Avid S1 or Dock as First Purchase for Cubase?

[circlingkailas]

Hi - My first post, thanks in advance for your objective advice and guidance!

I am in the market for my first hardware surface controller for home use - I am tired of the mouse and keyboard. I use mainly Cubase 11, occasionally Ableton 11, with a variety of synth and effects plugins. The latter being things from Brainworx (channel strips and equalizers), Waves, FabFilter.

I tend to work one channel at a time, so am thinking about getting a Dock as my first control surface purchase. Any advice on that selection versus a S1? The way I work, seems like Dock would be the best first choice, and then adding a S1 later if necessary.

Also, can I tweak 3rd party plugins loaded into Cubase from the Dock? For example, the Brainworx channel strips or FabFilter? What about soft synths?

Thanks
CirclingKailas

[anason-records]

It sounds like the dock is the right thing for you. If you want to have more control of Cubase 11 and plugins you use (you need also a tablet) dock is the way to go. I would add s1 later.

But be ready for the headache with these units and the app will give you. There are tons of bugs....tons! And you get FW updates, fixes 1-2 times a year with Avid. That being said it still speeds up your workflow and it's way more fun to produce, mix (for the 30/40 minutes...that's the most you get without somesort of crash, bug, programming failure etc.)

note: i own the dock, and 2xS1s and work also with Cubase Pro 11 and Ableton 11 like you do. With ableton you won't find much use of Dock or the S1. Since Ableton Live does not support Eucon you get basic Fader(Volume) and panning functions and Start/Stop/Rec funcktions of transport.