In the mid 00’s, there was a sudden flurry of innovation in the field of controller design. Manufacturers started working with artists and programmers and a flood of homebrew builders appeared on the scene, all spreading the word via blogs, websites and viral videos. A handful of these devices were heralded as “the next big thing,” or...

The Presonus StudioLive 16.0.2 is a compact and comparatively cheap mixing console and interface that packs a variety of well-considered features. The niche of the “Live mixer / DAW interface” device has not become so common that manufacturers are auto-piloting through and just copying their competitors. There’s still a lot of innovative...

The Focusrite Liquid Saffire 56 is the flagship unit of the Saffire range, and is packed with high-end features and the widest variety of I/O options, including some that will really interest the audiophile! The case takes up two rack units, so all the controls are nicely spaced out, and the build quality is as you’d expect for a top of...

The Focusrite Control 2802 is a 32 channel, Small-format analog mixing console with fully-integrated DAW controls. The console handles analog signals, just as a standard live mixer would, but it seamlessly integrates the Analog signals with your digital equipment. What you end up with is a mixer and a DAW controller that can do pretty much...

Ableton’s slightly oddball Clip View interface is a pretty unique approach to computer based music creation, it shares more in common with a hardware sampler or Groovebox. It makes sense then, that there are several controls that mirror that same setup. There’s a lot of emphasis on making your computer feel more like an instrument...