What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum?

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (LLyons)

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 21:04:40 GMT

I have an opinion. For Sonar, or Cakewalk now - I like using a touch screen. The bakers did a pretty good job at making touch work. I use a PLANAR - marvelous unit. I would buy it all over again. Haven't had to ever worry about drivers - ever. I'm kind of a clean freak, so I keep a bottle of windex handy.. :o)

I also have a presonus solution - RM32ai units, CS18ai unit, and Studio One 3. Once I assembled that together - I became a firm believer in touch screen, tactile hardware like the CS, iPADs to control setup, personal monitoring, remote record\playback and configuration...

No - the CS18 does not work with Sonar, and I didn't buy it to. BUT - A solid controller is a good investment, I won't give up mine... you might want to think through touch though...

Take care,

LL

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (poetnprophet)

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 19:07:12 GMT

Wow, that does sound like an amazing space. Nothing like being "home"...

Ok, that is a little bit of a bummer there isn't the same support as they show for other DAWs, as there was custom mapping, views/layouts etc. However, multi touch support does sound promising so I may see what I can get into. Interesting about the desk adjustment, I never heard about that. I'm 6'7" and adjustment is always necessary, haha.
thank you, Heather.

Dave

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (HeatherHaze)

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:27:27 GMT

poetnprophet
Hi Heather, thanks for your info on the Slate Raven. It's on my wishlist for some time... I also have the VS700 system. I looked into the MTi but Slate doesn't explicitly mention support for Sonar....does it all integrate like they advertise for other DAWs? Any drawbacks? Since this whole Sonar fiasco started, I've been looking for another DAW, but when you factor the console plus rack system needs, the VS700 system is such a great value its hard to switch, and therefore hard to switch DAWs. Long live CW!

Also, curious if you would be able to share your setup with both the MTi and the VS700C? That sounds like a great setup, seems like the best of both all 3 worlds: touchscreen, rack system, daw.

Hey Dave,

The Slate Raven has absolutely no integrated support for Sonar. But the beautiful thing is, it doesn’t need it. Honestly, Sonar (now CbB) works great with touchscreen. The Slate Raven is basically a very high quality touchscreen with some very clever software. That software is necessary for most daws I’ve tried, including Cubase and Studio One, because they don’t natively support multi-touch. Sonar does! You just need to set up your workspace to take advantage of the touchscreen, like dragging the control bar and transport to the bottom of the screen and setting up the console view. I was blown away by how well Sonar works with touch compared to other DAWs. That’s why I think probably any quality touch screen would work. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Raven, and it’s definitely a cut above. But if you’re on a budget, you might consider trying something a bit cheaper. You can always take it back if it doesn’t work for you. :)

My studio setup is pretty sweet now. It took forever to get it that way, as I had a streak of technical problems that led me down the rabbit hole. But now that I’m all upgraded, I’m in music heaven. On my (big) desk I’ve got a couple stacks of Roland D-90a digital monitors, framing an array of three video monitors. The Raven sits in front of and below those. It has a really ingenious stand that lets you raise or lower it super easily, so it’s always in the perfect spot. To the left of my Raven is my VS-700C console. To my right I’ve got an old Roland VM-3100 Pro for submixing all my audio sources. To the left of my desk sits my rack with the Focusrite Scarlett 18i20, VS-700R (not being used), MIDISport 8x8/s MIDI bay, headphone amp, etc. Across the room (behind me) I’ve got a couple racks of keyboards and a submixer. Then there’s the wall of guitars, all my woodwinds and brass, drums and percussion, and a bunch of other toys. It’s definitely my Happy Place. :)

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (HeatherHaze)

Fri, 13 Apr 2018 08:10:30 GMT

tobiaslindahl
Interesting you feel the touch version works so well. I read about them but always assumed it would feel weird working with touch for some reason.

Using the touch screen takes a little getting used to. But after a while, you find yourself just naturally reaching up and doing stuff. It’s pretty neat. Having some hardware is still very helpful, though. I could see using a touch screen along with one of those little Presonus single-channel faderports. If you want a jog/shuttle (one thing missing from any touch screen) you can get a Contour Shuttle Express for about $50. There are ways to fill in the gaps and get exactly the control you need for not much money.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (poetnprophet)

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 23:41:39 GMT

HeatherHaze
The VS-700C was tailor-made for Sonar, and still works great with Cakewalk by Bandlab. I don't think any other hardware control surface comes close. There's a driver hack necessary to make it work with Windows 10, but it's not a big deal (much easier than I expected). I disconnected mine for a while and really missed it. I'm happy to have it back on my desk.

BUT...

Another great option is to get a good touchscreen. Cakewalk natively supports mutli-touch control in Windows 8.1 and 10. I have my workspace set up so that all the transport controls are at the bottom of the touch screen (easy access) and the Console strip is right there at my fingertips. If you have multiple displays, you can put the project window on another monitor and have the console rule the touchscreen. It's a great setup. I now use that in conjunction with the VS-700 and it's a dream to work with. One of the neatest things about using a touch screen is that you can control almost any plug-in just by tweaking the knobs right on the screen. No need to fumble around with a controller trying to figure out what knob does what. Just reach up and turn it. Pretty cool.

My touchscreen is the Slate Raven MTi2, but I suspect any good quality multi-touch capable monitor would work. It's an option worth considering. No other DAW I've tried works so well with a touch screen. A big part of the Slate Raven MTi2 is its software control for various DAWs, but I've found I don't need it for Sonar. Not at all. It works really well right out of the box.

If you really want the touchy-feely aspect of a real hardware controller, though, nothing beats the VS-700 for Sonar/Cakewalk.

Hi Heather, thanks for your info on the Slate Raven. It's on my wishlist for some time... I also have the VS700 system. I looked into the MTi but Slate doesn't explicitly mention support for Sonar....does it all integrate like they advertise for other DAWs? Any drawbacks? Since this whole Sonar fiasco started, I've been looking for another DAW, but when you factor the console plus rack system needs, the VS700 system is such a great value its hard to switch, and therefore hard to switch DAWs. Long live CW!

Also, curious if you would be able to share your setup with both the MTi and the VS700C? That sounds like a great setup, seems like the best of both all 3 worlds: touchscreen, rack system, daw.

Dave

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (Jesse G)

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 23:12:18 GMT

JohanSebatianGremlin

I was considering the Behringer unit. But I thought those flat displays would be too hard to see from a sitting position so I went with a used Mackie Control Pro and extender. Absolutely no regrets with my choice.

Great Choice JohanSebatianGremlin,

Welcome to the Mackie Control Family " />

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (tobiaslindahl)

Thu, 12 Apr 2018 10:09:35 GMT

HeatherHaze
The VS-700C was tailor-made for Sonar, and still works great with Cakewalk by Bandlab. I don't think any other hardware control surface comes close. There's a driver hack necessary to make it work with Windows 10, but it's not a big deal (much easier than I expected). I disconnected mine for a while and really missed it. I'm happy to have it back on my desk.

BUT...

Another great option is to get a good touchscreen. Cakewalk natively supports mutli-touch control in Windows 8.1 and 10. I have my workspace set up so that all the transport controls are at the bottom of the touch screen (easy access) and the Console strip is right there at my fingertips. If you have multiple displays, you can put the project window on another monitor and have the console rule the touchscreen. It's a great setup. I now use that in conjunction with the VS-700 and it's a dream to work with. One of the neatest things about using a touch screen is that you can control almost any plug-in just by tweaking the knobs right on the screen. No need to fumble around with a controller trying to figure out what knob does what. Just reach up and turn it. Pretty cool.

My touchscreen is the Slate Raven MTi2, but I suspect any good quality multi-touch capable monitor would work. It's an option worth considering. No other DAW I've tried works so well with a touch screen. A big part of the Slate Raven MTi2 is its software control for various DAWs, but I've found I don't need it for Sonar. Not at all. It works really well right out of the box.

If you really want the touchy-feely aspect of a real hardware controller, though, nothing beats the VS-700 for Sonar/Cakewalk.

Interesting you feel the touch version works so well. I read about them but always assumed it would feel weird working with touch for some reason. Might do a simple test with a small existing tablet as a test for some feature.

For my personal workflow I tend to spend 90% or more of the time playing and recording and not so much editing etc so I want to sit infornt of the screens and have the piano infront of me managing controls without having to turn around or stretch across the keyboard etc. The VS-700 and the Raven you use looks really nice, but just don't fit my space.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (HeatherHaze)

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 19:47:00 GMT

The VS-700C was tailor-made for Sonar, and still works great with Cakewalk by Bandlab. I don't think any other hardware control surface comes close. There's a driver hack necessary to make it work with Windows 10, but it's not a big deal (much easier than I expected). I disconnected mine for a while and really missed it. I'm happy to have it back on my desk.

BUT...

Another great option is to get a good touchscreen. Cakewalk natively supports mutli-touch control in Windows 8.1 and 10. I have my workspace set up so that all the transport controls are at the bottom of the touch screen (easy access) and the Console strip is right there at my fingertips. If you have multiple displays, you can put the project window on another monitor and have the console rule the touchscreen. It's a great setup. I now use that in conjunction with the VS-700 and it's a dream to work with. One of the neatest things about using a touch screen is that you can control almost any plug-in just by tweaking the knobs right on the screen. No need to fumble around with a controller trying to figure out what knob does what. Just reach up and turn it. Pretty cool.

My touchscreen is the Slate Raven MTi2, but I suspect any good quality multi-touch capable monitor would work. It's an option worth considering. No other DAW I've tried works so well with a touch screen. A big part of the Slate Raven MTi2 is its software control for various DAWs, but I've found I don't need it for Sonar. Not at all. It works really well right out of the box.

If you really want the touchy-feely aspect of a real hardware controller, though, nothing beats the VS-700 for Sonar/Cakewalk.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (ptheisen)

Wed, 11 Apr 2018 00:25:48 GMT

azslow3

My all time favorite is the Frontier Alphatrack, unfortunately I don't know how to get it to work with SPLAT.

I have heard original plug-in also works.
Alternative: http://www.azslow.com/index.php/topic,172.0.html

Yes, the original plug-in will work, but it trips over the pro channel because that didn't exist when Frontier stopped developing it. Azslow's plug-in does a perfect job of making Alphatrack handle the pro channel EQ too (no other PC modules, though), so if your hardware is still working, download Azslow's version and enjoy! I'm running mine in SPlat and CbB on W10 with no problems.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (thornton)

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 22:28:34 GMT

Vstudio 100

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (batsbrew)

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 22:25:37 GMT

of course,
or i wouldn't have had an opinion!

" />

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (JohanSebatianGremlin)

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 19:36:12 GMT

batsbrew
the mouse and keyboard is still the best surface for me.

since i work on computers for my day job, i'm very adept at it,
it's so simple and straightfoward

Out of curiosity, have you ever tried using a DAW with a decent control surface?

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (batsbrew)

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 16:10:44 GMT

the mouse and keyboard is still the best surface for me.

since i work on computers for my day job, i'm very adept at it,
it's so simple and straightfoward

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (JohanSebatianGremlin)

Tue, 10 Apr 2018 02:29:13 GMT

jimoliver
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I will check them all out. I like the compactness of the Behringer but also like the Mackie having a time readout. Cost factors are a consideration too. Reliability is super important. Thanks again!

I was considering the Behringer unit. But I thought those flat displays would be too hard to see from a sitting position so I went with a used Mackie Control Pro and extender. Absolutely no regrets with my choice.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (azslow3)

Mon, 02 Apr 2018 19:38:55 GMT

iRelevant
I would say the MCU, but it has a big footprint.

And can not control SoftSynth...

More convenient is the Presonus Faderport.

But it case only 2 continuous controls

My all time favorite is the Frontier Alphatrack, unfortunately I don't know how to get it to work with SPLAT.

I have heard original plug-in also works.
Alternative: http://www.azslow.com/index.php/topic,172.0.html

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (iRelevant)

Mon, 02 Apr 2018 07:20:39 GMT

[Double Post]

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (iRelevant)

Mon, 02 Apr 2018 07:20:25 GMT

I would say the MCU, but it has a big footprint. More convenient is the Presonus Faderport.
My all time favorite is the Frontier Alphatrack, unfortunately I don't know how to get it to work with SPLAT.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (tobiaslindahl)

Sat, 31 Mar 2018 09:17:56 GMT

I can't comment on "best" as that is entirely subjective and depending on ones needs, but for what its worth I would just like to add that I just recently got the Behringer X-touch mini and it is just awesome for my workflow and my way of working. Granted I have only used it for a few days, but I am happy to report the mouse is being used less already and my neck says thank you as my posture is better which to me is huge!

Sure it looks more like a toy compared to the bigger sexier ones, which I initially planned to buy ( Mackie/X-touch/etc) but I thought about my actual needs and realized I did not need all those things (faders especially) and did not like the space required as it doesn't work in my setup. This thing combined with footcontroller/masterkeyboard mappings will cover a VAST amount of functions and features with me ever having to take my hands off the piano, which is what I want.

I want a controller to help me during writing and recording, that is the part of the process where I spend 90% or more of my time and where not having a controller was felt the most and where it help the most, to me.
I use the presents and AZcontroller from azslow3, and the thing just worked exactly as advertised by him, kudos ! :)

So enough of my rambling, if you want a cheap controller that is capable, compatible and wont take up space the mini is a great choice imo. azslow3 has good descriptions on what it can and cannot do btw so you don't have to guess.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (Jesse G)

Fri, 30 Mar 2018 23:28:44 GMT

Any company can make the plugin software for a Controller, they just have to want to put in the times.

Cakewalk has make the location of the Cakewalk-Control-Surface-SDK available for all.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (louisodwyer)

Tue, 06 Mar 2018 12:02:16 GMT

VS-700 ! Great system, been using it for 8 years.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (FLZapped)

Sun, 04 Mar 2018 12:56:21 GMT

azslow3

The situation with SSL Nucleus is unclear.

SSL has a piece of software that you use like a plug-in. Beyond that, I don't know.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (chuckebaby)

Thu, 01 Mar 2018 16:15:18 GMT

jimoliver
Anyone using the new Presonus Faderport 16?

Hers some reads:

Fader port 16
http://forum.cakewalk.com/FaderPort-16-m3670276.aspx
Faderport 8
http://forum.cakewalk.com/How-Does-PreSonus-FaderPort-8-Work-With-Sonar-Platinum-m3622529.aspx

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (jimoliver)

Wed, 28 Feb 2018 20:26:44 GMT

Anyone using the new Presonus Faderport 16?

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (listen)

Mon, 25 Jul 2016 09:24:19 GMT

+1 VS - 700C , Anderton has one he has been trying to sale... It would be worth your time to check it out IMHO..

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (Rob[at]Sound-Rehab)

Mon, 18 Jul 2016 07:19:43 GMT

vs-700 still beats mackie control by far. works like charm in platinum and still provides almost all features from the 8.5 days. if you get one via ebay, i can only recommend it as it is also a mackie ctrl unit (though it works much better once you install the vs-700C driver and use it as designed). for win10 you need a slight mod to the 8.1 driver to get it working but that's all documented in this forum ... only search for the vs-700C (which is the ctrl surface), dont bother with the vs-700R (which is the audio interface)

i'm actually using the vs-700 extended by a midi translator to add features which were originally not there (e.g. custom ctrl to switch screensets, ...) - that's also something you could try to extend a standard mackie ctrl surface.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (SuperG)

Sun, 17 Jul 2016 21:46:26 GMT

jimoliver
Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I will check them all out. I like the compactness of the Behringer but also like the Mackie having a time readout. Cost factors are a consideration too. Reliability is super important. Thanks again!

The X-Touch also displays time..

It's pretty hard to justify the current price of a Mackie, IMHO.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (Jesse G)

Sun, 17 Jul 2016 18:37:25 GMT

I use to think it was the Behringer BCF200 because it was what I could afford at that time. When I became able to upgrade to the Mackie Control Universal, I believed this was the best control surface for Sonar. But in all actuality, it's whatever control surface you can use that will fit your budget. If I could afford an SSL Nucleus to control Sonar Platinum in my studio, trust me I would buy it and exhort out loud that the SSL Nucleus was the best Controller to support Sonar Platinum. But since I don't have or own one, It's the Mackie Control Universal. " />

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (WallyG)

Sun, 17 Jul 2016 18:21:14 GMT

...wicked
Whoah, did the X-Touch just have a major price drop? I seem to recall it listing for about $1000 when it first came out and now it looks like it's down to $600? (I'm in Europe right now though, and it may be getting the euro->dollar conversion wrong.

I believe it's been $600 from the beginning.

Walt

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (...wicked)

Sun, 17 Jul 2016 17:50:40 GMT

Whoah, did the X-Touch just have a major price drop? I seem to recall it listing for about $1000 when it first came out and now it looks like it's down to $600? (I'm in Europe right now though, and it may be getting the euro->dollar conversion wrong.

Re: What do you all feel is the best control surface for Sonar Platinum? (jimoliver)

Sun, 17 Jul 2016 17:25:13 GMT

Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. I will check them all out. I like the compactness of the Behringer but also like the Mackie having a time readout. Cost factors are a consideration too. Reliability is super important. Thanks again!