The modular control surface concept isn't anything new. In fact, buying control surfaces in stages or as a complete configurable collection of components has been a popular choice for many decades. The good news is that over the years we have seen the price of modular control surfaces coming down, making them a whole lot more affordable.
In this article, we explore a selection of low-cost solutions that you can buy in stages and expand over time, which is especially helpful if you are on a budget.
What Do We Mean When We Say Modular?
For us, two or more devices need to be able to work together in tandem to gain modular control surface status. Such modular solutions can be either a pair of matching devices or different units within a family of products that users can chain together to make a system bespoke to their control surface requirements.
However, in this article we’re not going to look at modular control surfaces solutions that can be put together just by pairing identical devices, instead, we will be exploring solutions where a range of complementary products within a specific control surface range can be chained together.
Not All Control Surfaces Are Made Equal
Before we get into talking about specific control surfaces it is important to understand communication protocols and compatibility. There are a number of protocols that most control surfaces use to interface the hardware between a DAW you need to know about. All perform slightly differently depending on the DAW you use:
HUI (Human User Interface Protocol) and MCU (Mackie Control Universal Protocol): HUI was developed in 1997 by Mackie and Digidesign for use with non-Digidesign control surfaces for Pro Tools. It is now part of the MCU Mackie Control Universal protocol.
You may not be aware Neyrinck’s V-Control system uses HUI and Slate Raven uses Neyrinck’s V-Control, but they all are using the HUI protocol to talk to the DAW.
EuCon: Originally developed by Euphonix, EuCon is a high-speed ethernet control protocol which carries control information for faders, knobs and displays between control surfaces and whatever the main EuCon enabled application is in focus on your computer and can provide deep integration with your DAW or NLE such as Pro Tools, Media Composer, Logic Pro X Final Cut Pro X and Abobe Premiere.
Diginet: The Diginet protocol in no longer used in any control surfaces currently available on the market. It was used for Pro Tools control surfaces such as the Digidesign Control 24 and ProControl as well as the Avid C24 and the ICON line.
Now that we’ve covered some basics, let’s take a look at what systems you can buy today and customise into your perfect DAW control surface.
Avid EUCON - S1, S3, Dock And Avid Control App
For nearly a decade Avid’s Artist control surface series dominated the affordable corner of the modular control surface market. Not only because these were competitively priced, or because you could easily chain several units together, but because they were based on EUCON, which provides deep integration with Pro Tools, but now also expands to any DAW or NLE that has Eucon support built-in.
Avid recently announced a new small control surface called the S1 with 8 motorised faders and 8 encoders, tablet integration to replace the Artist Series range which Avid has been winding down. The Avid S1 is also designed to work alongside the Dock device. You can run up to 4 x S1s and a Dock together, providing 33 faders and an S4/S6 Master module experience in a small footprint for a lot less than their S4 or S6.
Even though Avid’s S3 and Dock have been around for a number of years proving that modular is indeed a particular requirement for many audio engineers, but we don’t consider the pairing of an S3 and Dock to be a low-cost solution, as you can expect to pay around the $6,500 for an S3 and Dock along with an iPad but these tutorials are included because they demonstrate Avid Dock workflows.
At AES 2019 Avid announced the official price of the S1 to be $1295, which is a very reasonable price tag, being the same price as the Artist Mix when they launched it.
A single S1 will be easy enough to pair with an Avid Dock, which will soon also be able to make good use of any style of Android tablet running the free Avid Control App. It’s great to see Andriod support as the previous iPad exclusivity was limiting for some users, and being able to equip an S1 and Dock with $200 Android tablets are going to help make the S1 and Dock be even more affordable.
What’s cool about this ecosystem is that users on a budget can choose where to start their modular system. Many may start with a Dock with a tablet, before deciding to expand their control surface with one or two S1 devices over time. Others, who value fader control over transport have the choice to start by getting an S1 with or without a tablet. The choice is ours! If you have deep pockets you could put together your modular EUCON based Avid control surface solution all in one go.
Prices for these three Avid modular control surface components are as follows:
S1 8 fader device: £1,295
S3 16 fader device: $4,999
Avid Dock: $996
Don’t forget to factor in the cost of buying tablets. As the new, yet to be released free Avid Control app will support Andriod, as well as iOS, the cost of buying one or several tablets for this modular control surface will be significantly lower than buying Apple iPads, with the inclusion of Android support.
iCon Pro Audio
iCon provides a range of control surfaces, which cater for those on extremely tight budgets. Their entry-level system is the Platform M+ and X+, both being USB 8 fader units with encoders and basic Select/Mute/Solo buttons. A sidecar, Platform Nano can also be used to extend Platform fader packs adding a range of useful transport buttons to the mix. The Platform fader packs do not house any form of visual display for viewing track names, luckily an additional clip-on blue digital scribble strip called the D2 can be used to complete this modular control surface range.
Mackie Control and HUI protocols in the iCon products provide the connection to all the popular DAW on the market.
Prices for these three iCon modular control surface components are as follows:
Platform M+ and X+: $299 - $375
Platform Nano: $229
D2: $159
Visit iCon to view their other modular control surface products.
Mackie MCU Pro And XT Pro Control Surfaces
Mackie’s controllers have been in production for many years and are regarded as solid and reliable systems. The main Mackie MCU device echos the design of the old Digidesign all-in-one control surfaces from the early to mid noughties yet this system goes a few steps further than the Digi desks of old by offering extra fader banks and encoder sections.
Prices for these three Mackie modular control surface components are as follows:
Mackie MCU: $1,299
Mackie XT Pro Extra 8 Fader Bank: $899
Mackie C4 Pro 32 Rotary Encoder Section: Discontinued.
Being Mackie products these use the Mackie Control and HUI protocols to communicate to your favourite DAW.
Slate Raven And Slate Remote
Slate Media Technology’s RAVEN range of control surfaces is in a totally different category compared to the control surfaces we’ve already mentioned. They are large multi-touch displays, which respond to finger touches and gestures similar to how we interact with tablet devices and smartphones which makes RAVEN displays incredibly intuitive to operate upon first use.
Slate Raven uses Neyrinck V-Control technology which depends on HUI, so effectively the Slate Raven is a sophisticated HUi control surface.
The MTi2 is the second generation of the baby RAVEN range boasting a 27” display in a slim enclosure and adjustable stand for setting the perfect viewing angle. The multi-touch technology is only part of the package, the software is where you’ll find the magic and mojo of the RAVEN. The multi-touch abilities kind of play second fiddle to the smart batch command system, which makes long-winded processes such as exporting stems in Pro Tools as simple as clicking a virtual button in the RAVEN command. Slate has clearly reimagined what the control surface user experience should be for the future and with the RAVEN software 3.0 they might have just cracked it!
RAVEN is compatible with most popular DAWs including Pro Tools, Logic Pro X and Studio One though you only get one activation of the RAVEN software which works with the DAW of your choice. If you opt for the Pro Tools activation and decide at a later date to switch to Studio One you will need to pay a small fee to get the appropriate RAVEN software for your DAW.
Multiple Ravens can be used at once along with Slate’s Remote app for performing specific tasks in the Raven environment making this a cool modular system if touch is your preferred way of interacting with your DAW.
Softube Console 1 Fader
Softube’s Console 1 launched back in 2014. It’s a control surface, just not in the traditional sense compared to the products we’ve already covered so far in this article. It has been designed to mainly communicate with the Softube Console 1 plugin to help give the user the sense of interacting with a real console by controlling the Console 1 plugin with real controls rather than a mouse and keyboard. When you get the plugin it comes with the stock SSL SL 4000 E out of the box, which is a great sounding board and then you can use to buy other console emulations ranging SSL, API and Neve.
Although designed to mainly work with the Softube Console 1 plugin you can use the Console 1 control surface to also control UAD plug-ins as well as some basic channel operations in some DAWs such as Studio One, Sonar and Cubase but it’s main role, really, is for mixing analog console-style with your fingers.
Softube Launch Console 1 Fader
Softube recently launched a new and exciting addition to the Console 1 family, a 10 motorised fader unit housed in the same sized chassis, designed to work best in partnership with the Console 1...
Console 1 Fader can be used on its own but we need to make it clear that it’s not a dedicated nor conventional DAW control surface. It is very much an extension of the Console 1, which controls the Console 1 plug-in. In some DAWs like Studio One, but not Pro Tools, it is possible for the fader control to control the track fader through the Console 1 plug-in.
Console 1 Fader looks like a great solution but its potential is best-realised when paired with the Console 1. console 1 Fader is backwards compatible with the original Console 1, which means you can control the volume of a track within the Console 1 plug-in on one device with the changes appearing on the other. The faders themselves are well thought out and go well beyond just level control. They can be easily switched into drive, character or filter modes which will enable users to shape the basic characteristics of any of the 10 tracks on display on the fly.
To explain this further here is a detailed walkthrough video from our friends at Softube showing exactly what you can do with the new Console 1 Fader…
Keep your eyes on Production Expert for a review of Console 1 Fader in the next few weeks.
Prices for these two Softube modular control surface components are as follows:
The original Console 1: $549
Console 1 Fader: $699
If modular isn’t your cup of tea and you prefer using single-unit control surfaces then check out our article: