# I was naughty and bought a Slate Raven Mti2



## jononotbono (May 17, 2019)

So, having just been hammering it in a shitty day job for the past 6 months, I quit but decided I would buy myself something to make it feel like it wasn't a waste of time. I just bought a Slate Raven Mti2. Early days as I'm still learning how to use it but first impressions are that I love it. Do I need it to write music? Definitely not. Is it fun? YES! haha!

Just wondering if anyone here is using one? I'm definitely going to make a few videos on it, using it with multiple screens (non touch), incorporating the Batch Commander (the actual reason I bought it) with Cubase's Macros/Key commands/Visibility Configs, how good it is editing midi, automation etc. If there's anything anyone would like to know about it or for me to try out, then let me know as there aren't many videos online showing it for things other than mixing.

Feel like an excited kid at Christmas. All be it, now financially poor again. Still, it's one step closer to Minority Report, right? 

Jono


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## unclecheeks (May 21, 2019)

Would love to see your review of it, especially when it comes to things that may be more difficult with touch, like midi editing, etc. 

I now use a Wacom Cintiq pen display at work (for music editing), which I find works nicely, especially for MIDI/audio editing where precision is needed. At home I bought myself a smaller, Chinese version of it which can be had for ~400 on Amazon. Tendinitis is a b....


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## Carlos Lopez-Real (Jun 24, 2019)

How are you getting on with it @jononotbono? I was surprised there weren’t more comments on this thread. I’m very interested in it, and trying to figure out whether to go for this or simply a similar sized touchscreen.


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## Francis Bourre (Jun 25, 2019)

@jononotbono I'd be interested to get your feedback as well.


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## jononotbono (Jun 25, 2019)

Well I’ve just come back from being on tour with a band (it was one of these unexpected things) so I’ve not been in the music lab for a while. I’m back now though and will share my thoughts and opinions on it soon!


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## Fredeke (Jun 25, 2019)

Nice. I've been longing for multitouch interfaces for 15 years... Now they at least become a reality.
Congratulations, and enjoy yourself !


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## Carlos Lopez-Real (Jun 25, 2019)

Out of interest, where did you buy yours - was it SX Pro? I saw they have an education discount.


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## dzilizzi (Jun 25, 2019)

I have a touch screen laptop and find it doesn't have great finite control. (is that the term I'm thinking of?) It is an older model running Windows 8. I'm wondering if my newer Win 10 machine might be better at drawing in midi, for example. I would be interested in your impressions.


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## Fredeke (Jun 25, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> I have a touch screen laptop and find it doesn't have great finite control. (is that the term I'm thinking of?) It is an older model running Windows 8. I'm wondering if my newer Win 10 machine might be better at drawing in midi, for example. I would be interested in your impressions.


I guess you mean fine control.

Whether the reason is hardware or software, there are different qualities. Ok, they're not screens, but have you experience the difference in ease and precision between a Macbook's trackpad, and the cheapest PC trackpad? It's a world of difference. So I suppose it's the same for touch screens...

I'm curious to hear about @jononotbono 's experience too.


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## dzilizzi (Jun 25, 2019)

Fredeke said:


> I guess you mean fine control.
> 
> Whether the reason is hardware or software, there are different qualities. Ok, they're not screens, but have you experience the difference in ease and precision between a Macbook's trackpad, and the cheapest PC trackpad? It's a world of difference. So I suppose it's the same for touch screens...
> 
> I'm curious to hear about @jononotbono 's experience too.


Yes, thank you - fine control. Brain is not working well this morning. 

Windows track pads just suck. And I bought an inexpensive Wacom knock off a few years ago that had decent reviews. Tried it again the other day. Still is pretty useless. My nonmusic laptop is a Lenovo Flex which comes with a pen. I may load Reason on it and see if the pen works for this. (Reason doesn't take much room and is pretty self contained.) It doesn't work very well for photo editing, so I'm thinking it won't be that great.


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## Fredeke (Jun 25, 2019)

dzilizzi said:


> Yes, thank you - fine control. Brain is not working well this morning.
> 
> Windows track pads just suck. And I bought an inexpensive Wacom knock off a few years ago that had decent reviews. Tried it again the other day. Still is pretty useless. My nonmusic laptop is a Lenovo Flex which comes with a pen. I may load Reason on it and see if the pen works for this. (Reason doesn't take much room and is pretty self contained.) It doesn't work very well for photo editing, so I'm thinking it won't be that great.


I had an old tactile lenovo with a pen and it's not great. But I also have one of their recent workstations (Thinkpad P70) and the trackpad is pretty decent, close (if not equal) to Apple's quality.


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## Saxer (Jun 25, 2019)

I tried a Raven with Logic about three years ago. I sent it back. I wanted to use it on a side monitor with Logic's mixer on it. It doesn't work that way. You have to use the Raven key commands for Logic (what means I had to delete my own key commands concerning all my notation and editing shortcuts). The main computer menu has to be on the Raven screen. I have a 38" main screen and had to move all main functions to the side monitor. And the screen quality wasn't good at all, pixely and bluish. This might have changed meanwhile but the concept of bending the workflow of a program to fit the additional controller didn't convince me.


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## jononotbono (Jun 25, 2019)

Saxer said:


> I tried a Raven with Logic about three years ago. I sent it back. I wanted to use it on a side monitor with Logic's mixer on it. It doesn't work that way. You have to use the Raven key commands for Logic (what means I had to delete my own key commands concerning all my notation and editing shortcuts). The main computer menu has to be on the Raven screen. I have a 38" main screen and had to move all main functions to the side monitor. And the screen quality wasn't good at all, pixely and bluish. This might have changed meanwhile but the concept of bending the workflow of a program to fit the additional controller didn't convince me.



The latest 3.6 update now allows the Raven to be used with multiple screens and therefore you can choose whether the Raven screen is the main screen of not. I have my 43inch 4k screen set as my main screen and the Raven as a secondary screen at the minute.


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## Fredeke (Jun 26, 2019)

Saxer said:


> I tried a Raven with Logic about three years ago. I sent it back. I wanted to use it on a side monitor with Logic's mixer on it. It doesn't work that way. You have to use the Raven key commands for Logic (what means I had to delete my own key commands concerning all my notation and editing shortcuts). The main computer menu has to be on the Raven screen. I have a 38" main screen and had to move all main functions to the side monitor. And the screen quality wasn't good at all, pixely and bluish. This might have changed meanwhile but the concept of bending the workflow of a program to fit the additional controller didn't convince me.


That's good to know, because my setup is like yours.

EDIT:


jononotbono said:


> The latest 3.6 update now allows the Raven to be used with multiple screens and therefore you can choose whether the Raven screen is the main screen of not. I have my 43inch 4k screen set as my main screen and the Raven as a secondary screen at the minute.


Ah, ok.


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## Saxer (Jun 26, 2019)

Good to know!


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## greggybud (Jul 11, 2019)

jononotbono said:


> I just bought a Slate Raven Mti2.



I sense overlap. Did you dump Metagrid?


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