FADERPORT 8 vs QCon Pro G2 8-channel universal DAW control surface?

[donreynolds]

Hey all!

Looking for some thoughts

I have the Presonus FaderPort 8 hooked up and it actually works ok except for the scribble strips banks not working correctly and syncing to the DP track layout
Presonus support said they do not support Digital Performer… great

So I though I am going to order the QCon Pro G2 8-channel universal DAW control surface and see if it any better
It says they have DP templates? But I read on another post that the QCon also had issue with scribble strip track names?? The QCon support tol them it was a DP issue as DP was not sending the track info?

Any thoughts??

Don

[terencepalmer]

I had purchased the single channel Faderport and I could get one half of it or the other to work, but not both. I returned it when i saw that Presonus had dropped support for DP. I later ended up with the QCon Pro G2 8-channel and I have not had any issues with it using the Mackie Control mode.

The Digital Performer template refers to the plastic overlay, if I am understanding what you mean. That also works fine. by which I mean the buttons all work by labeled. The "Control Surfaces Help" -> Mackie Control PDF are the applicable instructions, even though they are showing a Mackie unit.

I will say this is the second time recently that I have seen someone mention DP not sending track name info (in the other case it was with FabFilter Pro-Q 4), but that also works for me, so I don't know what I am doing differently.

[donreynolds]

Thank you!

The Qcon is on it’s way!

[GlennK]

I was considering the single channel Faderport. So, if it supposedly uses MacKie and HUI, what doesn't work about it? And excuse me because I am totally new to control surfaces. Thanks.

[JSmith1234567]

I have looked at these a ton, and still haven't figured out the best idea?

One thing to remember about the Faderports is that there are not individual pan-pots for each channel.

It kind of defeats the purpose to me...the whole idea for me is like to balance a drum kit for instance, or section of players, and having physical faders but with panning on each channel would be essential.

I wish any of these had phase switches too!

I looked at the stuff Icons digital was making early on, and they seemed cheaply made, but the newer ones I've seen look terrific. They look like that company got their @$%&%@$ together! They seem solid and not cheap.

The SSL one looks really great, but then you pay for that too.

For myself, I wish someone had a 16-channel one that was stripped down to just faders, channel-name-readouts and pan-pots.

It's weird that the Avid Artist series, now discontinued, you can get the 8 channel one used really cheap now, but the 16-channel versions of it Artist S-3 isn't double that price, more like 4-5 times the price, even used and discontinued.

The whole Eucon vs Mackie MCU thing...having used both, I thought the Eucon would be way superior until I actually used it, and the Mackie MCU protocol is way hipper than I would have assumed. I kind of like it more than Eucon in actual use.

[primeevolutionary]

I absolutely love my Mackie MCU and two extenders. They work with DP near perfectly if not perfectly. If I were to replace them, it would just be to go back to using a board instead of controller.

[James Steele]

It's weird that the Avid Artist series, now discontinued, you can get the 8 channel one used really cheap now, but the 16-channel versions of it Artist S-3 isn't double that price, more like 4-5 times the price, even used and discontinued.

The whole Eucon vs Mackie MCU thing...having used both, I thought the Eucon would be way superior until I actually used it, and the Mackie MCU protocol is way hipper than I would have assumed. I kind of like it more than Eucon in actual use.

I'm using an Avid S3 combined with Avid Control on an iPad. It's a nice solution. I paid about $2K for the S3 used a couple years ago I think? I've been pretty happy with it, but yeah... it wasn't cheap. If I were on a tighter budget I'd probably go with two Artist/Avid Mix units plus Avid Control on the iPad.

But hey... to each their own. I really like the color coding on the S3 unit as opposed to the Artist Mix units (I had an Artst Mix + Control setup previously). It's much easier locating a track on the S3 since the LEDs on the S3 will reflect the track color.

[monkey man]

Isn't SSL an option, especially with the handy overlays (including one for DP) that come with it?

I know it's pricey, but so is Avid.