Vegas is a good example for the Shuttle series, the ability to move at varying speeds with the shuttle wheel is cool.

I wish Contour would release a version of the software that supports macros though - I've got a couple of functions I'd like to assign to the Shuttle Pro but can't because they're more than a single keystroke.

I had an email from them sometime ago ackowledging macro's as a good idea with an assurance they'd build it in - not there in the current release.

Maybe I should call 'em back on it.

Not pretty useful. Very useful.

Have you checked the newest version concerning the macro ability? It has a new menu page "Key Composer", which at least to me has some kind of macro functionality...

I checked pretty thoroughly when I installed the latest software but I didn't find anything. Your response caused me to re-check Contour site where I found that:

"Added Macro support with KeyComposer available only on ShuttlePRO V2"

Well, that's just ducky! I buy the thing early and got excluded from the feature (no - it's just software, I'm not going to believe they couldn't retrofit the feature).

Nice!

Key Composer only works with the ShuttlePro V2. Seems like an artificial requirement, but that's something to take up with Contour.

[edit: oops, someone else said the same thing at the same time...]

seriously? even game controllers have had multiple key combos / pauses / etc for many years now. Sounds slimy - just adding it to their newest hardware.

I've emailed a contact at Contour, we'll see what happens. As a software developer myself, I know I'd have a hard time swallowing a "it can't be done with the old model" line. I know quite a few of us are using the original Shuttle Pro.

As CheeseHole points out, this isn't exactly cutting edge technology here.

I don't think Contour Designs are a "slimy" company, perhaps they just forgot, or there really is an insurmountable technical reason.

So what can one do with a "control surface" exactly????

I have started using a control surface with V5.

I went for the Edirol UR-80 as it had the built in transport desk as well as 8 faders/rotarys

I love the way it works with track automation, you can use the faders for opacity, fade to colour etc which is a whole lot better than using the mouse

The audio faders do the obvious and the rotary controls can be set up for pans etc.

You configure the device by learning the MIDI codes within Vegas so you can pretty much get Vegas to do most things via the control surface.

The thing you can't do is map keys to the MIDI codes. An example of a limitation for this is the F3/F9 combination which is mapped to the shuttle pro job wheel. This will move one frame left or right under normal mode and if you go into edge trimming mode it will trim the slected edge left or right.

You can't get this combination with the control surface

I have just plugged my shuttle pro back in and intend to use the two together, the additional transport buttons come in handy and the faders/rotary buttons are awesome for track work etc.

There is an issue with the generic driver in 5.0a so that sometimes it does not respond immediatley to the faders but Sony are aware and I am sure it will be fixed in 5.0b

Hope that long rant helps in some - conclusion get a control surface and use it with a shutle pro, www.behringer.com has a good unit for approx $200, it has motorised faders (the edirol does not). In the read mode setting for automation I belive the motorised faders move with the timeline :-)

Paul