Well, first you could view the EC4 as more or less PC4 x 10 …
With the PC4 you have 16x24 (384) cc controls available, with the EC4 you have 256x16 (4096) …
The PC4 is good, it does exactly what it says but it’s not meant to be more than just 24 ( very good and reliable ) knobs. You can change midi channel and CC assignment with the 16 setups but it’s not praticale to jump on the fly from one setup to the other as there is no visual feedback (you have to label each knob on the hardware itself with the stickers included with the PC4) and the knobs will no longer represent there curent value (even though there is a snap function ).
If you"re loocking for a simple bank of 24 fixed knobs it’s fine, you could use it with different setups for different instrument or device ( like one setup for levels in the octatrack, one setup for a VST etc. ). Changing setup on the fly is possible but a bit tedious and you’ll have to remember or write down all your assignments.
But if you want to map hundreds of midi controls to different devices/vst ( that’s what I wanted to do ) the EC4 is superior in every aspect. Visual feedback (name, number or bar), in-out midi communication ( no value jump ) 16 setups of 16 banks of 16 encoders that you can acces by a two button press action. And you have NRPN and puch button actions etc … It’s super flexible.
I’m currently waiting for my EC4 to be delivered. One thing I’m not clear about is the mapping of the encoder push buttons. Is it possible to assign these to a midi cc?
Hey great, the controller can display bipolar parameters (-63 to +63 or -50 to +50 % also -500 to +500 for 14 bit and on/off where on=64-127 and off=0-63), totally missed then when I read the manual. I´m definitely getting one!
Definitely unique and helpful, but don’t throw out the Twister from consideration just because it has no screen.
The Twister’s LED color bars, center detent, customizable indicators, click to reset (on a per encoder basis, not global like the EC4) all combines to give it great visual feedback that make it very logical to use without a screen.
And the spacing between knobs is nicely roomy, not cramped.
I think with some software updates though, the EC4 has some potential. Less global settings and more per-encoder settings would go a long way.
The push for min/max value is a fantastic feature, but again, too bad it is global.
Bar mode is super cool!
I’ve checked the manual and it is unclear if bar mode can also display this bipolarity.
Does anyone know if it can? Where as 0 would be a single line in the middle, -63 would be half the line, going toward the left, and +63 would be half the line going toward the right.
If it could display in such a manner, that would be excellent for EQs.
(edit, I’ve asked faderfox in a YouTube comment that they were chiming in on, I’ll report here if I get the answer)
(not sure if this has been mentioned) but just got reply to an email from FF stating that a pending firmware update will enable remote program changes on this unit - meaning each change of bank on the OT could potentially trigger a new parameter mapping group on this unit.
i feel this is awesome for live work as you can plan out the parameters you wanna fiddle with for each track of each bank in your set and just have them neatly prioritized on the top few rows and the fact that the buttons can be labeled now, means it doesn’t matter if parameters appear on different buttons between different banks.
I’ve had mine for a while. It’s great.
I asked for having the Groups selectable via MIDI. Mathias confirmed it will be part of the next firmware.
The thing that annoys me the most is that Push buttons disable the encoder as long as they are held.
Hopefully this will be configurable in the future.
When the push buttons could be mapped to anything you want, I would use at least one of each group to send a “CC parameters request” to the OT after a pattern change. So all the encoders can re-adjust their values to the values of the responses.
ah ok… this is to avoid parameter jumping i assume? I use a UC4 already but very basically for muting and vol fading and the few push buttons i use are for parameters always preset at 0. (like retrigs). and on/off muting other midi gear.
with upcoming firmware update allowing MIDI program change - perhaps this CC parameters request won;t be needed if you’re changing the EC4 group for every bank change
