Last week, we took in a quintet of top-notch MIDI controller keyboards, and here we’re following up with the same number of dedicated (sans keyboard) control surfaces. Every one of these superb boxes enables you to get hands-on with your virtual mixer and plugins using various MIDI-based protocols, across a range of physical formats and price points, so there should be something to suit any working method and budget.

Mackie Control Universal Pro

With a history stretching back well over two decades, to the groundbreaking Mackie HUI, Logic Control and Mackie Control, the Mackie Control Universal Pro brings the DAW mixer as close as it gets to feeling and operating like a physical desk. Reassuringly hefty in its metal casing and connecting over USB 2.0, the MCU Pro features eight channel strips, each comprising a motorised, touch-sensitive fader, rotary encoder, and Mute, Solo, Select and Record Arm buttons, plus a master fader, transport section and jog wheel, and separate displays for parameter feedback and timeline position. You can also add further banks of eight channel strips via the MCU Pro Expander, of which as many as you like can be connected.

Your DAW has to actively support the MCU or HUI protocol to work with the MCU Pro (most do – Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, Studio One, Live, Reason et al), and the power yielded by such deep integration is impressive, automatically mapping not only the mixer but all plugin controls to the hardware for a supremely slick and engaging workflow. It’s an amazing controller, although it comes at a price to match its capabilities.

PreSonus Faderport 8/16

Straightforward and competitively priced, PreSonus’ DAW controller comes in eight- and 16-channel versions, plugs into your Mac or PC via USB 2.0, and works with the company’s own Studio One application and any DAW that supports MCU or HUI. Mixer representation is literal, with Mute, Solo and Select buttons, and scribble strip displays above each fader, but, strangely, no pan pots (panning for the selected channel is set using a shared knob); and taking control of plugins and automation is easy and effective enough in MCU or HUI modes.

In use, though, it’s apparent that the Faderport 8/16 was built first and foremost – and understandably, of course – for Studio One, where the integration is tighter, deeper and more fluid than with other DAWs, making the hardware a genuine selling point for the software. That’s not to say that non-S1 users shouldn’t take a long, hard look at PreSonus’ well-built controller, mind, particularly given the price differential between it and the Mackie Control Universal Pro. Also worth mentioning is the smaller Faderport, which gives you a single channel strip’s worth of control for less than 200 quid.

Behringer X-Touch

Another MCU/HUI-powered option, this one aiming to undercut the Mackie Control Universal Pro itself in typical Behringer style, the X-Touch packs in a ton of features at a very appealing price. The eight channel strips (touch-sensitive and motorised faders, rotary encoders, scribble strip/parameter displays, plus the usual buttons) and master fader sit alongside a comprehensive array of selection and function buttons, transport controls, a playback counter display and a multi-purpose jog wheel, all of which aggregate to truly make the most of the MCU implementation, which is excellent across the board. HUI mode isn’t quite so fully featured, however, so Pro Tools users aren’t as well supported as those of Logic, Cubase, Studio One, etc.

The X-Touch can also lay claim to housing more I/O than any of the other controllers in our list, including three USB ports (one for host computer connection, the others for use as a USB hub), 5-PIN MIDI In/Out, three pedal inputs and an Ethernet port for network connectivity. It can also be added to with any number of ‘eight-channel’ X-Touch Extender units, and there’s a smaller-scale generic MIDI (with Mackie Control emulation) sibling to consider, too, in the X-Touch Compact.

Softube Console 1 and Console 1 Fader

Softube’s controller duo takes a rather different approach to the others here, hooking into an accompanying plugin loaded onto every channel in the host DAW’s mixer that effectively turns it into an SSL 4000 simulation. Add-on channel strips and processors by SSL, Chandler, Weiss, Empirical Labs and Summit Audio are also available, and the system is compatible with many UAD-2 plugins, too.

The main Console 1 unit gives direct 1:1 controller mapping to the parameters for the selected channel, and its EQ and dynamics sections; while the Console 1 Fader (ten touch-sensitive, motorised faders) adds operation of level control, filter cutoffs, drive amount and more. You can buy each one separately or as a bundle, and there’s no limit to the number of Console 1 Fader units that can be attached if you have space and funds to expand.

The simulations are, as you’d expect from Softube, flawless in their accuracy and response, and Console 1’s combination of mix-transforming sonics and laser-focused control makes for an incredible and hugely rewarding mixing experience.

Nektar Panorama P1

Deploying their proprietary DAW-specific integration technology, the Panorama P1 is geared up to provide seamless customised control of Logic, Studio One, Cubase, Nuendo, Reaper, Reason and Bitwig Studio, but also incorporates a powerful generic MIDI mode for freeform programming of CCs, notes and other MIDI messages, and QWERTY keystroke chains. The top panel hosts nine 45mm faders, 16 rotary encoders, 38 buttons (ten of them ringed with LED collars) and a 3.5” colour TFT display for parameter feedback and direct on-unit MIDI programming, and the whole thing looks good and feels fine under the hand, given the price.

The control and modal implementation varies from DAW to DAW, as you’d expect from such a tailored solution, and while there’s certainly a learning curve to be negotiated in all cases, once mastered, flipping between mixer and plugin control becomes quick and intuitive. On the latter front, controller maps are built in for many instruments and effects (including all those of each host DAW), and the parameters of those that aren’t pre-mapped are automatically arranged in the order delivered by the DAW.

By far the cheapest option in our round-up, the Panorama P1 works brilliantly with its supported DAWs and makes for a wonderfully flexible general purpose MIDI controller beyond that.

Did your MIDI controller of choice make our list? Share your thoughts in the comments.