If you spend much time in your digital audio workstation (DAW), you've probably at least given some thought – if not some cash – to acquiring a decent physical controller or two for your setup. You can accomplish a ton with the QWERTY keyboard and mouse, it's true, and that approach has its own benefits (e.g. travel/laptop-only situations). But if you work a lot in a stationary studio, you'll eventually want something more tactile and comfortable.
The options improve all the time, and they range from relatively inexpensive (the Korg nanoKontrol, about $60) to utterly high-end (the Euphonix MC Pro, about $26,000). There are also some great choices in the middle ground, and that's where I decided to shop.
I had been using my old Ensoniq ASR-10 and an Evolution UC-33e, and I learned how to use my DAW's Learn feature to assign controllers to just about anything. (I use Logic Pro, which gives lots of people fits when it comes to controller assignments, but I'd done OK. I also use the QWERTY keyboard rather than the mouse whenever possible.) Still, I knew there was another level of integration that would really speed up my work and further reduce mousing.
My main priorities, based on my manual-mapping experiences, were:
- easier (or automatic) mapping to control plug-in effects and VIs
- a display, so that I would never be left guessing which slider corresponded to which track, regardless of my mixer view
- a better-feeling keyboard that still had aftertouch (like the ASR-10)
- a price that reflected some serious development effort but wouldn't make me hyperventilate.
After months of research and debate (do I need this or just want it?), I finally settled on the M-Audio Axiom Pro 61. I sold my ASR-10 and had enough to just about pay for the Axiom Pro. Sweet!
As I worked with it for the first few hours, I took these notes – simple, real-life first impressions.
- It's a good-looking piece of gear, IMO.
- It feels solid despite being reasonably lightweight.
- At first touch, I wasn't crazy about the feel of the keyboard, but after playing it for a short time I began to like it. (I think each key was slightly stiff just from sitting on a shelf. Playing fixed it.) There's a sponginess to the bed, likely associated with the keyboard's aftertouch capability, but when playing a piano part I didn't notice it once I was focused on the music. Given that I've been using an Ensoniq ASR-10 as my controller keyboard for a few years now, this is the closest I've had to real piano feel in my project studio, period. Those of you with high-end weighted controllers are probably cringing – sorry! But I've had the ASR-10 for specific reasons – it's amazing for live sampling, which is what I do in performance a lot – and now my needs point more toward a dedicated controller.
- It's tough to beat this kind of integration, especially when it's effortless:
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| My first 8 Logic tracks and the corresponding Axiom Pro screen display. The red stripe along the left indicates which tracks are under Axiom's control, and that's reflected on the Axiom's display too. The header StrLegto corresponds to the track selected in Logic. |
- Yes, it automaps like a bandit! Wow! But be sure to load the patch corresponding to your DAW. (For Logic Pro, that's #14.) Although HyperControl takes care of much of the keyboard's interaction with the DAW, controls like the numeric keypad are patch-specific. M-Audio includes patches for the most popular DAWs, and they can be loaded without interfering with HyperControl's function. You can even load just the parts of the patch that you're interested in, among the patch's four components: numeric keypad, sliders, encoders, and pads. For example, I chose to load just the keypad component of patch #14. That gives me Logic-specific keypad controls for common operations like Save, Undo, Quantize, Prev/Next Marker, and more from the keypad. The Axiom Pro accomplishes this by sending ASCII equivalents of QWERTY keyboard commands.
- I'm put off a bit by their mapping of the Channel EQ plug-in, and that's an important one to master. But my difficulty stems from being accustomed to the very sweet mapping I'd set up on the UC-33e, where I had the luxury of 8 sliders plus 24 pots - exactly what you need to control the 8 bands of the EQ (on/off, gain, freq and Q per band). The Axiom has to distribute those 32 parameters across just 8 knobs using multiple pages. It's just a matter of using it every day, which I will.
- BOOM! I crashed Logic by attempting to use the Axiom's controls to load a third-party insert onto a channel. Did I crash because I turned the endless rotary too quickly in my excitement, or because it was a third-party insert, or because of this specific third-party insert? Testing time!
- I reopened the project, used the Bank > button to get to the track in question, and again went for the same third-party insert. No issues.
- There are lots of possible reasons that it could have crashed the first time, not the least of which is that I'm running a wad of pretty heavy VIs in this project and had just loaded several of them; another is that I spun that endless rotary pretty fast. The second time I was a little more gentle with it.
- I'm satisfied that it's not an issue with third-party plug-ins nor with this specific plug-in (ToonTrack EZMix, which I love to use on individual drum tracks, in this case the kick).
- It's also a relief to open a VI with the press of a nice, cushy button rather than by double-clicking. Any of you with repetitive strain injuries know that generally speaking, the mouse is evil. I use a stylus rather than a mouse, but in all honesty its double-click button is a bit clumsy; pressing that button with your index finger invariably moves the mouse a little onscreen, meaning that the GUI might not "hear" your 2-click as a 2-click. So being able to switch quickly from Mixer mode to Instrument mode with one comfie button-press and then open the VI by pressing a second button is pretty nice. And dead accurate.
Are there specific can/can'ts that you'd like me to check out? Just let me know!
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