Dock fader sucks!

[Mike Landolt]

I've owned a Control 24 and just sold my D-Command ES. I just picked up the Dock...this fader feels really rough. It's stiff and mechanically really loud. Is this normal or is it just mine? I was planning to add an S3 as well. Is the S3 fader is the same as the Dock? Does anyone feel the same?

[yoerik roevens]

S3 faders feel is fine imo, i.e. much smoother and more silent than D-command. Unfortunately, resolution is far less (not sure if that`s a hardware/software) thing:
above -10dB : 0.1dB
below -10dB :
- steps of .3 - .4 dB in protools
- steps of 1dB on S3 displays
(.1 dB on D-command, still .2 dB until -40 dB)

however, if you're planning on using your console intensively for automation, the S3 is a no-go as you can see in plenty of other threads in the S3 section.

[yoerik roevens]

might be of interest to you as well: knobs on S3 are a disaster: very jumpy, terrible ballistics and no fine control.
http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=365004

[Mike Landolt]

Are you currently using an S3 and a Dock? Reading through the thread people mention a sensitively issue with panning...has this been fixed? One thing the eq "Q" like in Waves SSL and Avid eq's are not populating on the Dock controllers. But the Native Instrumentals solid eq does work.
Best

[yoerik roevens]

no, it has not been fixed and it does`t look it will be anything soon (see link above)

What Avid eq are you talking about? all stock stuff seems to populate fine afaik, but I might have missed one or two.
I haven`t seen plug-ins not populating (although some do not populate all parameters).
I also noticed quite some Wave plugins are not controllable from the s3. Although they populate right, the scaling of the knobs is completely off with various Waves plug-ins.

[Anthony_Anz]

Originally Posted by yoerik roevens

the scaling of the knobs is completely off with various Waves plug-ins.

That's a whooooooole other issue... =)

http://duc.avid.com/showthread.php?t=381425

[Mark Ziebarth]

The Q control is a little hidden. It took me a few days to find it. I guess it's in the second layer because it wouldn't match with the eight available controls per layer. Four bands can have frequency and gain control. If every band would over three parameters there would be two bands with full parameter set and two more controls available.

[Mike Landolt]

Thanks for the tip...still diving in. But it is a real drag the 8 controller knobs lacks a real linear feel e.g. like a D-Command/Command 8/Control 24. I don't remember the Artist series controller knobs feeling that way? They were just tiny for my sausage fingers

[ets]

I'm just trying the Dock Control leaving the Artist Series and Icon behind and my biggest problem is the same with the loud mechanically sound from the fader when reading the automation. Have you fixed yours ? I dont know if this could worth it.

[Anthony_Anz]

Originally Posted by ets

I'm just trying the Dock Control leaving the Artist Series and Icon behind and my biggest problem is the same with the loud mechanically sound from the fader when reading the automation. Have you fixed yours ? I dont know if this could worth it.

I don't have any issues with the dock fader being noisy.. It's exactly the same as the S3 fader, which is much better than the Artist Mix fader.

Can you shoot a video?