MOVED: dj/midi controller

[Francisco]

Hey Jesse what's your take on the Novation Remote SL. I'm looking for a new controller to control Live 6 in my dj sets. If you suggest any others out there let me know.

Thanks Man.

[admin]

Francisco,

I have had a few controllers in my time and currently use a Korg MicroKontrol.

I like the Korg generally except for a few things. One the knobs don't always move smoothly so you get jumps in the data.

Second of all the only program I've found that supports full mapping with visual readings (the paramters showing up in the Korg's screens) is Reason, which I don't use anyways.

Live works ok with the Korg but even though it has a MicroKontrol template in it, its still basically generic and not showing any parameters on the Korgs' display.

So because of this I don't use it as much as I had intended.



The Novations so far have had nice knob/slider action which helps make smoother automation/control. With the Remote SL series it seems they have taken steps to make automapping work better.

At the moment I see they only advertise Live 5 for full map support (with readouts of the paramaters from within Live onto the Novations' display).

They also have a wrapper for VST plugs which looks like it will help with learn features.

Whether or not all this works in practice is yet to be seen by me.

I would first of all make sure you are comfortable with it physically, so try one out in person. And then as well make sure the automapping is going to do what you need it to within the context of your set.

Hope this helps,

Jesse

[zstowasser]

I used the novation remote sl for about a week and didn't like it, the upper knobs are endless and they click at each turn, not very expressive. the other knobs/sliders felt great though. the pads were terrible. and the automapping works well for people in cubase but not for ableton - it just isnt right yet. and for djing you wont use the automapping!!

i suggest a evolution uc-33, m-audio trigger finger or a bitstream or a combination of both

[wraysonar]

The evolution looks pretty efficent. also I heard good things about the fader fox if you can afford it all you need is a xone 3D that's what I want but out of budget so may try the evolution

[admin]

Heard some good things about the xone:3D as well but as you said the price is a bit limiting.

[sven hauck]

I use the Doepfer Pocket dial. The knob gradations are nice and they are smooth.

Only problem is as the name implies, real estate between knobs is scarce. If you have fat fingers, this is not for you.

[Francisco]

Hey thanks guys for the response. Yeah I have the m-audio trigger finger. Yeah I was also looking @ the Korg MicroKontrol, I like the fact it has 16 trigger pads. Yeah I'm going to head out tomorrow & play with some of these controllers mentioned before making a purchase.

Well thanks again guys.

[nuskool]

I use the Behringer BCR-2000 for DJing with Ableton and my friend uses the BCF-2000. Excellent product for the money, great build quality. I tried the Evolution one (i forget the model) which also seemed quite nice but not as nice as the behringers.

[admin]

Careful with the pads on the MicroKontrol.

Seems there's some units out there with stiff ones, you have to literaly pound them to get a response. I had to modify my pads in order to make them usable.

If Live and SX would just support the MK fully it would be a wicked controller.

[stevenlibby]

I personally just use one of my synths as a midi control...Yamaha Motif 6, although i grabbed the M-Audio 02 for when I'm travelling with my laptop...nice little unit for $100 us dollars... Also works rather well during the mixing stage for the levels...by default the volume control is assigned to the fader of the track you are currently on...speeds the workflow up just a hair... When automating filters, etc...I might use a knob to get a rough filter sweep or whatever I'm doing, then of course fine tune my automation with my DAW.