TE CHNOLOGY REVIEW Sign up for your digital AM at www.audiomedia.com
42 July 2013
www.audiomedia.com
This has been one of the
hardest reviews I have ever
had to write – where to start?
I have reviewed (and
predominantly bought with
my own hard-earned cash)
many awesome pro-audio
products, but none has left
me with such a complete
sense of “this is where it is at,
this is where it is going and I
want one NOW!” The Slate
Pro Audio Raven MTX is by
far the most unique and
paradigm-shifting product I
have ever tried. The Raven
puts the fun back in pro
audio and makes me want to
reach out and touch, mix and
consequently enjoy my work
so much more. I think this
product does for audio what
the iPad has done for the
internet. It has rekindled
(excuse the ‘tablety pun’ here)
my audio creativity. So what
is it about the Slate Raven
that has got me all frothy?
Read on...
The Raven MTX is a 46in
state-of-the-art, touch-
sensitive high-definition
LCD screen-based
multitouch, user-
customisable, virtual 32-fader
sound mixer, with built in
monitor controller (stereo or
surround) and a thoroughly
useful ipod dock. There is
also a Raven MTI (27in)
version with no monitor
controller available.
It is ergonomically ideally
shaped, so that everything is
reachable from the sweet spot
(your chiropractor will hate
you for this as he cancels his
holiday in Tobago).
Apparently the Raven has
even been designed with
acoustics in mind – for
minimal reflections to avoid
that comb filtering of the
lower mids that other desk
designs can suffer from. So it
feels good and sounds even
better.
The Raven generates
virtually no radiated heat (due
to cold LED backlighting)
and therefore has no noisy
cooling fans. The 1920 x
1080 HD display (2K) will be
easily upgradeable to 4K and
higher resolutions when they
become more widely available
(bring on the new Mac Pro
and 4K gfx outputs!). The
bespoke touchscreen
technology is not based upon
capacitance or resistance but
on a grid of infrared beams,
which can detect 12
simultaneous, touch points.
The 5ms response time to
touch and Nano-glide surface
gives a truly smooth and
instantaneous high-resolution
feel. There is no detectable
parallax error (once
calibrated) and the viewing
angle is huge, giving a sharp
and bright but not fatiguing
display.
The Raven runs on Mac
OSX Lion or Mountain Lion
and ideally on 2.4Ghz i7 (or
Xeon) processor and upwards
with a 1GB gfx memory (so
post 2010 Mac Pros are ideal
– although MacBook Pros
and iMacs of a similar spec
should be fine).
To connect the Raven to
the Mac, it’s a DVI and a
USB cable. Next, run the
Raven installer that installs
the software driver and
calibration software. After
restarting, run the screen
calibration software to ensure
best results.
To connect the Raven to
Pro Tools, launch NeyFi (the
clever control software
licensed from Paul Neyrinck
that is used in Neyrinck’s V-
Control). This allows OSX
and Pro Tools to become
multitouch, via the Raven
software layer. Next, launch
Pro Tools and go to the Setup
> Peripherals menu and
follow a few instructions
(similar to setting up a Pro
Control or a MIDI
controller). This setting is
retained by Pro Tools for all
sessions. Once set, after
opening any Pro Tools session
the Raven software will sync
with your current session.
Welcome to the world of
touch audio! Once you have
tried this you will be smitten.
Incidentally, the OSX
desktop is now a total touch
experience (although not
multitouch like the Raven).
Imagine the fun you could
have with applications like
Video Editing or
Photoshop….
The Raven is available as a
7.1 surround or stereo
version. The surround
upgrade can be retro fitted by
the user and just requires
sliding in the Surround
Module to the main chassis.
The monitoring section of
the Raven is a 100 percent
Slate Pro Audio
Raven MTX
Others have tried touch-mixing, but none have created the buzz that the Raven has. Is it justified?
Mike Aiton gets his mitts on-screen.
nnn MULTITOUCH AUDIO PRODUCTION SYSTEM
THE REVIEWER
MIKE AITON
was weaned at the BBC.
But after breaking free nearly
25 years ago & becoming one
of London's busiest freelance
dubbing mixers, he can
mostly be found in his
Twickenham dubbing suite,
mikerophonics. In his spare
time he takes therapy for his
poor jazz guitar playing and
his addiction to skiing and
Nikon lenses.
(45 pages)
(1 pages)
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