What is the best general plugin controller available? Mapping stuff is a nightmare for me and puts me off using stuff, but would be willing to invest the time if its a good solution. Therefore, something good or something that automaps would be great.

I'm looking for something give give hands on, non mouse, and more intuitive control over plugins, be it EQs, compressors, or synths.

Any suggestions? I remember the Nocturn from years ago that only had a few knobs on it, and I think Nektár may have had something, but just wondering what people think are the best general plugin control surfaces available?

 

Probably not what you're looking for but if you have the time to spend customizing stuff check out TouchOSC, it's a touch controller for phone/tablet/ipad whatever.

 

All Novation controllers come with Automap, which in theory is a good idea.

But, to do this, they duplicate the plug-in, so you see twice the same plug-in in you DAW.
If you can handle this. It's probably the solution for you.

 

What DAW are you using?

 

Depends on your specific needs, how many physical 'things' you need (knobs, faders, buttons, etc)

I really love my NobControl - it's one large knob and two switches. All 3 controls are touch-sensitive (you can double-tap the knob to undo your last controller movement, for example). That may not sound like a lot of control, but it literally does everything I want it to.

You can set up assignments to tie it to specifics controls, but tbh I've never really dug into that (I don't even have its software installed atm) because out of the box it will automatically control whatever you're hovering your mouse over - faders, pans, plugin controls, etc. It offers an iincredibly fine degree of control too - I can easily move Cubase faders by 0.1db if I wanted to.

Oh, and the solid metal main knob feels great to use - it's reassuringly heavy, and super smooth.

 

I use Ableton Live and Cubase primarily.

 

I'm not very familiar with those two, but Midi Fighter Twister works great with ReaLearn (Reaper). There is also a new controller protocol called CSI that I am looking into. These new community led developments make Reaper worth exploring maybe?

Further info, including even more control protocols: https://forum.cockos.com/forumdisplay.php?f=47

 

Last edited: May 11, 2023

I assume you already thought about those two but just in case:
How about a NKI keyboard from NI, or the KeyLab MkII from Arturia?

 

I already have a Komplete Kontrol M32 and a Push 2 actually, but having to manually map and then remember what's where is sometimes a PITA!

 

One of the controller that I was looking at was the Nektar Panorama P1. It's cheap, well reviewed, and has a screen for telling the user what's going on, as well as having a bunch of faders, rotaries, buttons, and even transport controls. However, I'm not sure if it works with Live?! Anybody any the wiser on that?

 

This made me remember a Gearnews article I read a while ago: https://www.gearnews.com/logue-cl-1-the-ultimate-midi-controller-for-ableton-live/

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/logue/logue-cl-1-no-more-midi-mapping/description

However, it seems like they didn't reach their funding goal. It could have been very promising otherwise.

 

Realearn remembers all that stuff for each active plugin and a lot more, plus the Midi Fighter Twister can map 128 parameters per plugin. Cubase is a closed DAW, so you have to rely on the Steinberg developers to provide all this functionality. I'm not a salesman, but I have a lot of experience about being frustrated just like you The X-Touch is going to be my next purchase as it's working perfectly with Reaper using CSI.

 

Last edited: May 11, 2023

It's really great.
But as far as I understood OP asks for an hardware controller.

One thing I miss with TO is tactile sensation, think if you are playing and you read a sheet or just want to keep your focus on the keyboard while messing around paramenters, with TO is not possible if you have complex setups.