Going from D-Command to S3 + Dock

[amolin]

Think some of you are misunderstanding me here

I do not in any way say that the S3 is betten than a D-Command. But our beloved D-Commands are not working forewer, and i'm just looking into replacing mine, and one of the surfaces I'm looking at is the S3/Dock.

[jacko]

Originally Posted by amolin

Think some of you are misunderstanding me here

I do not in any way say that the S3 is betten than a D-Command. But our beloved D-Commands are not working forewer, and i'm just looking into replacing mine, and one of the surfaces I'm looking at is the S3/Dock.

Mine is 10 years old and has no signs of wear. I hope it will last another 10 with some care and maintenance.

[Brandonx1]

Originally Posted by amolin

Think some of you are misunderstanding me here

I do not in any way say that the S3 is betten than a D-Command. But our beloved D-Commands are not working forewer, and i'm just looking into replacing mine, and one of the surfaces I'm looking at is the S3/Dock.

Again, even with the dock, you are going to be disappointed if you go from a d command to the s3 dock. You should be looking at a s6 m10. You can start with a 8 fader for 21k and build it up as you get more funds. If you plan on that, you should get the bigger frame right off the bat. You can't expand the bolster frame sizes very easily.

[made]

And well, the Dock can do more that the normal ipad app, some extra features are enabled in the app when it's connected to a dock, and without the dock you only have the touchscreen, and i'm not into changing parameters on a touchscreen.

But have you tried the dock?

I've tried the dock. And all it does is giving you 8 more knobs and some buttons and a fader. The Jogwheel stays useful/less like using a Transport attached.
Because: Eucontrol still stays the same crap and none of the features people actually want are implemented.
According to some presentations of the ipad app the extra features should also work when a S3 is present. But who knows, how Avid will cripple the app in the end.

[YYR123]

Originally Posted by made

I've tried the dock. And all it does is giving you 8 more knobs and some buttons and a fader.

This is what I want to know about the dock, will the soft knobs on the side, act like dedicated plugin controls?

For example will the top left knob ALWAYS be input gain for an EQ? Even different 3rd party EQ's?

It would essentially be like a dedicated icon EQ and dynamic section, control.... If it Acted like this

[J-S-Q]

Originally Posted by YYR123

This is what I want to know about the dock, will the soft knobs on the side, act like dedicated plugin controls?

For example will the top left knob ALWAYS be input gain for an EQ? Even different 3rd party EQ's?

It would essentially be like a dedicated icon EQ and dynamic section, control.... If it Acted like this

My guess would be no, because you don't currently have the ability to change the order that plugin parameters appear on the S3. Seeing as the Dock runs on the same Eucon protocol, I'd be surprised if it can suddenly remap plugin parameters. If you're running Cubase/Nuendo though, this will no doubt be possible as you can already create custom plugin parameter layouts with Cubendo/Eucon.

[YYR123]

If that's the case then a used D Command is still a much more powerful tool..

[Barry Johns]

Right now eBay has 4 of the newer D-Controls that are used and for sale,

[Dan Smith]

Originally Posted by J-S-Q

My guess would be no, because you don't currently have the ability to change the order that plugin parameters appear on the S3. Seeing as the Dock runs on the same Eucon protocol, I'd be surprised if it can suddenly remap plugin parameters. If you're running Cubase/Nuendo though, this will no doubt be possible as you can already create custom plugin parameter layouts with Cubendo/Eucon.

In theory they should be. At AES they were promoting it as that all the plugins should map identically. On the S6 plugins map two different ways depending on how you select them. EQ plugs and compressors pretty all map identically. So hopefully it will be like that, but it remains to be seen.

They really need to release the ability to map the plugins how you'd like. They've been saying for years that they are going to do it and never have. However now with a lot of the S6 guys asking for it, it seems like it just might happen. Of course they could do it on the S6 and not the Eucontrol surfaces. But so far they've done pretty well trickling down a lot of the S6 features to the S3.

Can't wait to see how it turns out and we see some real hands-on reviews.

[J-S-Q]

Originally Posted by Dan Smith

In theory they should be. At AES they were promoting it as that all the plugins should map identically. On the S6 plugins map two different ways depending on how you select them. EQ plugs and compressors pretty all map identically. So hopefully it will be like that, but it remains to be seen.

They really need to release the ability to map the plugins how you'd like. They've been saying for years that they are going to do it and never have. However now with a lot of the S6 guys asking for it, it seems like it just might happen. Of course they could do it on the S6 and not the Eucontrol surfaces. But so far they've done pretty well trickling down a lot of the S6 features to the S3.

Can't wait to see how it turns out and we see some real hands-on reviews.

You may be right about the trickle down from the S6 but it's not a given because the S6 does not run on the Eucon protocol as far as I'm aware, although the S6 protocol may well have a lot of similarities. You do have to wonder... if they haven't implemented it in years and years of the existence of Eucon, will it ever happen? Custom plugin mapping has been the top request on the Artist Series Ideascale for over five years!

But.... I guess if they were promoting this feature at AES then one would hope they've got it implemented.