iCon Qcon Pro G2 USB DAW Controller

Product Information

All housing parts and the angled display sit tightly together, and the fader modules can also be unscrewed individually. The feel of the controls is convincing for a moderately priced DAW controller. The most important of these are located at the bottom of the fascia, clustered around the unit’s jog/scrub wheel. As well as providing transport buttons, this group of buttons can be used to navigate within the host DAW, select and move parts, zoom the DAW’s view, toggle the DAW’s Loop mode and so on. Believe it or not, the Behringer is finally here, and I consider it an ideal FaderPort alternative. The model from the DAW controller series has eight complete channel strips with motorized faders and eight additional rotary controls with LED rings. There’s also a bank of eight customisable function buttons. Functions are assigned within the host DAW, and each button has two ‘layers’ available to it, so a total of 16 functions can be assigned; the currently active layer of functions is switched via a button adjacent to the function buttons. Other customisable controllers are available in the form of footswitch ports on the rear panels of both the Pro G2 and the EX G2.

A line of USB-MIDI controller options for your DAW, synth, editor, …whatever, using any devices’ preset maps or included mapping software. There are presets as well, so that connecting with DAWs such as Cubase, Nuendo, Logic, Live, ProTools or Studio One, (to name a few) is simple to set up. We have many different controllers large to small to fit your needs. DAW overlays are included for Cubase/Nuendo, LogicPro, DigitalPerformer, FLStudio, Samplitude, Reaper, Studio One, Bitwig, Reasons, ProTools, Cakewalk/Sonar, Audition, Ableton Live and User define mode Some DAWs limit the number of extenders that work with their software. The following list includes the maximum number of extenders you can use with the specified DAW. The X-Touch features quite a few more buttons, though we have read several reports from users in forums about X-Touch compatibility issues with Pro Tools, which is well worth investigating for yourself if you are considering one of these devices. Take chargeof your recording witheight channels and accompanying motorised faders. Set levels, fine tune EQs and effects and move swiftly in and out of sessions using the QCon's intuitive layout. Customise the purpose for 78 buttons and glide through settings using the jog wheel shuttle. LED ScreenNo matter what the operating mode, channel faders and rotary controls can be ‘flipped’ so that the channel level is controlled by the rotary controls, and parameters – as determined by the current Operating mode – are controlled via faders. Connect up to four S1s to create an extended integrated surface. The S1 is the latest EUCON-compatible control surface from Avid. Being EUCON-compatible means that the Avid S1 is supported by Pro Tools, by media composer Cubase, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, and many other audio and video applications. The S1 allows you to take hands-on physical control over what's happening inside your computer and with Pro Tools. For example, you have extremely deep integration. Around a thousand different parameters and functions are supported. A wide range and assortment of personal listening solutions, including studio headphones, DJ Headphones, ear-hook and in-ear monitors. Innovative technologies such as our own ScanPro(TM) 45mm Neodymium magnet driver provide pure, ultra clean sound output for the critical listener.

There are a number of different Operating modes available, selected via the Assignment buttons on the right of the unit’s fascia. In some modes, such as Pan, the LCD screen shows the name of each channel, and adjusting a rotary control will adjust the pan (or whatever) of the corresponding channel. Here we have a MIDI controller for controlling DAWs and is equipped with eight-channel strips (fader + potentiometer + 4 buttons) and a master fader. There is more choice in the DAW controller with motor faders, which are still to be described as affordable. HUI mode - for use with DAWs like Pro Tools - offering less functionality but in our experience better than expected. I got rid of my x-touch for a g2, mainly for the LCD screen, the Icon is working out much better for me, I'm thinking of getting an extender...It is, however, a warning to consumers about Icon Pro Audio. Their sales literature and product ads contain false advertising. You have a select button that corresponds with the rotary encoder and the OLED. At the bottom, you also have four modifier keys. The first of those is the second shift key. Then we have the control, the option, and command alt. These correspond to the modifier keys and your computer keyboard. We also have four user-assignable buttons at the bottom, and those can be assigned to a wide variety of different tasks and functions.

Each channel strip is topped off by a rotary encoder surrounded by a ring of 11 LEDs that indicate the value of the corresponding parameter. The rotaries also have a button action when pressed, which provides further and deeper control possibilities.

Discussions

Other features of the QCon EX G2 are illuminated buttons for mute, solo, record arm and channel select, a dual-function rotary encoder on every channel, and a 12-segment LED level metering bridge. With more and more of us working from home, a lot of us need a control surface, but we rarely have space or the budget to have a large format control surface or console. However, to get the work done efficiently, we do need access to a control surface. In this article, we look at the control surfaces suitable for your home studio. Anyway, because it took so long to figure out the G2’s functionality, I decided to make a spreadsheet that includes most the functions I tested (I left most of the really obvious ones out, and didn’t bother mussing much with entering digits into text fields… because that’s what keyboards are for) and the G2 button combos required to execute them, as well as a list of the functions that didn’t work. I'm going to post it here in case it may help someone with a new G2 (or in case anyone is curious).