So I’ve worked with Ableton for over 8 years now, and I’ve had this controller for a week.
Resolution:
The pots are great, and you can make very fine adjustments in the 0.01 dB range (in my case, for FabFilter plugins via the USB connection).
Assignment:
The assignment is great and, so far, works very nicely. I like how they designed the assignment process and how (most) values appear directly on the controller’s screen—and if they aren’t represented the way you want, you can change them manually. All in all, it’s easy, and once you’ve assigned the plugin, it works on all instances you load up. You should plan some time for this (I’ve currently spent nearly 2 days updating my workflow).
Haptics:
Adjusting the dials is very nice; you have three options:
- a subtle indent at 12 o’clock / you can also add indents at preferred spots
- choose 2–24 steps (yet only up to 16 can be labeled; after that all labels vanish, unfortunately)
- continuously smooth
I also enjoy the key layout and menu navigation. It uses a typical WASD finger positioning, which seems intuitive for most people who have played video games.
DAW:
The macros from Ableton’s racks are loaded by default, which is a nice update—I’ve read some complaints about that in the past. You can also always override those with your own preset, but then you have to label everything in the rack manually, which is a minor pity.
Negatives:
More of a problem is bunching a lot of plugins into a single macro rack in Ableton. The Roto Control plugin selection menu now becomes super crowded and makes it hard to navigate your plugins. It would be nice to have a collapse/expand option here.
Also, in Plugin Mode, it would be nice if you could expand track groups by accessing the “Func” setting; this is currently only possible through “Mix” Mode.
If you’ve once made an assignment to a plugin, it will always appear to the Roto in your last setting. This also has a downside for me—for example, using an EQ in different ways (broad shaping, precise cuts, only mid or side channel cleanups). This becomes a workaround where you have to put the EQ into an Ableton Rack, by which you are consequently limited to 16 macros. This has become an issue in my case.
In General:
I highly recommend checking out this controller. It has improved my approach to music production, which is amazing—and worth the money, in my opinion.
Check out the M4L ShortcutBuddy in combination with this controller—it really speeds up my workflow.
More on the MIDI capabilities to follow.
