AVID control with Raven Hardware

[Guitarmusica.com]

Hi

Im new to both this forum and AVID in general. I am a long time Slate Raven user (Ive owned 2xMTI2's and upgraded to 2xMTZ's) who has been looking around the AVID control surface options for years. The short of it is I wanted to use both at the same time on LPX but could not find any examples or discussions of someone successfully demonstrating that was possible. My current setup is two Slate MTZ displays connected to LPX (Ill supply all the relevant details below).

That said, I have always had issues with keeping my slate mixer strips aligned with the LPX strips (they would routinely go out of sync requiring any number of steps and distractions to get them back to where I could effectively mix again). I have held out with that distraction because the ability to do track edits using finger motions on the Slate displays is without equal in efficiency and accuracy (at least for me). I will not ever give up that ability in my workflow. If you havent tried this you really should.

So i have spent years trying to find an example of someone successfully running BOTH slate software and AVID software at the same time and finally downloaded AVID control onto my setup and tried it out. It works.

My first reaction, even on my tiny little Ipad mini running this software, made a distinct impression on me -- It was immediately clear the amount of rapid control I could get on my tracks and in a way I would never be able to get trying to work through my slate displays, even if they were staying configured correctly. Though I might need a bigger ipad.

Here is the littany of versions:

LPX: 10.4.4
Mac OS Sierra 10.12.6 (32 GB ram)
Raven 3.7.1 (using TB2 connections and daisy chained through an apogee symphony interface)
V control pro 2.2.23.2
EUcontrol 20.6.1.3

I opened up an LPX session and then got AVID control working and confirmed its functionality. Then I opened my raven software and got both MTZ displays up an running. I played my tracks using the raven and the meters on the control software worked as did the faders (.......size .0002 font faders compared to the raven...) and jog controls. I checked functionality through my raven batch and preset commands and they also worked.

I then used the AVID control software to call up chromaverb on one of my tracks and it opened up on my slate displays and i changed the settings on both ends (slate and control) and those changes were reflected in the other. I also tried it on an NI reflektor convo verb and it worked the same. I did plenty more but the bottom line is at least with my setup I was able to have both working at the same time without any interface faults or burps. I did have an issue with my compression not showing up on the meters but im not sure that was due to my slate displays (?)

I am suitably impressed with the options available by AVID and at least for me see a workflow that fits me perfectly -- editing with my hands and controlling with a tactile surface (albeit at a hefty price tag).

This post is intended as an answer to others on something that Ive spent a long time looking for myself. The only question I might have is confirmation that my presumption of a control surface working would hold after having confirmed it with AVID control software since they go through the same interface. Hope this helps.

cheers
E