Digidesign C24

The Digidesign C24 is one of the ultimate control surfaces out there. Simply put, it has pretty much everything you can think of and then some. Starting off with features, this thing has 24 bankable strips, touch-sensitive motorized faders, 16 high quality mic/line/DI preamps, 8x2 stereo line submixer, 5.1 surround analog monitor section, talkback mic inputs, dedicated mute, solo, record, select, EQ, dynamics, send and insert switches, along with illumination for each of them. There are probably more features that I’m forgetting, but those are the main ones.

There’s a bit of a debate throughout the audio engineering world at the moment. One school of thought says that you don’t need these control surfaces. They take up too much space, and you can do everything they do in the virtual environment. The other loves that analog feel, and they also realize that these offer faster on-the-fly tweakability that a digital environment might not be able to provide, even if it’s a touch pad one. I actually don’t feel these are that necessary for most beginner studios, but once you start getting major acts in your studio, a control surface such as this really helps when it comes to fast tweaking.

A friend of mine owns a studio, and I’ve had extensive usage with this when I go over to record some of my material. This thing is just amazing in terms of what it can do. I could list all the various different things you can do with this, but I have a feeling that anybody who is looking to buy one of these already knows all the features. What I can comment about is that it’s extremely reliable. I never experienced any failures or unresponsive controls. I’m not sure exactly how old his C24 is, but it has a good amount of time on it. They’re expensive, but if you can afford it, I say go for it.

It's been a six months it has joined the studio.

I find it perfectly suited to our needs, a great price!
Very quick installation, in fact nonexistent, ownership depends on if you know Pro Tools or not and how long you spend there, for me it was fast.

What I like is that apart from the Edit, anything can be done with the screen off! And that's great!
More have its Pro Tools hands it changes your life, the motorized faders are a pure joy, groups, make his fader automation is the best!
He is a fabulous flip function, derived from analog consoles except that here everything is pinball! Pan, sending bus plug settings (fader automation of plug yum!) Etc just anything!

Its negative points are:

- The talckback can be mixed with one submix! It's stupid, so forget the different mixes for zicos or you do not talk to one zicos in a headphone!
- The screen above the rotary ... I do not know who is the idiot who has validated that Digi but I hope it is transferred from when you take the rotary in hand, we no longer see the screen that is hidden by our hand (of course! ).
In addition, this screen is of poor quality ... injury, he lacked really not much to make it a perfect surface!

Finally, the preamp is not gégé is not crap either, I have not had the opportunity to compare with Digi002 or 3 so I can not even say! It's happening everywhere and pretty clean but it lacks dynamic for my taste!

Finally, I would say that when I saw it I immediately knew it was what we needed, it is adapted to our needs and our rates (we take the bundle HD1 + C24 + 96I / O to 11 000 euros).

For how long have you been using it?

Since October.

What thing do you like most/least about it?

+: Allows you to have perfect control of a ProTools HD, very intuitive if you are accustomed to the digital console and controllers. It is also of great clarity, the buttons are spaced enough ect ...

-: I do not like the gray hull if the design is nice.

Did you try many other models before getting this one?

That small controlers.

What is your opinion about the value for the price?

Bah it's expensive but it's what pro.
ps: I'm studying to become a sound engineer BTS is where I used, I just give my impressions if it can help some but my opinion is certainly not the same objectivity as a professional with 10 years business

I went from a defaulting control 24 c24 has a new on which I work about 10 hours a day for a month and I was fairly disappointed, let me explain:
I paid for my new 24 control about $ 8,000 (I'll let you do the conversion to the euro) and c24 cost me $ 11,500.
certe the C24 is a very good controller but I consider it a vulgere reissue of control 24, namely that I have not seen real improvements compared to the control 24.
First defect is the fact that the faders are horizontal, I removed the shims in the front and I raised the rear for better working comfort.
Second default: having removed part of the solo duties as safe and safe record (replaced by option / rec or solo) and a few others.
Third default: Apostrophes in the words of the screen above the Rotarians in fact the lack of visibility of the console, not to mention the bargraph almost unreadable.
Fourth default: the act of placing a send to another since the C24 does not even pass on the window of the protools mix.
I feel really bad that ex-Digi have not integrated the C24 has a few functions from the Icon series, style and soft keys for the creation of tracks (duplicate, delete, etc ...) and then we put 32 faders.
Anyway I put 7 / 10 because AC is a very good controller easy to handle and by saving precious time and accuracy especially during the mixes.
The quality / price is a bit limited given the lack of difference with the control 24.
Today I rather regret my choice at the base I had to buy a D-Command ES 24 faders but differ with the importer a tax on non-specified on the quote made me look at the C24 (much less dear)