. As a control surface, you can use it to mix, edit and control processing of an entire Pro Tools session, although your computer keyboard and mouse will still come in handy for naming tracks, system navigation and other housekeeping tasks.
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Control|24 top panel
(Click for a close-up) |
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Control|24 bottom panel
(Click for a close-up) |
Control|24 doesn’t add any additional tracks, effects, DSP horsepower or other core audio functionality to your Pro Tools system, so you’ll still need your Mix Cards, DSP Farms and Pro Tools audio interfaces. But the Control|24 isn’t bereft of audio capabilities. For starters, it includes 16 Class-A design Focusrite mic/line inputs. These exit the rear of the unit as individual analog signals which are connected to your Pro Tools Audio Interface inputs. Outputs from the same Pro Tools interfaces can be returned to the Control|24’s 8 channel, stereo line-in submixer. This in turn feeds a control room monitoring section which includes full 5.1 facilities.
As its name suggests, the system includes 24 individual channel control strips. Each contains a motorized, touch-sensitive fader, a multi-function knob (which defaults to pan), dedicated buttons to open dynamics or EQ plug-ins assigned to that particular channel and switches for mute, solo, record arm, etc. A text display appears next to each rotary pan control. These normally show track names, but they can display other information as well. For instance, at the touch of a button, some or all the pan controls are instantly re-labeled as individual plug-in settings, such as EQ center frequency, reverb pre-delay and so on. Very slick.
Digi has targeted the unit at the high-end home or project studio. Priced at around $8,000, it isn’t for everyone. But having spent a lot of time mousing my way around a Pro Tools system, grabbing a handful of real faders and knobs sounds like a great idea to me. For more information, visit www digidesign.com. |
