totally not trying to battle…but have you used an ICON? Its glorious, even though it is stuck on the dated MCU protocol. The build quality is excellent, and it is reliable.
I have a little Arturia keyboard next to it, with an additional 16 rotary controls and 2 banks of 8 buttons each set to a Generic template- to give me that flexibility the MCU protocol lacks… and I never miss that Avid board AT ALL.
Like, there is no functionality I am missing… with the exception of jumping to named markers on the touchscreen. (of course, it was super inconsistent… but when it worked it was great!)
The shame with BOTH of these controllers is the software! The devices themselves are great.
Eucon control is a joke in the Cubase world. Obviously it is barely supported, and each company blames the other.
Whereas MCU Protocol is a hundred years old and stuck in the mud. (Let me toggle LEDs, ffs!) But at least it is STABLE.
Having used both, I think the MCU protocol is more reliable and USE-ABLE than EuCon…right now, with Cubase.
With the Avid, I would often leave my desk, with everything up and running… and come back to find Eucon had disconnected and I needed to power-cycle my hardware, kill Cubase and restart. Clearly this ruins workflow, and couldn’t be tolerated.
With MCU… although I am stuck doing only what Mackie thought was useful back in 1997 (plus 8 assignable functions!)… at least it is always ready and willing.