Advantages for S3 / Dock over Artist Series

[alk3997]

Maybe this falls under marketing, but for those of us with Artist Series controllers what is the advantage to upgrading to an S3/Dock configuration?

I thought it would be an upgraded surround panner but looks like Avid has upgraded the Artist Control with the new square configuration (thanks Avid developers and testers!).

Obviously the one big advantage in my case for the Artist controllers is that they are paid for.

The advantages I can think of for the S3/Dock configuration are:

1) Smaller footprint than 2 Artist Mix units / 1 Control / 1 Transport
2) Newer
3) Channel level LEDs included with faders

If anyone can explain the S3/Dock upgrade advantages, particularly capabilities, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Andy

[J-S-Q]

I used to have 2 x Artist Mix and an Artist Transport. Now I have an S3, and I still have the Transport.

In theory, most of what can be done with an S3 can also be done with the Artist series but the S3 just does it all a lot better, faster, more intuitively, and with better visual feedback. It's also better built. It has colour coded LED's which is a HUGE plus in terms of navigating a session quickly and that alone makes it way better than an Artist series controller.

You also have VCA Spill, a great feature which I THINK is not available on the Artist series.

The new version of the Pro Tools Control iPad app gives you all the touchscreen functionality of the Artist Series, except you don't have to deal with the Artist Control touchscreen which is not really up to standard in 2016.

If you like the Artist stuff, you will love the S3. Whether it's worth the cost to upgrade? ....well I can't tell you that but personally I'm glad I did it.

Just remembered another thing.... there's also an audio interface built in to the S3. I don't use it myself and I suspect most people don't but it's there if you need it.

[guitarist9891]

Would you say that the rotary encoders are better/more accurate on the S3 than on the Artist Mix?

Thanks

[ronnievanoverveld]

Originally Posted by guitarist9891

Would you say that the rotary encoders are better/more accurate on the S3 than on the Artist Mix?

The encoders are way better than the Artist Mix, it really feels good, nice resistence. The overall build quality is way better, this is a high quality controller, the price is of course higher also. You can have up to 4 Mixes for the price of a S3 I think...

[J-S-Q]

Originally Posted by guitarist9891

Would you say that the rotary encoders are better/more accurate on the S3 than on the Artist Mix?

Thanks

Physically they feel very nice and are more solid than the Artist. The 'software response' could still be improved though. A common feature request is for user adjustable acceleration on the knobs. Hopefully Avid will do this at some point but who knows?

But overall... Yes, they are definitely better than the Artist series.