Ableton Forum

can anyone speak on mackie control universal as their studio controller for live? is there any thing missing? does it/could it double as your live stage performance controller?

what was the alternative to the mackie control universal when i came time to choose between two?

would you now consider the novation remote sl zero?

darclex wrote:would you now consider the novation remote sl zero?

No comparison. The MCU is a great bit of kit (but better with an added C4 and extender!) and is a decent usable size. The SL Zero is mini and more fiddly with no motorized faders or the transport, shuttle, cursor keys and other UI controls that make the MCU so handy. The SL Zero would have a place if you can get by with what it offers and need a physically smaller controller or somthing USB instead of MIDI but thats about the only reason I'd choose it over the MCU.

I'd suspect that as you grow the MCU would become more useful, the SL Zero would become less so...

~Pev

seems like mcu would be the better choice thanks fro chiming in!
laters

They are not really comparable. Each has it's use.

richardl wrote:They are not really comparable. Each has it's use.

Seconded.

in response to your question, i wouldn't want to drag around an MCU for performances (though i like it alot for the studio).

I'm not positive of this, but the SL tries to work a little handier with plug ins, and integrates slightly better with Live. The Mackie is solid, I bought a used one, and had a slight issue with it, the Mackie tech I brought it to said they rarely see them, which is pretty cool. That said the SL is probably more road worthy, motorized faders are delicate.
I would buy an SL if I could justify it financially, the Mackie is set up for DAW control more than Live instrument knob manipulation IMO.

pev wrote:

darclex wrote:would you now consider the novation remote sl zero?

No comparison. The MCU is a great bit of kit (but better with an added C4 and extender!) and is a decent usable size.

~Pev

Mackie C4 does NOT work with Live. There is an alpha release third party mediator program which goes some way to making it useful with Live but it doesn't give full functionality and is alpha, not even beta at the moment.

Macrostructure wrote:

pev wrote:

darclex wrote:would you now consider the novation remote sl zero?

No comparison. The MCU is a great bit of kit (but better with an added C4 and extender!) and is a decent usable size.

~Pev

Mackie C4 does NOT work with Live. There is an alpha release third party mediator program which goes some way to making it useful with Live but it doesn't give full functionality and is alpha, not even beta at the moment.

What is this third party program you elude too?

cheers
Steve

As an owner of BCF2000 which I use in Mackie Mode with Live, I'd say that although not the real thing,
at 169 Euro you can't go wrong and you get motorized faders that IMHO are very useful for mixing
if your target is the studio.

- Best
- Pasha

darclex wrote:seems like mcu would be the better choice thanks fro chiming in!
laters

...I would not take the mackie out of the studio...for instance..

Macrostructure wrote: Mackie C4 does NOT work with Live. There is an alpha release third party mediator program which goes some way to making it useful with Live but it doesn't give full functionality and is alpha, not even beta at the moment.

What do you mean by "Mackie C4 does NOT work with Live"?

Do you mean, the C4 does not display the controller names of abletons knobs (e.g. the "Sends")?

What do you mean by "Mackie C4 does NOT work with Live"?

C4 is not supported as a control surface. you can still use it as a standard midi device, but not with MCU. you won't have any screen display if you assign it to live's devices without doing some tricky stuff using 3rd party apps. (Mackie Commander pro I guess)

cheers

can't speak highly enough of the MCU.. good for studio use, but it's way too big and too fragile for gigging.. I don't know about the SLzero but I have a SL25 and AUTOMAP is way too complicated for me.. with the mackie, it's more or less plug and play.. but yeah, they are also 2 very different products.

Love the MCU, but still frustrated by the lack of studio controllers that feature a per track EQ section. Yes the knobs at the top automap to EQs but you can only work with 1 track at a time. I don't know who thought this was a good idea and almost all other manufacturers decided to run with it.