Sound Devices 8-series with Waves MidiPlus Fit - current situation

[Wavefront]

Hi all,

 

This is my first post here -- I'm actually a classical music recording engineer, but since my main hardware device is a S.D. Scorpio, I figured this might be a better forum for finding some informed opinions:

 

Occasionally I find myself working on projects that involve sound reinforcement or additional electroacoustic material where it's very useful to have the mixing functionality offered by the 8-series recorders.  Recently I have been thinking of getting a better control surface for my Scorpio so that I can use proper faders and be able to more quickly and efficiently mute channels etc. 

 

Out of the options currently available, I'm particularly interested in the Waves MidiPlus Fit, but although Sound Devices claims it is supported, I remember seeing a hands-on report by someone (on Facebook maybe?) where the integration seemed buggy to the point of being unusable.  Unfortunately I can't find this video any more to share, but searching for other more recent reports has not turned up very much, and I was curious if anyone on this forum is using one of these Waves control surfaces successfully with an 8-series mixer/recorder?  If so, any feedback would be most welcome.

 

The other contender that seems to be quite widely used is the Icon control surface, but for various reasons I think I would prefer the Waves unit, if it is working properly and reliably.  Weight, size, and powering are non-issues for me in my application -- just concerned with ergonomics, functionality, and reliability.

 

Many thanks in advance for any thoughts!

[Philip Perkins]

CL16?

[IronFilm]

The SL Mixface somewhat recently got support from Sound Devices as well, I just got it myself, and have recently finished up a solid couple of week usage with it. You said weight/size is a non-issue for you, but for those who do care about minimizing these, then the Mixface is great!

 

You also don't care about powering, so maybe give a look also at the Behringer X Touch? 

[The Documentary Sound Guy]

SSL and Mackie both make more fully featured / heavier built mix surfaces that should work with the 8 series.  Maybe those would be more to your taste?

[Paul Isaacs]

The two issues that I know of with Waves Fit and Scorpio are resolved. One was due to an internal hardware change with the Waves Fit that we added support for once we were informed of the change. The second thing that was optimized was the smoothness of the trim gain pot adjustments.

 

Paul

[Wavefront]

On 10/23/2023 at 10:16 AM, Paul Isaacs said:

The two issues that I know of with Waves Fit and Scorpio are resolved. One was due to an internal hardware change with the Waves Fit that we added support for once we were informed of the change. The second thing that was optimized was the smoothness of the trim gain pot adjustments.

 

Paul

Many thanks for this update, Paul!  That is very good to hear...

 

Thanks also to everyone who made other recommendations above.  I will give those units a look, but the Waves seems to come closest (for my needs) to a CL-16, while being at a price that's easier to justify, since I am usually using my Scorpio in a somewhat different context.

[Wavefront]

I just thought I would quickly update this thread again, for anyone else who may be interested / in a similar boat.  The ending is a happy one:

 

I'm demo-ing one of the Waves surfaces now, and everything is working perfectly with my Scorpio, running firmware v. 9.31

 

Really enjoying it -- certain things, like the EQ functionality, mute buttons, and sends-on-fader in particular, are especially nice and efficient to use.

 

Thanks again to Paul Isaacs for mentioning this update, and to everyone else for your suggestions.