5/28/2012

Digidesign Command 8 Control Surface for Pro Tools Review

Digidesign Command 8 Control Surface for Pro Tools
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(More customer reviews)
My son is a sound recording technology student at college. I'm a computer expert. To help my son in his studies, I upgraded his Apple/Sonar DAW to a ProTools environment. We spent many thousands of dollars doing so, and it was a painful experience.
The Command|8 proved to be the most frustrating element in the entire digital sound chain, and a lack of good documentation and support from Avid (or whatever it is called today - the company appears to merge and change its name weekly) does not help.
It took weeks to get the device configured and working reliably with ProTools 8. Even after that it would constantly require recalibration or would go offline arbitrarily, requiring reinstallation of protools to bring it back. I have no idea how pro-am studios manage to survive using ProTools.
A few weeks out of warranty, the display failed and the unit refused to come online. The faders go crazy for a few minutes then park at the bottom although you can hear the fader motors still clicking wildly. This problem is posted several times on the Avid user forums, and appears to be a common defect. Repair costs might run to several hundred dollars.
Unlike most users, we read the user manuals "avidly" and followerd all user directions. As a former sound engineer myself, I insisted that all equipment in the sound chain was covered with dustcloths when not in use. This device was probably used less than 100 hours in its lifetime.
Do not buy this product.

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The Digidesign Command 8 control surface puts full control of Pro Tools TDM or LE at your fingertips more affordably than ever before - for both Windows XP and Mac OS X. Through a simple USB connection, Command 8's eight bankable channels of touch-sensitive motorized faders, rotary encoders, and LCD displays enable you to control your Pro Tools system with a fully featured, intelligent control surface. As with other Digidesign control surfaces, Command 8 gives you channel strip mixing functionality along with the ability to view and edit plug-in parameters and to automate sends, pans, track volume, and mutes. Transport controls (Play, Record, etc.) are also included, complete with a footswitch jack for QuickPunch and TrackPunch in, further increasing your independence from mouse-and-keyboard-only interaction with your sessions. Command 8 features a 1-IN/2-OUT (16 channels in/32 channels out) MIDI interface for integrating your MIDI-compatible gear into Pro Tools. Its Standalone MIDI controller mode enables you to use Command 8 with your favorite third-party MIDI applications and devices - any device or application that accepts MIDI control change messages for level, panning, solo, mute, MIDI Machine Control, and other mappable parameters. For keeping an ear or two on your mixes, Command 8 includes an onboard monitor system featuring acclaimed Focusrite audio performance and quality. It supports a Main Pro Tools Input, External source (a turntable mixer or CD player, for example) and separate speaker and headphone outputs. Along with Pro Tools TDM and LE systems, Command 8 also supports Avid products natively, including Avid Media Composer. When used with Avid products, Command 8's controls are mapped to the Automation Gain Tool for recording dynamic volume automation as well as Solo, Mute, and Snap Mode on and off. Since it connects via USB, no additional MIDI interface is required. Better yet, when utilized in su

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