The latest version of Softube’s Console 1 gives you even more reasons to abandon the mouse.
Console 1 is now 10 years old. You might expect such an enduring success to have inspired copycat launches from other manufacturers, but not so: Softube’s first foray into hardware has remained almost unique. That, I think, reflects the one‑off blend of expertise, imagination and determination needed to create something that cuts across so many product categories.
You can read our June 2014 review of the original Console 1, and it’s probably worth doing so if you’re new to the concept. To provide a brief recap, the idea is to replace DAW mixer functionality with Softube’s own, based around the emulation of classic large‑format console processing. This is implemented using software and hardware components. First of all, there’s a Console 1 plug‑in, which you instantiate in the last insert slot in every channel on your DAW mixer. Second, there’s a control surface with knobs and buttons that map precisely onto the plug‑in parameters. Tying it all together is an application called Console 1 On Screen Display, which runs in the background on your computer.
When it first launched, Console 1 was almost completely independent of the host DAW. Softube have since worked with software manufacturers to achieve deeper integration. Almost all DAWs now support the ability to transfer track names and numbers into the Console 1 plug‑in automatically, and many go further, for instance by allowing the controller’s mute, solo, volume and pan controls to manipulate those functions in the DAW mixer.
Console 1 users today also benefit from a decade’s worth of plug‑in development. At launch, the system was based around a licensed emulation of the SSL E‑series console. Over the years, numerous alternatives have been added, and it’s possible to mix and match on a per‑channel basis if, for example, you prefer API‑style equalisation with Neve‑style compression on vocals. A tie‑up with Universal Audio means Apollo and Satellite owners can use many of their UAD Powered Plug‑ins within Console 1, too, although you may not get access to all parameters.
At around the same time UAD support was added, back in 2017, a MkII version of the hardware was released. This was largely identical to the MkI, but a move to Chinese manufacturing made it much more affordable. Now, the Year of the Dragon brings us the biggest update yet.
On Your Marks
The hardware controller is now known as Console 1 Channel, to distinguish it from the companion Console 1 Fader surface. It has enjoyed a ground‑up redesign, and although it’s about the same width as its predecessor, it is a fair bit deeper. The layout is similar, with a row of 20 track selection buttons along the top and the EQ controls in the centre, but there are extra controls and, most strikingly, a pair of high‑resolution colour displays. The cosmetics and physical design are all‑new and very classy, with a robust aluminium shell, expensive‑feeling rotary encoders, super‑bright white LED rings and understated panel legending. It is all very monochrome, though; a bit more colour might have made the different sections more easily distinguishable at a glance. The only real ergonomic gripe I can muster is that the buttons used to exit menus are awkwardly positioned above the encoder used to scroll through them.
The brighter LEDs and displays mean Console 1 Channel MkIII requires more current than its bus‑powered predecessors. For this reason, it has two USB‑C ports discretely hidden either side of the centre section. In theory, it too can be bus‑powered, but in practice, I got low power warnings both driving it directly from my Mac Mini and from the ‘high power’ port on a powered USB hub. Softube have evidently anticipated this, because they supply a PSU with a nice long USB cable that can be connected to the second port. Software installation and firmware updates are handled, very smoothly, by Softube’s own Softube Central utility.
The Console 1 MkIII is a little deeper than its predecessors, measuring 435 x 45 x 219mm.
Other Views
One of the basic ideas behind Console 1 is that, in normal use, you don’t look at the plug‑in window itself. Instead, the On Screen Display running in the background detects any control input and automatically flashes up the Console 1 interface as an overlay on whatever else you’re looking at. Leave the controls alone for a few seconds, or hit the Display button, and this overlay disappears again (this behaviour can, of course, be modified). As long as you also have a transport controller for your DAW, this means you rarely need to touch the mouse and keyboard. Conversely, it also means Console 1 stays out of the way when you are doing something that’s outside of its remit, such as audio editing or selecting a reverb plug‑in.
This intended way of working meant there was no need for displays. If you wanted to know which track was currently under control, all you’d need to do is move a knob or press a button, and the overlay would appear on your computer screen. Nor did it matter whether you were in your DAW’s mix or arrange page, or indeed a completely different application. That original way of working has been enhanced even further in MkIII, because the new knobs are touch‑sensitive: simply resting a finger on an encoder is enough to bring up the overlay without making any parameter changes.
So why add screens in MkIII? Well, Softube say that most of the changes they’ve made are in response to user feedback, and Console 1 owners have found other ways of working with it. It’s possible, for example, to have the overlay remain invisible unless you hit the Display button, or to have it displayed in a minimal Scribble Strip view. So clearly there are people out there who want to keep the visual focus on their DAW even when adjusting Console 1 controls, and the new displays certainly make that easier.
The left‑hand display can be set to show either track name and input signal level, or an EQ graph with animated spectrum analyser display. Turn an EQ knob and a readout of the parameter name and value appear. The right‑hand display offers either track name and output signal level, or a visualisation of the compressor response with gain‑reduction metering and similar parameter readout. All of these displays pretty much mirror the way the same information is presented in the overlay, which is pleasingly logical. They’re sharp, bright and easy to read, albeit on the small side.
The main On Screen Display overlay mirrors the layout of the Console 1 Channel controller, except that the track listing is moved to the bottom.
Nine Processing Stages
User feedback has also led Softube to extend the functionality of the Console 1 plug‑in and, by extension, the controller. The original was designed to implement four EQ bands and a single compressor per instance, along with separate high‑ and low‑pass filters, a Shape section encompassing an expander/gate and a transient shaper, and a surprisingly versatile Drive section. That sounds like a powerful toolset, and it is, but some users found that having only a single EQ and compressor stage could be limiting. In particular, you might have good sonic reasons for loading one of the optional vintage emulations into these processing stages, yet simultaneously wanting the detailed control that is available in a more modern design. You might, for instance, wish to perform general tone shaping using a Pultec‑style equaliser, whilst also notching out a resonance in a way that isn’t possible on a Pultec.
So, in MkIII, the five processing stages of Console 1 have become nine. One of the new additions is tucked away at the lower left. A button labelled Tape/Preamp introduces, you guessed it, tape or preamp modelling, and an Input Gain knob determines how hard this should be driven. This isn’t level‑compensated, so turning up the input gain increases the level feeding the other stages, even with Tape/Preamp switched off. The default tape emulation offers the same A, B and C algorithms available in Softube’s standalone Tape plug‑in, and makes a nice subtle counterpart to the more obvious Drive stage in Console 1. Tape/preamp modelling always takes place on the input side, whereas Drive is on the output side.
There are now numerous options that can be loaded into the two EQ and compressor stages.That makes six stages, and the total of nine has been reached by doubling up the Shape, EQ and compressor. In other words, you can now simultaneously load two different gate/transient processors, EQ and compressor types — so if, for example, you want to pair your Pultec with an SSL, or use the classic 1176/LA‑2A combo on a vocal, you can do so entirely within a single Console 1 instance (I’m not sure what the use case for loading two transient processors is). New buttons toggle between the two, with integrated LEDs indicating whether or not they’re active. Since this development has been prompted by user input, there’s obviously a demand for it, and it’s been implemented very smoothly and without breaking backwards compatibility with older Console 1 Channel controllers. It’s also supported by a pretty generous selection of vintage and modern offerings in the bundled Core Mixing Suite, with lots more available as cost options. Speaking for myself, though, I’ve always felt that Console 1 can be a tempting pathway into the sin of over‑processing things at mixdown, and MkIII makes that pathway quite a bit broader!
Shifting Responsibilities
There are lots of other, more minor improvements. On MkI and MkII, the Shift button engaged a Fine Adjust mode for the encoders. This is no longer required with the new high‑quality encoders, which has allowed Softube to give many of the knobs shifted functions. On the original, for example, compressor make‑up gain was automatic and couldn’t be defeated. Holding the Shift button and turning the Compression dial now allows you to set make‑up gain manually. The Ratio control has likewise gained a shifted alternative function as a Knee control, while the filter frequency controls can modify filter Slope in conjunction with the Shift button. The outer EQ bands now boast additional Q controls that allow them to be fully parametric like the two inner bands, further increasing the processing power on offer.
Things have also been rearranged on the right‑hand side, so instead of the Drive, Character and Pan knobs doing double duty as send controls, there are now buttons that reassign the main Volume control to a specific send. At the top, meanwhile, the 20 channel select buttons are augmented by a miniature meterbridge composed of three LEDs per channel, but my favourite new feature is that these buttons now have multi‑coloured LEDs integrated into them. In compatible DAWs, this allows the colours of the Console 1 Channel track selection buttons to mirror those of the mixer channels in your software — a surprisingly huge boost to navigation.
Switch to Favourites mode and the track selectors show only the channels you’ve made Favourites. It’s both simpler and, to my mind, more useful...
Also new, at least since I last looked at Console 1, is a system of Favourites. Even with 20 track selection buttons, navigating large projects with a small controller can require a lot of banking up and down. Favourites lets you pick your selection of the most important tracks and assign them to a separate, smaller track list. You might, for example, make Favourites of the group channels in your project, or lead instruments such as vocals and solo guitar. Switch to Favourites mode and the track selectors show only the channels you’ve made Favourites. It’s both simpler and, to my mind, more useful than the Layers system introduced with Console 1 Fader.
The Console 1 user experience has always been somewhat DAW‑dependent, and that remains the case. Integration with PreSonus Studio One, for example, is absolutely superb. Apparently small things like having the track selection buttons pick up track colours from the Studio One mixer make a huge difference in practice, as does the ability to control Studio One’s aux sends. In Pro Tools, by contrast, Console 1 can’t control sends, pan or fader levels in the DAW mixer, and attempting to solo anything can be frustrating. The difference is big enough that I think it’s worth buying and learning a DAW that has good integration in order to get the best from Console 1. In practice, this seems to mean most DAWs that support the VST3 plug‑in standard, leaving Pro Tools and Logic as the poor relations.
Growth Strategy
As launched, Console 1 had a purposely limited feature set. It didn’t do everything — but what it did do, it did faster and more ergonomically than a mouse.
In the ensuing 10 years, lots of new features have been added, partnerships have been forged, and a companion fader surface has been launched. Now, MkIII makes the system vastly more powerful. The new Channel controller is also a big step up in terms of physical design, thanks to improvements like the screens and the perfectly weighted encoders. However, it’s a step that comes at a jarring financial cost, more then reversing the price cut that came with MkII. Has all this development also come at a price in terms of complicating the original Console 1 vision?
The new Channel controller is also a big step up in terms of physical design, thanks to improvements like the screens and the perfectly weighted encoders.
I think that is an argument that you could make in relation to some features that weren’t present in 2014. Ergonomics always take a slight hit when shifted functions are introduced, while loading a different EQ or compressor model or changing the order of processors involves pressing a couple of buttons, scrolling through a menu using the Volume dial, then pressing the awkwardly placed OK button to confirm (plus Shift again, if you want the new EQ or compressor to inherit any settings you’d made using the previous one). It’s not difficult, but it’s no longer faster than using a mouse.
But the great thing is that there’s nothing stopping you from using MkIII in exactly the same way as MkI, accessing only the default processing and ignoring the duplicate Shape, EQ and compressor stages. If you stick to the core features, there’s no shifting or menu‑diving involved, and the sense of immediacy that is so central to the Console 1 experience is preserved. You’d have to ask yourself whether the slick new hardware, software developments and improved DAW integration still justify the price hike if you aren’t going to exploit the extended features in MkIII, but they all contribute to making the core experience even better than it was. I look forward to seeing what Softube’s imagination brings to the next decade of Console 1 development.
Alternatives
I said at the start of this review that Console 1 remains almost unique. I said “almost” because it does now have a direct rival. Solid State Logic’s SSL 360 ecosystem includes something called the SSL Plugin Mixer, which runs in the background in much the same way as OSD, and a controller called the UC1 which maps very closely onto the parameters in various SSL channel strip plug‑ins. At present there are only two of the latter, but by the time you read this, a new 360 Link option should allow third‑party plug‑ins to be assimilated into the system. Of course, there are differences: the UC1 has a dedicated bus compressor section, but lacks the Shape, Drive and Tape/Preamp stages from Console 1, as well as the MkIII’s ability to duplicate sections. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to try the UC1, but hope to do so soon.
Pros
- The new Console 1 Channel controller is a beautiful object, with high‑quality screens and encoders.
- MkIII adds new Tape/Preamp section and doubles up the Shape, EQ and compressor stages.
- There’s now a wide selection of emulated processing options, including many UAD plug‑ins.
- Lots of useful smaller improvements.
Cons
- Big price increase compared with MkII.
- Much less satisfying in Pro Tools and Logic than in other DAWs.
- Some of the newer functionality isn’t quite as streamlined as the core feature set.
Summary
The third incarnation of Softube’s Console 1 goes upmarket, pairing a highly desirable hands‑on controller with a beefed‑up software mixer.
