Hugh Robjohns wrote:How many people need to pan every channel in real time? Surely panning is one of those set and forget things -- easily done with virtual or assignable controls.
Well, really we rarely need to do *anything* like this in real time any more, unless working live, faders included. That said, yes, I can think of stuff I've worked on where I used panning automation a lot.
But that's not really what I had in mind... I tend not to use the default modes with most control surfaces (in my experience, they rarely make the most of its potential!), but to configure them to do the things I find most useful when mixing, using my DAW's Generic Remote editor. Things like send levels, pans, pre-inserts gain, HPF, compressor thresholds... Assuming the faders are touch sensitive, all these things can become available on any channel once you touch that channel's fader. All on one control surface.
So to me it's a simple equation: more encoders > fewer encoders. In other words, a control-surface system with eight (or 16 or 24...) continuous rotary encoders in addition to the same number of faders means far more things can be instantly controllable than when using a system with only one!
