Avid S3 available outside the VENUE bundle

[antonis]

I literally just stumbled on an Avid posting and it seems that S3 is finally here.

If anyone knows anything about its UK pricing I would be very interested to know.

[garnoil]

Vintage King has it advertised for 5K, it should be a similar price in the UK

http://vintageking.com/avid-s3-control-surface

[lucienpalmer]

It was just announced at AES in Los Angeles today. Avid quoted about $5k, too.

It's nice. Definitely fills a gap in the product line.

[reichman]

Does it have a transport or automation mode switches?

AND, does it rely on that awful Eucon background app?

[antonis]

Yes, to the automation mode switches. That has been my primary concern as well. I read the manual yesterday. Modifiers and function keys.

Transport. Sort of.... yes. For me, not really: the S3 has this touchstrip that the Avid programmers have assigned to be the transport.

Yes, it is Eucon.

Appalling, isn't? But i suppose now with the S6 they have to make it work.

[antonis]

Would there be any way the S3 work with PT10?

[reichman]

Appalling, isn't? But i suppose now with the S6 they have to make it work.

I hope they do make it work. I gave up on using the Artist Series in front of clients. Buggy, crash-prone, and unreliable. I'm going to try again to make them work when I move from PT10 to PT11 next month. I really want to like the Artist Series.

Just read the S3 manual. It looks great for the price. I wish that "6-out" would let me mix surround from those outputs. 5-6 are the headphones, so this is a stereo audio interface. Automation modes aren't labeled, but shouldn't be too hard to memorize. Transport should be okay. Size is great. At 28 x 14 it's perfect for the modern studio.

And FYI, it is apparently identical to the live version, you just boot it up in studio mode.

[lucienpalmer]

Originally Posted by reichman

I hope they do make it work. I gave up on using the Artist Series in front of clients. Buggy, crash-prone, and unreliable. I'm going to try again to make them work when I move from PT10 to PT11 next month. I really want to like the Artist Series.

EuCon has been stable for me on the Mac (lately). As soon as I open a session, I just stop/start The EuCon control panel and I'm good to go.

In general, we should see more focus on EuCon development since it's the foundation of all of their current control surface lineup. The S6 sales will be bankrolling the R&D.

[reichman]

Does S6 use the background app? I was secretly hoping it didn't, and that may indicate that everyone else will get the benefits of the S6 R&D at some point in the future.

[antonis]

The S6 is EuCon as well so, yes.