# New Presonus Faderport 8 With Max Hack



## Gerhard Westphalen (Sep 16, 2016)

This new controller could be the solution which composers have been looking for allowing for control of both midi CC's and touch sensitive mixing. 

The issue with all of the Euphonix/Avid stuff is that they don't support CC's. The way to get around this is to have a second program like Bidule or Max with Eucon seeing it as Mackie Control and then have it convert that to CC's. It's doable but somewhat complicated. The Fadeport uses simple CC's for it's faders so with Max you can easily make it switchable from the normal native touch sensitive mixing mode to controlling CC's. All you'd have to do is remap the CC's. No complicated conversion from the pitch bend data used by Mackie Control.

Right now I use a BCF2000 and a Faderport to be able to do both things but once this is released I'll consider replacing them both with 1 unit. Only downside is I don't like the appearance.


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## synthpunk (Sep 16, 2016)

Hell yah, $499 usd. Im in!  Just wish it had some knobs.
http://www.presonus.com/products/FaderPort-8

But lets not forget the track record with supporting the Faderport.


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## R. Soul (Sep 16, 2016)

I literally bought a BCF2000 two days ago, which I haven't actually received yet.

Then yesterday I bumped into the Faderport 8 along with another interesting option - Platform M from Icon.
http://iconproaudio.com/product/platform-m/
So it looks like we could be spoiled for choice soon 

If they can sell the Faderport 8 for $100 less than the Behringer X-touch (if Sweetwater prices are anything to go buy), I think they could be on to a winner.


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## Gerhard Westphalen (Sep 16, 2016)

But the problem with other options aside from Eucon is that they use Mackie Control which doesn't follow your track selection making it essentially useless on larger project. I rarely use my Faderport when working in PT since it doesn't support the native mode and I don't want to spend all day banking around tracks. Also, the other options will give you the same problem as a Eucon surface with having to convert the Mackie Control to CC's which is complicated.

EDIT: It seems to only do a native mode with Studio One and only do Mackie for everything else unless I'm misunderstanding the specs. Doesn't seem to do what I was hoping it would in which case it's no different from everything else out right now.


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## colony nofi (Sep 16, 2016)

The new icon looks very interesting for control using midi CC's. I'm even hoping that one might be able to map the 9th fader to d-fader 
I gave up on the eucon/midi CC hack. It was just too difficult in a production environment.
I'm not giving up hope on this faderport either just yet. Especially if something like d-fader works with it. (Yes, it means only one fader at a time - but its control is so damn useful and quick that I think I can give up multi-fader mixing!)
B.


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## Will Blackburn (Nov 7, 2016)

Booked


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## synthpunk (Nov 8, 2016)

I ended up getting the Behringer X-Touch Compact. $100 cheaper, well made-solid, 9 quiet faders, 9 pan knobs, easy to use for Midi CC's, and extra buttons and knobs for softsynth control. Still no mac editor but using Logic's controller assignment is fine here.


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## Daryl (Nov 8, 2016)

I have an original Faderport. Works really well with Nuendo. Works really badly or not at all with Pro Tools on Windows. I would want to see some guarantees before spending anything on this. As it probably uses the HUI emulation, I'm not confident that it will work properly.


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## synthpunk (Nov 8, 2016)

That's a good point, ask Logic users about Presonus Faderport driver support over the years 



Daryl said:


> I have an original Faderport. Works really well with Nuendo. Works really badly or not at all with Pro Tools on Windows. I would want to see some guarantees before spending anything on this. As it probably uses the HUI emulation, I'm not confident that it will work properly.


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## tack (Nov 8, 2016)

And I ended up getting the iCON Platform-M which is even more compact and low profile than the Behringer X-Touch Compact, which I needed in order to fit my space. I've been using it for a couple weeks and it's been reliable.


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## babylonwaves (Nov 8, 2016)

synthpunk said:


> That's a good point, ask Logic users about Presonus Faderport driver support over the years


works fine for me ... am I missing something?


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## stonzthro (Nov 8, 2016)

babylonwaves said:


> works fine for me ... am I missing something?


fine here too - on LP9 there were some initial issues I think, but those have long been addressed.


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## InLight-Tone (Nov 8, 2016)

I never liked the mixing surface idea as I never mix with physical faders. I do like having a single control strip in hardware though as I'm recording each track but after that it's mouse and keys for me...

Nice looking rig though.


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## RCsound (Nov 8, 2016)

tack said:


> And I ended up getting the iCON Platform-M which is even more compact and low profile than the Behringer X-Touch Compact, which I needed in order to fit my space. I've been using it for a couple weeks and it's been reliable.



I'm tracking this product for sometime, but after seeing these opinions i'm thinking twice to jump onto Platform M, seen to be that final product is not complete on time or faulty in some aspects, but anyway, how reliable are the faders?, it feel solid?, clumsy?, the faders have metal caps?.


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## colony nofi (Nov 15, 2016)

tack said:


> And I ended up getting the iCON Platform-M which is even more compact and low profile than the Behringer X-Touch Compact, which I needed in order to fit my space. I've been using it for a couple weeks and it's been reliable.


Hey Tack. So the Platform - M can be used purely as a motorized Midi CC controller? 
Is it easy to swap between midi mode / DAW control mode? And is that a per-fader switch, or all-or-nothing?
Cheers, B.


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## tack (Nov 15, 2016)

colony nofi said:


> Hey Tack. So the Platform - M can be used purely as a motorized Midi CC controller?


Yes, although it's of course up to you to arrange to get CC data back to the control surface if you want to keep the faders synced. I haven't entirely worked that out yet, although I have a good idea how to accomplish this with Reaper using a bit of custom scripting. (Edit 2017-09-04: as of Firmware 1.03, when in custom mode it's no longer necessary to reflect CC events back at the control surface to keep the faders in place.) At the moment, I don't keep the faders synced with CCs I use for performance (mod, expr, vib, etc). But I use a couple faders for volume control (current selected track in my DAW, and the master fader controls my mains from RME TotalMix FX), they are kept synchronized thanks to some customizations with Bome MIDI Translator.

On that main fader, I've hijacked the mixer, read, and write buttons to change the context of the main fader. Pressing read or write actually switches that fader to control different channels in TotalMix. They act as toggles. The mixer button resets those channels to my usual defaults.

That's a very convenient level of customization that just won't be doable without something like Bome MT.



colony nofi said:


> Is it easy to swap between midi mode / DAW control mode? And is that a per-fader switch, or all-or-nothing?


It's not easy. It requires loading their software and uploading a new config setting to the unit. The control mode setting is global, not per fader.



RCsound said:


> I'm tracking this product for sometime, but after seeing these opinions i'm thinking twice to jump onto Platform M, seen to be that final product is not complete on time or faulty in some aspects, but anyway, how reliable are the faders?, it feel solid?, clumsy?, the faders have metal caps?.


So far no issues with reliability on the faders. Though once I did have an issue where it stopped responding, however it came back to life after restarting Bome Midi Translator (which completely owns all input/output with the controller) so I can't rule out BMT as the issue.

It's pretty heavy for its size, and I haven't had any issues with it sliding around. The encoders are metal and are capacitive to provide touch sensitivity.

My main complaints:

Out of the box the rubber feet were slightly uneven and so there is a small wobble when pushing on the lower left corner. It shouldn't be too difficult to fix, I just haven't bothered yet.
The LED bleed is significant.
The LED brightness can't be configured.

The jog wheel does, as the thread you linked to indicates, obscure the "Jog" label. Purely cosmetic.
The iMap software
doesn't remember settings from last load or discover them from the unit -- you have to load a saved config file every time
doesn't auto discover the Platform M MIDI out device, and doesn't even remember the last chosen MIDI out device. So you have to manually select it whenever you want to update settings.
doesn't let you configure the MIDI channel of the encoders (!!)
You use this word "user defined" but I do not think it means what you think it means.


Encoders are always relative. No absolute mode supported.
The jog wheel can be configured to send a relative CC which is good. It can also be modified via the too zoom buttons (horizontal and vertical) which themselves can be configured to send MIDI Events, which is good. However the jog wheel with the zoom modifier can only be configured to send discrete events when turning the wheel. So unlike the unmodified mode which can send relative CCs, you can't do this in zoom mode. It's discrete events only for left and right turns (such as note events).
I wish touch sensitivity _wasn't_ provided by the capacitive fader surface, but worked based on pressure or something. Often times I find myself wanting to nudge the fader with the tip of my finger against the surface, which means my fingernail is pushing against the fader. Because it doesn't detect the touch, it literally pushes back against me, refusing to move.
Many of these complaints can be addressed with software and firmware updates.

What I like about it:

Low profile and efficient use of space
Fader glides well and fader motor noise is pretty acceptable to me
I do like the dual function encoder/buttons. (Incidentally the MIDI channel on the encoder buttons _can_ be configured.) So far I've been using most of the encoder switch to the most common articulations though I'm not sure if I'll stay with that configuration.

In spite of the limitations mentioned above, generally quite configurable and with heavy Bome MT magic is providing a very nice setup for me.

After having used it for the past couple weeks, overall I'd still recommend it.


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## RCsound (Nov 16, 2016)

Thank's tack, very detailed information.


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## colony nofi (Nov 16, 2016)

This is awesome info - many thanks!


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## EvilDragon (Mar 14, 2017)

tack said:


> Encoders are always relative. No absolute mode supported.



Hmmm... but isn't that the very nature of encoders? They are always relative input devices, since they work on the principle of increment/decrement depending on which way you turn them... Knobs are absolute input devices, precisely because they are NOT endless.


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## tack (Mar 14, 2017)

EvilDragon said:


> They are always relative input devices, since they work on the principle of increment/decrement depending on which way you turn them... Knobs are absolute input devices, precisely because they are NOT endless.


I'm thinking of something like the MIDI Fighter Twister, whose encoders can act in either relative or absolute mode. Each mode is variously useful in its own way.

I suppose you could play the No True Scotsman card, and say that if it's in absolute mode you can't call it an encoder anymore, and you have to call it a knob.


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## EvilDragon (Mar 14, 2017)

Pretty much! :D


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## 0liver (Mar 14, 2017)

I picked up a used cm labs motomix controller for $100 and use it for CC's. I run it through TransMIDIfier to filter out the unwanted messages and to change the fader CC's to what I want them to be. It's built like a tank with high quality faders and have no complaints so far!


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## colony nofi (Mar 15, 2017)

0liver said:


> I picked up a used cm labs motomix controller for $100 and use it for CC's. I run it through TransMIDIfier to filter out the unwanted messages and to change the fader CC's to what I want them to be. It's built like a tank with high quality faders and have no complaints so far!


Oh - I *have* a motormix somewhere. It had some problem from memory. Its old though. Like, 12 years plus perhaps? I seem to remember mine having some sort of issue as well. (I know the LED strip wasn't functioning for starters)
But - faders were decent from memory. 
Do you use it with bi-directional info (so the faders move to the current CC position of the selected track?) Oh how I wish that DAW software / controllers were designed to do this.


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## 0liver (Mar 16, 2017)

Currently it isn't bi-directional, but I should look into the possibility.


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## skythemusic (Jun 29, 2017)

Bumping this thread to see if anyone is using the Faderport 8 in Studio One for sending midi cc. I'm seeing conflicting reports...


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## VinRice (Jun 30, 2017)

Bought the X touch Compact. The problem is there is no editor for OSX. In CC mode, if I want to 'learn' a controller in some plug-in I'm getting the MIDI message from the touch on the fader before even moving the fader, which is a problem. There is also some other funkiness going on which I can't resolve without the editor. Works fine in mix controller mode however. The Icon M does't have an OSX editor yet either.


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