The EM Poll

Frontier Alpha Track:
The Sound of One Fader Sliding

Apr 20, 2007 5:19 PM, Advertorial by David Battino

           

Take Control of Your Music

A control surface like the AlphaTrack has several advantages over a mouse that may not be obvious until you try one. A fader provides repeatable, tactile feedback. That lets you learn the feel of the control, developing “muscle memory.” Because a mouse has no physical boundaries to its travel, you have to split your attention between screen and hand, and you don’t develop muscle memory.

Most DAWs let you create fade envelopes by drawing with a pencil cursor or by adding breakpoints to a line. But straight envelopes don’t sound as expressive as fader moves, and drawing envelopes is awkward. Also, you can perform on a fader, interacting with the music, whereas breakpoint and pencil changes typically take effect only after you make them.

In addition, dedicated control surfaces work similarly in different programs. The layout of the transport buttons is always the same, and you don’t suffer the mental discontinuity of translating a typewriter key into a musical command or searching the screen for the right pixels to click.

Get on the AlphaTrack

Before connecting the AlphaTrack to your computer, you need to install a driver; check Frontier Design Group’s download page for the latest version. While you’re there, grab the plug-ins for any software you use. At this writing, that can be Adobe Audition 2, Cakewalk Sonar, Cockos Reaper, MOTU Digital Performer, Propellerhead Reason, and Steinberg Cubase and Nuendo, and support for more software is on the way. The AlphaTrack’s built-in HUI and MCU modes also allow it to work with Digidesign Pro Tools and Apple Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro.

With supported programs, the AlphaTrack’s controls are mapped to useful functions such as Pan and Track Select, and its display shows the corresponding parameter names and values. Frontier Design Group’s download page also features tips and control diagrams for supported programs; these are quick yet essential reading.

I mainly use Reason (which is supported) and Ableton Live (not yet supported), so I got a good overview of the AlphaTrack’s possibilities. Because the AlphaTrack sends out simple MIDI messages (Control Change, Note Number, and Pitch Bend), I was able to map it to a variety of functions in Live using Live’s MIDI Learn mode. In Reason, though, the native support made the AlphaTrack a true bidirectional remote control. I’ll discuss MIDI mapping in a moment.