Recording - November 2010 - 30

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...where we bring you follow-up articles with application hints and upgrade news about gear already reviewed in Recording

Novation
SL MkII USB Controllers
An intelligent software layer makes your DAW respond to the slightest touch
Reviews by Mike Metlay

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n our February 2008 issue I reviewed the new ReMOTE SL line of USB Controllers from Novation. These controllers featured a wide-variety of hands-on controls, large LCD “scribble strips” for parameter and value displays, and pioneered a new software layer called Automap that was designed to ease the programming and workflow process when using them with your DAW. Two years later, the SL MkII keyboard line is available, and there’s an entirely new version of Automap that significantly improves the entire user experience. Let’s take a closer look. The lineup The SL MkII series has four models—the 25SL MkII, 49SL MkII, and 61SL MkII (designated by the size of their keyboards) and the keyboardless ZeRO SL MkII. Automap speaks to all these products as well as to Novation’s Launchpad (reviewed December 2009) and a nifty portable controller called the Nocturn (see the sidebar). With the exception of a crossfader on the ZeRO SL MkII, all four units’ front panels are identical: eight each of faders, pots, endless encoders with LED rings, and velocity-sensitive drum pads (very light to the touch and comfortable to play, a big improvement to my fingers over the last version), plus three banks of eight buttons each and a fourth bank of buttons that do double duty as transport controls. There are buttons to change operating modes, and a neat extra encoder called Speed Dial that instantly lets you tweak whatever parameter you’re mousing over. There’s a single LCD scribble strip with page up/down buttons rather than the old version’s two, a reduction in visual feedback that I tended not to notice because the software

has become much more intuitive in the information it presents. The keyboard actions are of good quality with a heavier-than-usual synth feel and have Novation’s usual left-hand controls, the joystick with pitch bend and modulation (the latter with defeatable spring-loaded return to zero) and XY touchpad. Rear panel connections include MIDI In, Thru, two Outs, USB, 1/4" jacks for sustain and expression pedals, and a jack for the optional AC wallwart (not included—my test unit, a 49SL MkII, worked fine on bus power from my MacBook and from a powered hub). Automap Automap (I tested version 3.4—see note on 3.5 below) underwent a huge facelift in the version 3 upgrade; while the basic concepts behind its operation are the same as in version 2, the

execution is entirely different, and is in my opinion a huge leap forward from the previous design. There are two versions of Automap available—the standard version, which comes free with every Novation controller, and Automap Pro, a $29.99 upgrade that adds a number of worthwhile features. Automap (and its associated application, Automap Server) runs as a software layer between your DAW and your controller. It interprets the movements you make on the controller and communicates them to the DAW and vice versa, providing you with frontpanel visual feedback on parameter settings thanks to the LCD. When you launch your DAW, Automap launches automatically and sets everything up for you to go to work, intelligently mapping parameters to controls for you. Now, how “intelligently” is “intelligently”? That’s always the question with software like this, and the answer (at least in my tests) was “not perfectly but decently in most cases”. While I could find some situations where Automap made bad guesses as to initial mappings (assigning several bands of Apple’s AU graphic equalizer to be controlled by buttons rather than knobs or faders, for example), in most cases the plug-in came up with a pretty straightforward set of control assignments that let me get to work right away. Automap talks to software in several ways. For mixer and

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Recording - November 2010

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