Just received a Novation Remote SL!

[carbon111]

Fresh out of the box, the Remote SL will serve two main purposes in the studio:

1) Midi controller at my mix position. (routed to the Microwave XT, Nord Modular and Planet Earth modules in the racks below and as a "tonal" controller for my Serge Modular).

2) Dedicated controller for my softsynth PC running Massive, Absynth, Reaktor, Albino and Gigasampler (gotta think about replacing gigasampler now that it's a goner...Kontact maybe?).

The keys on the Remote SL feel great, the weighting is nice, velocity is even and detailed and I even like the joystick...once I disengaged the spring-loading on the Y axis. I've started reading through the manual...it looks like templates for the Microwave XT and the Planet Earth will be relatively easy to set up as they recognize CCs.

I'm really looking forward to seeing how the Novation Remote SL integrates with my softsynths but, later this evening, the guts of my softsynth PC are going into a brand new 2U rack case.

[wardshorsehead]

I have the Remote LE controller which I like a fair amount, but having the y axis return to zero makes using it to control modulation frustrating.

How did you disengage the spring?

Thanks...

[carbon111]

I just read in the manual - there's a mechanical coupling on the bottom of the case (not inside) that you disengage then slide like a switch. Check your manual.

[Cerebral Infect]

I just did the same as you Carbon a month ago. I got a novation Remote SL61 to control all my softsynth and to have a dedicated 5 octave midi controller to control my entire midi rig.

And up to now... I am disappointed. It's in on a stand, unplugged.

I wasn't able to update the unit OS using Novation software and this on two different computers. Novation support is quite fast and nice and they sent me a beta version of their next revision, but they always send the driver as a exe file and of course it gets blocked by my mail.

As far for the quality of the product, the controls are nice, the keys are nice but the casing is so aweful. When you see the high price of the unit, you think quality. But i feel cheated right now. When playing the black notes on mid keyboard, the springback of the notes must hit the plastic cover as i heard a sharp tak tak tak when playing. The case is easy to bend and twist. When pushing the top panel at the side of the control zone, it bend too easily. The plastic case begs to be scratched. The plastic case can be nice for the 25 notes or 37 notes as the keyboard length is rather small. Stretching the case from 25 notes to 61 notes while keeping the same material thickness and shapes remove the "quality" aspect of the product. Sure the keys are nice, but with the overall stiffness of the product it just feel like a low-end midi controller.

i would honnestly recommend to go for the Remote SL Zero, the keyboardless one, and keep your favorite midi controller. To think of it, I would go for a Kawai K5000s and plug it into a Zero.

The drum pads on the Remote are way too stiff and the convex shape make me feel uneasy whenever i strike a pad. The akai mpd24 pads are definitely more suitable for triggering.

The tap tempo button is way too small and is positionned at the worst place possible, it's behind the Data knob. Orignally, I was sitting in front of the keyboard and was looking for the tap tempo button. I wasn't seeing it. But I remember reading about a tap tempo button in the product brochure. i had to have a serious look around to find it : "Oh it's there.... at the worst convenient place for it". Fortunely, i think i can reroute one of the pads to act as the tap tempo controller.

[Stab Frenzy]

I really like the fact that Novation are making a 3 octave controller, more companies should do it.

[JSRockit]

I like that Carbon is buying cheaper gear again... For awhile I thought I'd see you end up with a some $30,000 modular the way you were going.

[JayEm]

once I disengaged the spring-loading on the Y axis.

You can do that?


I've had the 25 for over a year now. I love it. It really opened up how I look at my software.

The tactile control I found on my ReMote is what has been really driving my urge to get my hands on some noise box with a lot of knobs.



TWEAK TWEAK TWEAK

[crystalmsc]

how the Novation Remote SL integrates with my softsynths

I'd be interested to hear about this too.

[allusion]

It integrates wonderfully with software. I have had the unit for over a year now and I am guilty to only reading the manual within the last month, and this thing is an amazing beast.

It def requires you to take time and set up how you want to use it. But I use it with cubase and ableton live on both a MAC and PC platform. From my usage, I def believe the automap software is more stable on PC's. On MAC's, I do get some weird errors where 1 controller will grab the control I mapped and some other random controller. Another problem that really stinks is that for waves plug-ins, the automap functions doesn't map the waves shell correctly (This totally stinks), but the AU versions, which are individual plug-ins, work correctly.

As for integration with cubase, this thing is a monster. Even though it doesn't currently map vst3 plugins, they are working on a future update for that as well. Ableton is alil bit more flakier (You don't get as many plugin controls in ableton vs. cubase) because ableton does not support the remove sl automap server.

Overall, this has really opened up all plugins and software instruments to me. I look forward to the enhacement's that will be made to automap and I hope they will allow for multiple controllers to be used with the automap software.

Also, there is a novation forum that more people should start using to get a voice out there as to what is going on with this product.

http://novation.no-ip.org/b0ard/index.php

[JayEm]

http://novation.no-ip.org/b0ard/index.php

that board is completely empty

[Cerebral Infect]

I wasn't able to update the unit OS using Novation software and this on two different computers. Novation support is quite fast and nice and they sent me a beta version of their next revision, but they always send the driver as a exe file and of course it gets blocked by my mail.

Yep i am quoting myself. i found out that Novation just released a new Automap installation executable that fixed all my installation problems. So i think it's worth to mention. Novation customer support has always been exemplary.

So up to now, with Live, the automap is pretty impressive. You can rename and remap parameter quite easily. it will take some time to remap the control to an interesting position, but i guess it's something you do as you go along.

[diezdiazgiant]

i love mine but the automap function was disappointing. i had to keep continually updating different stuff on my computer. which is a heavy nuisance when i dont have internet at home, so i would end up having to bike to a buddies with a flash drive to get the update just to find out some other nonsense on my comp needed an update.
so i just gave up on automap i was going to get rid of it but then i realized how easy it was to just make a template for ableton and a template from scratch on the keyboard itself and not the damn edittor.

now that ive got it running exactly the way i want it to, some things i really love about it:
- how most of the controls are customizable. whether a button is a cc number, a note, nrpn, etc; if its a cc number, do you want it to send a particaular value, do you want it to step between values at prescribed amount? high and low values... i thought that was a very smart move and was really appreciated that as this was my first "high end" midi controller. (the only other dedicated midi controllers ive owned were an emu xboard and an mpd16, which arent exactly flexible with thier programming options)
- the shitload of button switches and the combo of faders, endless encoders, and those buttery smooth rotaries
- the joystick. plain and simple it beats a mod/pitchwheel.
- 4 axis touchpad with the ability to invert values, or limit them to a range. vector synthesis and i suspect it would make one h**l of a suped up crossfader.

complaints:
- those drum pads. more then the size what pisses me off about those damn things is that there isnt a gate mode. they send no note off message on release, they will only send a note off if you use the "autotimer". thats f**k lame. i find that i never use those drum pads for anything except maybe clip launch, i'd rather just use the black keys to tap in my drums. or the mpd16.
- the touch pad has some issues. it isnt very sensitive, i thought it was my fat sausage fingers but when i used a stylus on it it still would only change cc values in increments of 7 i think. also for the second axii i had to assign the same cc numbers to some buttons in order to assign x2 and y2 to a software parameter because my software just kept recieving x1 and y1 despite pressing the proper quadrant of the touchpad.
- not the biggest complaint but inverse of the drum pads problem of having no real gate, it would have been nice if the option ot have a latch mode for the keys was available. for a product that prides itself on giving you the choice it seems odd that those 2 things were just blown off.
- it would be useful to be able to view different pages on different screens (maybe my cutoff assignments are assigned to the knobs on page one but i want to tweak that at the same time as something thats assigned to a fader on page 3 of a template).




the god outwieghs any bad though with this thing, and it integrates so tightly with ableton even after my delays that it really makes my software feel like a real instrument. i cant imagine how much fun this thing is with something like reaktor - it just turns into a shell for your home mades...