Mackie Control Universal or Tascam 1082 for control surface?

[anders]

I'm hoping users might share their experiences with either of these units. In terms of the Mackie, I'm referring to the original, not the new Pro model.

I'm using it as a basic control surface. What limitiations have been encountered?

Thanks very much.

[themidiroom]

I've used the Mackie Control for a couple years now and I really like it. I recently purchased an extender. The only thing I don't like about the extender is the rotary encoders only pan. I was under the impression they would change along with the main unit. I could be wrong on that however. There isn't much documentation on using Mackie extenders with Pro Tools.

[Barry Johns]

I own the Mackie Control and a Command 8. The Command 8 is hands down better than the Mackie Control in Protools. The only reason I would consider the Mackie Control is if I was going back and forth between Protools and another DAW. My Mackie Control is sitting in the closet not being used.

[Bryan Talbot]

I'm on my second MCU and they've both been cheap plastic crap, with faulty fader motors.

I can't stand the way the faders do that grinding deceleration when you're manually scrolling or rapidly going back and forth between points on the timeline, during intensive editing. I usually end up putting all automation in Trim mode, so they'lll sit still and shut the hell up. Especiallly aggravating at the end of a quiet piece with a long, gradual fade...the damned faders sloooowly grind their way down through the fade...YUCK!

I had to send the first one back for bad fader motors. The second one has a faulty fader #7. It will sit there humming like it can't make up its mind, until you touch it; then it becomes quiet. Out of warranty now, and not worth the hassle and expense.

POS! My setup has space constrictions though; can't fit anything else in right now. I miss the HUI. It was a little eccentric, but worked like a charm (where I used to work).

Rant over.

[Ted Spencer]

I've used the Mackie Control for a couple years now and I really like it. I recently purchased an extender. The only thing I don't like about the extender is the rotary encoders only pan. I was under the impression they would change along with the main unit. I could be wrong on that however. There isn't much documentation on using Mackie extenders with Pro Tools.

The extender's rotary pots do change modes properly in other DAWs like DP and Logic. The problem in PT, so I've been told, is in PT's own HUI software. It evidently is only capable of full control implementation on the first 8 channels. Perhaps this is because the original HUI never had an "extender", and was therefore strictly limited to 8 channels.

It would appear that updating the software would be fairly easy for Digi to do, but since they're now heavily into the controller business (and weren't when the HUI software was written) they appear to be disinclined to do anything to address that shortcoming.

I have a MCU/Ext pair myself, and either use the mouse to control aux sends on the extender's territory or channel-scroll the main unit 8 times to bring the extender's channels onto it. Either way it's a PITA, and regrettably so, since again, it would seem that a short trip to Digi's software doctor's office would fix it.

Unfortunately in this case, Digi rules the DAW world, knows it, and really doesn't seem to give a crap if your MC Extender doesn't do all it's designed to. Their implied position is that we should be delighted that our "legacy controllers" (as Digi has categorized them for years now) work at all.

Again though, in DP or Logic (dunno about others) all is well. DP allows 6 characters on the channel name field as well.

[Matthew Steel]

The extender's rotary pots do change modes properly in other DAWs like DP and Logic. The problem in PT, so I've been told, is in PT's own HUI software. It evidently is only capable of full control implementation on the first 8 channels. Perhaps this is because the original HUI never had an "extender", and was therefore strictly limited to 8 channels.

If this problem is on the PT side, _ANY_ controller using the HUI protocol will have the same limitation. And since any non-Digi control surface you can get today uses the HUI protocol for ProTools, you're kinda stuck.