Newbie seeks help regarding Avid c24

[Bookerv12]

Hi,
Please don't take this the wrong way...I am just really curious.
Why on earth would you want/need a really expensive control surface/mouse as someone coming in new?

I used to set up systems for lots of people and do repairs on control surfaces.
The only customers who actually needed them were really busy tracking facilities who were replacing old moldy consoles.
These folks routinely were tracking 24-48 channels at a time and the control surface was useful for setting up monitor mixes quickly.
Did they mix with them?
No.

Everyone I met who was not working in that environment quickly regretted spending "useful gear money" on a controller and all of them eventually ate the depreciation and got rid of them.

If you have a use for one, more power to you, but I would invest in some useful gear or mics instead.
I would be interested in knowing what that use is...

I was....addicted to the Pro Control for years, but I was recording two-three sessions a day with lots of musicians.
The C24 was just never as flexible or as easy to use.
The pre's were not useable for us.

The "S" series is pretty nice, and if I were still in that world, would probably opt for one of those.

The Slate surface, while not the greatest, has some useable features...and you don't have to worry about repairing cheesy faders and power supplies.

[Vicko1357]

Originally Posted by albee1952

There's no problem chatting about 3rd party hardware on the DUC

Thank you for clarifying

Originally Posted by albee1952

Re the touchscreen, I assume it was the Slate MTi2?

Yes. This is the gear I was referring to.

Originally Posted by albee1952

Some folks love it and others, not so much. I had one for a while but was not happy about some of the limitations(but the Batch Commander was awesome). Slate is SUPPOSED to release a stand-alone Batch Commander(Mac version is $99, Windows is still waiting). For 3rd party control, the new Faderport16 looks quite nice. Avid's Artist Mix is another solid option(you can run 3 for 24 faders). All of these are bankable for unlimited track access. All the non-Avid options use HUI mode, which is a bit limited(when compared to Eucon for the Artist and S3 units), but still very capable(again, youtube videos will be a great help in choosing your ideal option)

Thank you (again) for your feedback, this is helpful to me.

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

10K for a C|24

I have a MINT unit which is like new as all our gear i can sell including shipping and insurance and delivery to your door for under 4500 USD.

Let me know if you wanna talk.

Hmmm... interesting. I'm still exploring options, but I'll add this one to the others. Thank you. Question, if you are selling your C24, what do you intend to replace it with?

Originally Posted by Southsidemusic

PS. You are of course free to mention alternatives on the forum, we compare stuff with 3rd party plugins and harware all the time here so no worries there / Thank you for thinking about that though.

Thank you.

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

Hi,
Please don't take this the wrong way...I am just really curious.
Why on earth would you want/need a really expensive control surface/mouse as someone coming in new?

That's a great question. I didn't go into a lot of details in my opening post, but since you asked, I'll do so here:

I've used Logic Pro in years past and Pro Tools after that until about 2006/2007. I'm a business owner and simply got busy the last 10 years building my business to the level it is at today. Now that I have reached those goals I am making time to get back into writing and recording again. This time, I have a significantly larger budget. In general, my biggest challenge is not paying for the gear, it's learning it all again. I was never "advanced" by any means in terms of recording skills (though my musical/compositional skills are), so I never really fully learned or used ProTools when I had it before. I wasn't a newbie, but was no where near an experienced pro in terms of my knowledge and skills in recording (I focused most of my earlier years on musicianship, not the technology of recording). So, now that several years have passed by, I can afford way more gear (that I have not used before) and we are on ProTools 12 (the last version I used was 7)... there are so many new factors involved that I feel sort of like a newbie all over again... So in this sense I have significant areas of ignorance at this time.

Why spend the money on the C24? It seems to me that I would enjoy the recording/mixing process even more with a control surface (versus using a keyboard and mouse only). I like what I read and saw about it (I just don't like that it seems to be discontinued soon according to a guy at Sweetwater I spoke to).

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

I used to set up systems for lots of people and do repairs on control surfaces.
The only customers who actually needed them were really busy tracking facilities who were replacing old moldy consoles.
These folks routinely were tracking 24-48 channels at a time and the control surface was useful for setting up monitor mixes quickly.
Did they mix with them?
No.

Everyone I met who was not working in that environment quickly regretted spending "useful gear money" on a controller and all of them eventually ate the depreciation and got rid of them.

If you have a use for one, more power to you, but I would invest in some useful gear or mics instead.
I would be interested in knowing what that use is...

Hmmm. Interesting perspective. Thank you for sharing this with me. Well, I won't be doing the things you mentioned (meaning, I won't be recording more than 16 tracks at a time, nor will be recording anyone else other than my own music). I simply liked what I saw and read about it and thought it would be useful for myself... Maybe I overestimated its usefulness for my situation... (?)

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

I was....addicted to the Pro Control for years, but I was recording two-three sessions a day with lots of musicians.
The C24 was just never as flexible or as easy to use.
The pre's were not useable for us.

You are the second person on this thread who criticized the mic pres of the C24. That's good to know. I'll begin looking for alternatives at least for the mic pres.

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

The "S" series is pretty nice, and if I were still in that world, would probably opt for one of those.

The S6 really looks GREAT. It's just out of the budget for me... The 23 doesn't excite me at all honestly (it doesn't look like much - for $5k - , but maybe I'm being too influenced by its appearance.

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

The Slate surface, while not the greatest, has some useable features...and you don't have to worry about repairing cheesy faders and power supplies.

I had not thought about that before... My biggest negatives about the Slate are:

1. I am not excited about any touch screen control surfaces (I dislike touch screen stuff in general... maybe I need to get over that)

2. What if that monitor goes out? Then the whole things doesn't work... that would be worse than a single fader going out on another platform (such as the C24)... I'm not even sure who (locally) would fix such a thing

I want to thank you for your replies and words of wisdom. It is much appreciated.

[Vicko1357]

FYI: I wrote a long and detailed reply to everyone who replied to me. After clicking the "submit reply" button, I received a message that stated my post has to be reviewed by a moderator (not sure why, there were no inappropriate words/language in my post)... anyway, I don;t post this to complain that my previously submitted post has not yet been approved, I only post to express my gratitude to those who replied with help (again, thank you).

I just didn't feel good letting you guys all wait for my reply and then nothing comes and so you might think as if I hadn't bothered to reply to your questions. Hopefully my post will be approved soon and you can all ready it...

[albee1952]

The beauty of this place is that most everyone here really does want to help(and many of us have made expensive mistakes).

[Southsidemusic]

Yes if you are a new member or usually have less than 5 posts some posts with links or quotes etc gets into a mod que but I approved your post so you should see it now.

Regarding our replacements we have a SSL4000G+ console with 48ch and we also have two Slate Raven MTi2's with that console and have just got our S3 and are looking into a S6 M40 32 fader version to buy now and selling a few older units we have not used in a while. All MINT of course.

The C24 and a D-Command and a few other gadgets

[Vicko1357]

Thank you, I see now my post above.

[Bookerv12]

Hi,

All good points.

I hope I didn't come across as being rude...
I just hate watching people make potentially expensive, bad gear decisions, so I had to ask.

I'm with you regarding using a mouse/trackball.
There are a few other controller manufacturers who make cost effective machines that work really well.
When you start flying around a control surface, you find that you use the faders, record enables, mute and solo 99% of the time.
The C24 never struck me as any better (or maybe not as good) as the Mackie or Presonus units. It just seems awfully expensive for what you get.

Yeah.. The mic pre's are not good.
I have used one at a time for talkback or some utility, but would never use 16.

Good luck in your search and report back.

[Vicko1357]

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

I hope I didn't come across as being rude...
I just hate watching people make potentially expensive, bad gear decisions, so I had to ask.

No, I did not take anything you said as rude at all. You asked great questions and it was clear to me from our post that you were asking questions in order to help - I appreciate it very much.

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

I'm with you regarding using a mouse/trackball.
There are a few other controller manufacturers who make cost effective machines that work really well.
When you start flying around a control surface, you find that you use the faders, record enables, mute and solo 99% of the time.

Yes, that is what I imagined.

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

The C24 never struck me as any better (or maybe not as good) as the Mackie or Presonus units. It just seems awfully expensive for what you get.

Checking those out now. Thanks for mentioning them.

Originally Posted by Bookerv12

Yeah.. The mic pre's are not good.
I have used one at a time for talkback or some utility, but would never use 16.

Good luck in your search and report back.

Thank you, I will