Opinions of Mackie Control Universal Pro with X1c and soft synths and VSTs

Don't have the MCU pro but the pro is just the MCU with USB so I'll add my input anyway.

You'll be hard pushed to find a better surface protocol than the Mackie one, used by the MCU, BCF 2000 and others. There is an overlay and for general Sonar control it is excellent overall, however.............

At the present time with the exception of the EQ the PC is out of control reach. There are a few other functions that have gone awry since X1 but they are some of the more obscure. See this post for info on what doesn't work, although a couple of those have never worked.

I don't use soft synths much but AFAIK they will also be out of the MCUs reach because it doesn't support ACT, so anything you'd normally control via ACT won't work.

FWIW I use a MCU + XT and also have a BCF I use in ACT mode as well as some ACT control on my ZED-R16. I can control just about everything from that combination although a MCU & BCF would also do the job just as well. I can't comment on the C4 because I don't have one, and I've seen several comment that the BCR isn't that great with ACT but I personally find the BCF pretty good, any limitations I run across are more of a limitation with ACT preset surface, rather than the physical surface.

All plugins (that are ACT compatible) and in the FX box are controllable via the MCU.

I could also be wrong about the softsynths, and will stand corrected if someone says you can, but as I said I don't use them much so don't know.

I don't want to sound too down on the MCU because I think it is great and would definitely buy another. I've also had a little feedback from CW that control surfaces such as the Mackie is one area that will be seeing improvements in the future.

If the MCU is a bit pricey to find out whether you're going to like it or not a BCF 2000 has "90% of the ability of an MCU at 10% of the price". I used one for a fair time in mackie mode and that's a great piece of kit as well. In fact there is no better value surface out there IMHO. (Note I said value, not the best there is). See the guide I wrote for an idea on its capabilities.

Hope that helps a little.

Yes it is unlimited on tracks, busses & mains, although obviously only 8 at once with a MCU. Add an extender and you are up to 16, 2 x XTs = 24 total, etc.

It's possible to step through a bank at a time or move one channel at a time. The assignment between tracks, busses and mains is just a button press. It's very quick and easy to navigate around once you get up to speed with it. It can be used for just about everything, selecting areas, loop points, record punch in points, markers etc, are all set very quickly and easily once the key presses are in memory.

There's also a master fader as well and a jog wheel, two of the differences between the MCU and BCF.

I have a trackpad keyboard rather than a separate mouse because of space on my keyboard shelf and I prefer not to use the mouse at all, although of course there are some things that can only be done with a mouse.

I think it's fair to say once users get used to a control surface going back to a mouse seems slow and awkward. IMHO of course.