Throughout December we offered the opportunity for over 30 people to win a prize of your choice from an amazing bundle of prizes that we pulled together from our generous partners, worth around £30,000.
Each day, we took a closer look at each of the prizes in turn. Today we are looking at an Avid S1 Eucon Enabled Control Surface Worth $1295.
The competition closed on December 31st 2019 and we’re pleased to be able to announce the winner is Mike Greenberg.
My name is Mike Greenberg. I am a Re-recording Mixer based in Los Angeles. On any given day my duties include recording dialog for animated movies and tv programs, recording ADR for feature films, editing dialog and sound effects, and mixing content for broadcast and streaming platforms. I have been working in the world of sound for 28 years and evolved from the first days of Pro Tools and digital and analog multitrack recorders.
Originally from Chicago, my degree is in Sound Recording Technology from DePaul University and my first paid job out of college was in TV production for a nationally broadcast talk show. There I learned the importance of thinking on your feet and live mixing using a Neve console. For me, having a tactile surface helps me physically connect with the sound I am producing. Much like an instrument for a musician.
I am very grateful to Pro Tools Expert for winning this S1 control surface. I am very excited to upgrade my home studio to the latest hardware Avid is offering. The S1 will allow me to work more efficiently with its fast recall and visual feedback. I work on an S6 when I am in another studio and having the S1 will allow me to start a project at home and seamlessly transfer it to the studio without missing a beat.
Coming from the Artist Mix and Control, the S1 is going to be the upgrade I’ve been looking forward to. The S1 will provide a fast, tactile surface that will allow me to navigate large mix sessions quite easily.
Accompanied by the Avid Control App, the S1 will definitely help me speed up my workflow. My plan is to accompany the S1 with the Avid Dock to have a complete mixing system in my home studio, which will provide easy session navigation, quick access to plugin and send parameters, layouts, softkeys, and real-time metering.
Thank you to the team at Pro Tools Expert for continuing to provide a valuable service to all musicians, mixers, recording engineers, and technicians in the world of sound.
Who Is The Avid S1 Aimed At?
Simply put, it is aimed at music creation, audio post and video production professionals, more specifically freelancers working from home or in compact edit suites and mix rooms, whether that is engineers working in music creation, sound designers, audio post-production engineers like dialog editors, foley and sound effectors editors, or video editors. From recording and editing tracks to mixing and monitoring in stereo or surround, the Avid S1 has been designed to provide comprehensive control and visual feedback for any audio professional.
As the demand for new content continues to increase, audio post-production facilities are often juggling multiple projects across different mix rooms to stay on deadline. The Avid S1 has been created to provide the hands-on sound recording, editing, and surround mixing capabilities of bigger consoles in a much smaller footprint. Being a Eucon control surface, you get the deep DAW integration, for a range of DAWs and NLEs and flexibility in a versatile control surface designed for fast project turnaround. Plus, its price makes it an easier choice for freelance sound editors and mixers.
For video production, the Avid S1 can also provide the hands-on control needed to not only navigate large video projects quickly but also complete sound editing and mixing tasks with greater speed and precision than working with a mouse and keyboard, making it a versatile and slimline surface that fits easily between your display and keyboard.
More Than One DAW - Not Just Pro Tools
The Avid S1 is a portable and affordable slimline surface and because it is a EUCON control surface it is designed to work with multiple DAWs, like Pro Tools, Nuendo, Pyramix, Logic Pro, Cubase as well as NLEs like Media Composer and Premiere Pro that support Eucon powered control surfaces. Avid’s control protocol has been designed to deliver deep hardware/software integration not only with Pro Tools but a range of other DAWs and NLEs and is designed to give full touch and tactile access. You can even switch between multiple applications and workstations, all at the touch of a button.
Expandable
If you need more faders, Soft Keys, and/or transport controls, you will be able to connect up to four S1 units together to create an extended control surface with 32 faders that provide more tactile control to handle larger mixes. As well a four S1s, which clip together with magnets, you will be able to connect the Pro Tools Dock to the Avid S1 to add dedicated transport controls, a jog wheel, focus fader, and more under your fingertips.
The Avid S1 has been designed to deliver the best of both worlds, providing motorised, touch-sensitive faders, touch-sensitive knobs, and physical keys integrated with a touchscreen to support VCA spill, monitor control, custom layouts, and other pro-level capabilities to go way beyond what MIDI-based controllers can offer.
New Avid Control App
The Avid S1 not only features high-resolution OLED displays, that are in the Avid S3, but it also integrates with the free Avid Control iPad app, providing visual feedback to enhance your workflow. From track names, parameter values, and automation, to S6-style monitoring, metering, and channel processing views, you get the comprehensive feedback of a high-end console in a versatile surface for the budget-minded.
With the combination of the S1 and the free Avid Control app you can be very agile in your workflows like instantly jumping to tracks by simply selecting one in Tracks View or swiping through multiple channels in Mix View on the touchscreen, eliminating tedious software click-throughs, the Avid S1 automatically banks to follow your every move on the app.
This will also mean that the new version of the free Pro Tools Control app, to be renamed the Avid Control app will be released at the same time as the S1 depends on the new design and functionality of the new Avid Control app.
The Control app is being rewritten to provide high-res metering, including gain reduction as well as automation status and EQ, dynamics, and panning curves. On the monitoring side, the new app will offer S6 style monitoring control with a dedicated Monitoring View that will support up to 9.1 surround, where you can quickly assign and control talkback, listenback, and speaker sources and levels right from the surface to speed up recording and mixing workflows.
Android And iOS
Along with the new S1 surface, Avid has developed a new version of the Pro Tools Control app, updated with new features and tri-platform support. In order to use the new Avid S1 or the new Avid Control app you will need the new version of EuControl - 19.12. Now Avid Control can be used on all major mobile platforms, as well as any Eucon enabled DAW or NLE and unlocks the option to purchase a much more cost-effective tablet to use with the new S1, Avid Dock or the Avid Control app by itself.
You Really Have To See This In Action
Photos really don’t do this control surface and tablet combination justice, so we have made a video showing off some of the best features…
Is It Really That Good?
Alan has seen a lot of mixing consoles and assignable control surfaces in his time. As regular listeners to the podcast will know, his all-time favourite has, up till now, been the AMS-Neve DFC. However, the S1 with Avid Control is really changing that and also helping get him on better terms with it’s bigger siblings - the S3, S4 and S6.
When Alan recently used an S6, having been using the S1, Dock and Avid Control, he was amazed at how many functions directly translated across, and how easy using the S1 and Avid Control regularly, made it jump up when “playing big time”.
It strikes us that Avid has gone about the initial development of this surface in a different way. Rather than endless focus groups asking people what they want (everyone will want something vastly different), they’ve laden it up with everything they can do, then trimmed it back to have the essentials and the most requested features - enhanced visual feedback and the flip faders mode being mine.
Should I Buy This?
I would definitely say YES. Especially if you, like Alan, are used to using more than eight faders, finding that it enhances your speed and efficiency. In terms of value for money, with a Huawei or Amazon tablet instead of an iPad, you could get this for around £1425. Shopping around, you could put four of these together, along with an Avid Dock and five Android or Amazon tablets, for around £6650.
That gets you 33 decent faders, 40 good solid rotaries, 32 meters with Pan / EQ displays, 32 OLED displays, the list goes on. It actually really feels solid and not likely to break at a moment’s notice. Plus the packaging is great and comes with everything you need to get going, apart from the tablet of course.
Want To Learn More?
Check out all the content we have produced on the Avid S1…
See What Else You Can Win?
If you would like to win a prize like an Avid S1 Eucon Enabled Control Surface Worth $1295 then go over to our Win Page and see what prizes we have on offer.