It would have been nice to see bass management included, as well as the ability to monitor a 5.1 fold down to stereo (with a number of presets) as part of the general feature set. Most desks have this placed in a more accessible position.) The X-Mon does not have any sort of bass management system, which is necessary if you’re creating mixes for DVD (though there is a plug-in for ProTools that does accommodate bass management and monitoring). (One complaint I would make here is that you have to reach for the Studio Level control. X-Mon also allows you to set reference levels for film and post purposes, routing for cue sends and monitoring external inputs. It is really a digitally-controlled audio router that takes the various outputs from ProTools and allows the user control over the 5.1 output to your monitors (the D-Command is 5.1, not 7.1 like the flagship D-Control). It connects to the D-Command with a multi-pin connector and communicates via Midi and RS422. The next part of the system is the X-Mon. So as far as the user is concerned it is like any other console – only this rotary encoder can be reassigned to different functions. The D-Command is able to control the Digidesign mic pre’s directly from the rotary encoders on the channel strip. The ergonomics of the control surface are such that I was able to learn most of the normal editing and mixing functions and be able to run it all from the D-Command. This may not sound like a big deal… but I can assure you that it’s a major step forward. So it’s a credit to the D-Command that I was able to operate ’Tools with virtually no recourse to the mouse or keyboard shortcuts. And I would have to count myself in that category. We’re talking about a generation for whom the use of a control surface for complete access to all ProTools parameters is a totally foreign concept. It’s relatively affordable and rather than hitting a market that’s totally accustomed to large-format consoles (film mixing), it’s catering to the much wider but no less deserving community of ‘mouse-keteers’. This is where D-Command can take over the controls of the mothership. That’s all very well, but what about studios like mine that don’t need (or necessarily have the dosh for) a D-Control but have racks of ProTools HD hardware? The market needed a mid-range, yet powerful, mixing and control companion for ’Tools that still fits into the Icon paradigm. In a relatively short time it’s been making steady inroads into large film and TV studios and used on some high-profile productions like the recent Star Wars episode. D-Control was meant to entirely replace a conventional mixing console when connected to a ProTools system. ‘Icon’ describes a scaleable and potentially massively powerful system.ĭ-Control is Digidesign’s large-format and pricey control surface. Up until now there’s been the D-Control at the helm, ably assisted by the analogue monitoring unit called the X-Mon, the Mic preamps, and Avid video options all talking to associated 192 or 96 I/O. Icon (first seen in AT Issue 34) is like ProTools HD’s mothership taking you wherever you need to go. At the heart of it all is the Icon concept. Plenty of energy has gone into creating more and more complementary hardware for its flagship product, ProTools. There has been some shifting of tectonic plates at Planet Digidesign in the last few years. The solution? It’s time to revisit all those knobs and faders. This goes for mixing, sampling, recording, Midi and all other functions that you perform in the computer. With a mouse and keyboard you can only adjust one parameter at a time… period. A whole orchestra can now reside and be recorded within the bounds of your typical computer! No wonder it all takes so long to do anything. What I’m suggesting is that what was possible to control with nothing more than a keyboard and a mouse a few years ago is increasingly difficult to do so now. Evil-style plot to divest us of all our hardware only to demand we buy it all again off of them… That’s a wee bit far-fetched. That’s not to say that I’m accusing Digidesign of any grand, Dr. And – here’s where the irony starts to show its face – it was Digidesign leading the charge. For most people they disappeared so completely that we now have a whole generation far more conversant with a mouse than a pan pot. Then with the advent of digital… they disappeared. In years gone by, loads of knobs and controls were obligatory. Whenever the latest DAW controller thuds onto the AT test bench the poignant irony of it all becomes obvious. 9 September 2005 New-generation or old school… either way, the new control surface from Digidesign seems set to take command.
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