Euphonix MC Control vs HUI

[propower]

Hey all,

Long time HUI user (really long).......

I have been looking for a HUI replacement for many years and picked up a used Euphonix Artist Series MC Control to check out. Now although I certainly edit files I am mostly a music maker and mixer. Balancing tracks, pans and editing plugs is what I want out of a control surface. To be able to turn the monitor off and just mix is my dream. After only a little use so far of the MC control I have very mixed feelings about this unit.....

1. The touch screen is very cool yet very hard to work with. Tiny tiny writing, with tiny cells to tap. Maybe I will get a lot better at that.

2. The way parameters spill on to the eight knobs to edit plug ins around the touch screen is not non sensical but not at all straightforward. Maybe I can rearrange the order? Like with EQ just give me the gain control on all 7 bands to start!

3. The tiny tiny writing on the touchscreen of what the parameters are with the cryptic abbreviations.... very difficult to use

4. Just having so much info on the touchscreen makes it hard to see what track I am focused on

5. Having abbreviated track names on the top of the touchscreen for the four active tracks is not easy to use. Try having 8 stereo acoustic guitar with body and neck mics on each. very cryptic.

6. Looking at the faders with no track name above is not my favorite.

7. Looking at the surface and not seeing which tracks are in Rec/Mute/solo wit a quick glance. Yes you can on the touch screen but it is really tiny, and I can't easily read track names, not to mention that muted tracks go black! You loose the name of any muted track!

8. I like the transport and jog wheel though.........

A touch screen is SO flexible..... imagine if when you opened a plug it mapped to the whole screen so you could touch buttons and use the knobls while easily seeing what you are doing......
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With HUI, always can see the state of mute, solo, rec, and select by glancing at the surface. Easily put plugs on a given track, see input routing, output routing, bank through the sends (A through E at least), while seeing the state (always put reverb send first so at a glance see 8 tracks with their reverb sends, next is short delay etc..... THe plug edit section even has 4 buttons (8?) and 4 knobs per page with a much easier to read display.

With the Euphonix MC control this is really all track by track and takes multiple clicks to find the info.......

I don't know..... maybe I'm just stuck in my ways but so far..... MC is like a step sideways and somewhat back as to what a control surface should be to make me happier........

Are most of you other MC folk loving this.... do I just need to get past the learning curve..... maybe do some Lasik

-Lee

[Ted Spencer]

There may be some understandable confusion here. I think propower is talking about the Euphonix MC Control, but Bryan appears to be talking about the Mackie Control, aka MC, or MCU (Mackie Control Universal). So it may be a tale of two MC's...

It seems to me Euphonix made a pretty dumb decision in naming their product "MC Control" when one of their biggest competitors has been making something very much like it for many years that is named so similarly. "Mackie Control" (MC) is also the name of the software protocol, which is widely used by many other companies...

Euphonix, however ironically given the nature of the product in question, would appear to have been guilty of thinking a bit too much 'inside the box'...

[propower]

Yes definitely talking about the Euphonix MC Control .......

[Bryan Talbot]

Originally Posted by propower

Yes definitely talking about the Euphonix MC Control .......

oops, sorry