Steven Slate Audio Raven MTi 2

I've got my Raven for more than 5 years now and it's the worst buy in my more than 20 years of making music. Most of the time it's not working as it should and you spend lot's of time problem solving. There are 2 drivers involved and the Raven software and the interacting with your DAW so it can go wrong in all directions. I really like the batch command. But most of the time it's not working so this is also worthless. Also a great drawback is the fact that the Raven toolbar takes up screen space. Way better to use a loupedeck or stream deck or other daw hardware controllers. You will miss the incredable batch command. But if it's not working most of the time it's useless anyway. So I am stuck with a real expensive touchscreen waste of money.

First off, it took me a while to get the raven mti2 properly connected and running with my Mac desktop. I had a lot of bugs to deal with, and even had to resort to slate for some tech support, and which they delivered fast and to the point. So, A++ to slate support. The raven and mixing on the raven is a joy. I use Logic Pro X and its a perfect sync. If you are a plug-in tweeker, this is for you. If you use a lot of automation, this is for you. Its lighting fast and responsive. Gestures is a pleasure on its own, and makes using the raven only that much more easier. The large touch screen is a pleasure to work on, easy and flawless. In fact the bonus is: even if you aren't running daw and raven, the mti2 literally turns your Mac into a full functioning touch screen tablet (27 inches). My only con is the setup process, it can be a bit frustrating. But after it was up and running, i re-fell in love with my daw, thanks to the raven and the "in your face" screen placement and pop-ups make working with your daw easy and fun. No more mouse tracking from here to there... Im an analog guy just because i like the precision of knob tweeking.. the raven has taken care of that.. all controls, on the daw and on plug-ins are brought to life size and the reactiveness of the knobs to the touch screen is remarkable. Can't wait to buy and connect the second screen turning this beast into a dual screen setup. You can use your Mac's screen as the second screen btw, and run your whole system on a dual monitor system. But obviously one is touch screen while the other is still point n click.. with the dual raven setup, you have 54 inches of work space, and i can only imagine how much more easier the workflow gets. This review was written after 2 weeks of use.. and to be honest, i haven't spent this much time with my daw in a long time.. just a pleasure to work on.. good job Raven......

Is this as said the future of mixing? That remains to be seen but what do I think of it?
When I first ordered it I expected it to take over from mouse and keyboard completely, this did not happen.
Why?
I use Logic Pro, not really optimized for touch, screen prompts to show where you have for example grabbed the start of a stem to shorten it are hidden under your finger so you can never be certain you have pointed at the right place.
Now on saying that many aspects are made a lot more instinctive. Mixing, turning on screen knobs on plugins, scrolling, turning stuff on and off, muting and other switches all fall naturally into the touch domain. So too do things like editing fade in/out curves.
Other things I still reach for the mouse, but as an added tool, where it works well for me, it is a joy.

Batch Commander is the software that turns it though from a mere touch screen into a real time saver. Many macros are supplied to add tracks, name them, undo takes, change tools and many many more functions. User macros are easy to program too. I will leave the reader to find out more about this.

Setting up a project has lately become automated too. A press of a button and Batch Commander will set up your DAW to integrate the Raven. So even old projects are soon set up.

So why given that it did not replace my traditional input tools do a give it a full 5 star review? Because I could not live now without it, where it helps it it really helps. Also the support is superlative (given time zone differences) and the Slate team are always working to make it better. Most of the flaws are not of the Raven but Logic not being optimised for touch.

So yeah, it's been part of my studio and my work flow for a few months now and I have no regrets. At the mixing stage particularly it has become irreplaceable.