Jazzmutant Dexter review
Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Computers & Hardware, Digital Demons, New Technology, Software And Plug-ins, Studio Shenanigans |
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There’s been a lot of talk for the last 9 months about the Jazzmutant Dexter, and yet the obligitory chinese whispers that come along with this kind of technology haven’t really developed past:
‘Have you seen the Dexter?.. It’s touch screen’.
The videos dotted around on Youtube and various blogs made us literally dribble with the excitement at the futuristic light show that is the touch-screen DAW of the now. It’s currently available for use with Sonar, Cubase, Nuendo and Logic Pro.
In the beginning…
On connection to your computer, the Dexter prompts the user to sync the unit via IP. Connect that up and your main user interface appears before you, and your trousers start to feel the cream.
The 8 channel strips in front of you consist of a meter/fader display a set of Mute, Solo, and Record buttons, which are toggled by one touch. The color of the channel indicates its current state with regards to the aforementioned touch controls.
Switching through the 64 channels is easy, via the 8X8 fader display above your main interface. From here you can choose which of the 64 channels you’d like to assign to which group (if you so choose), although as I’ll point out again later, you can’t save your stored groups. That sucks. As does this fact.
To control more than 64 channels, you have to access the DAW’s interface.
Touch the EQ symbol above each channel fader for a great parametric Q, which has all you need - Gain, Q and band selection. If you’re into EQ automation, you can freeze certain parameters in order to edit certain others, so in essence create a manual ‘Wah-Wah’ sound, and get it down to disk exactly how you want it. This is a very good inclusion.
The main benefit of the Dexter, as I’m sure you’ve read before, is that it is absolutely amazing for surround sound mixing, and this is where it’s true strengths lie - possible taking away hours of work (and doing a damn fine job).
Truly, this editing function is superb, allowing quick and easy experimentation for placing individual tracks anywhere in a 360 degree field. Similar to the EQ, you can then lock these tracks in place, but keep one paramater open, so move everything closer/further away’ from the central point.
If only that was an automated feature too…
I’m at a bit of a loss as to whether or not I like the Dexter or not. On the one hand, it’s an incredibly clever and impressive piece of kit which essentially brings up all your editable parameters onto its tablet form screen.
On the other hand, I somehow expected more to happen. Maybe I expected some built in effects, so that the unit had a character of its own, some reverbs, some compressors and gates to rival the big boys. A medium between your VST plugins and something by Focusrite, whilst offering the versatility of being, effectively, a touch screen monitor.
The bad news is, it isn’t. You can’t assign your variables from the unit, which means you’ll still be switching back to mouse and keyboard quite a bit.
Built in wireless mode would have been nice too, guys, especially for the price.
I’m told by Jazzmutant that there is a software upgrade being worked on right now to sort out the assignable parameters problem, which would go some way to making this unit a lot more popular, I’m sure.
Now, I should make it clear that apart from the aforementioned issues, there is not much that isn’t possible with this unit. But of course, it’s possible to do it without the unit as well 
For instance, (told you I’d come back to this) - you can group your faders for more control on your overall sound, which is a nice little feature. Unfortunately, this isn’t storable (although, again, Jazzmutant is working on it with the software upgrade).
Now, another issue with this little baby is that Digidesign hasn’t allowed Jazzmutant access to it’s SDK, meaning that the controller isn’t supported by Pro-Tools. I can well understand that Digidesign consider the Dexter a threat to its own Pro-Tools supported hardware, and that’s just something everyone will have to live with, although I do feel that if Jazzmutant could focus on developing touch screen technology, it would open up the market an incredible amount.
In summary, the Dexter is a great piece of kit, despite my issues with it, and if the price was dramatically reduced, I would
certainly buy one.
Which brings me to this
I can’t help feeling the Dexter would be of more use in a live environment. Either way, though, I’m pleased to report that you can also install the Jazzmutant Lemur software onto the tablet (as well as!!). This is free, by the way, which does go an incredibly long way to making this unit worth the money.
If that wasn’t the case, I can’t forsee a great end to the review, as it’s the price as opposed to the yet-to-be-fully-developed
product which, for a while, made this unit a mystery to me.
But now you can throw the Lemur into the equation as well, so if you do some sums, the Dexter costs around $400.
Think about that, and you’ve got an amazing bargain on your hands (as long as both are of use to you). See, now I cannot find a single reason not to get one.
Damn you, Jazzmutant.
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