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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1234839
At Your Fingertips A lot of thoughtful user interface design has obviously gone into this device. The most obvious reason is its logical and useful layout. The top half is flanked by six small rotary knobs that also respond to a press. The knob functions are displayed on LED strips beside them. They flank the touch button panel with context related commands. There can be several screens of these, each with a related set of commands, easily accessed with a finger swipe across their surface. Along the center of the unit are eight round buttons that serve double- duty as the controls to select different program workflows (this is where some memorization is required) or keyboard modifiers. When using the Loupedeck CT, the unit controls switching between application modes (like Library or Develop in Lightroom) and not vice versa. The square buttons flanking the control wheel sport commonly used functions and can also be customized for the way you work. The Save, button, for example, can be set to export when combined with the function (Fn) key. The mysterious little circle at the top left is Escape/Cancel. All of these buttons can be customized with the unit's Configuration Utility with drag-and-drop simplicity (once you get the hang of what needs to be dragged where—that's a little confusing at first). The central wheel is one of the more unique controls on The Loupedeck. Like the other controls, its function changes depending on the particular workflow you're in. The round screen is touch-sensitive and can scroll horizontally for more functions or let you select from a vertical scrolling menu. You'll find that it is far more than a jog-shuttle kind of control. It will serve as your color wheels when making shading adjustments or scroll rapidly through an image library in Lightroom. When the Loupedeck first powers up, you'll see a set of Finder-level tools useful to most creative pros, including one that calls up the Activity Monitor, the Find window, System Preferences, music playback controls and a display brightness knob that will motivate any of us who carefully calibrate their displays to learn how to customize the CT's interface. (It's quite easy to remove—just drag a blank knob into its place.) You also get single-button access to the last editing program you used. Not having anything better to do, the central dial displays an analog clock, complete with sweep second hand. Would You Like a Drive With That? The other thing you'll notice is a new disk drive has attached to your system. The CT includes 8 GB of storage so you can not only carry your customized control settings around with it, but some modest media projects as well. The CT's hardware interface is also rather interesting. It connects via USB, but this appears to provide little more than the unit's power and the storage interface. The communication is happening over a private, wireless network—something you're not aware of unless it drops and Network Preferences where you have to go to wake it up again. The Loupedeck folks told MacDirectory that their next major software update, due this spring, will activate its Bluetooth interface, so the panel can be powered by a just an external battery and will be otherwise wireless. They also let us know that a hard travel case is coming, as well. We can also expect interfaces for additional applications in the update and further down the road. As of this writing, the Loupedeck CT is set up for: • Ableton Live • After Effects • Audition • Final Cut Pro • Illustrator • Lightroom Classic • Photoshop • Premiere Pro • macOS Not that it uses much energy, but the Loupedeck CT panel sleeps with your display. (Perhaps that didn't come out quite right—it sleeps when your display does.) The Loupedeck hardware has a solid, professional feel. Though it's thin, it has enough mass to stay put on your desktop but would not be a burden to carry around. It sits flat, and at times we wished there were some legs or a stand to prop it up at a bit of an angle. There are, however, absolutely no angle-of-view issues with the graphic buttons, even at viewing angles approaching 180°. Growing on You We found that getting familiar and comfortable with the Loupedeck CT still takes a while in spite of all the good design work that went into it. Creative pros run their applications with something akin to muscle memory. When migrating to the Loupedeck, we found ourselves eventually moving the keyboard out of the way and putting the CT in its place. It lies flat, like a keyboard, but there was some temptation to prop up the back to give the surface an angle more favorable to our eyes. The first time you launch an app that the Loupedeck will control, you should immediately check and see if the app needs to be made aware of the fact that you've added a control surface—a setting usually hiding in the preferences. Neglecting to do this in Premiere made the interface a bit unpredictable. Audition was rather less accommodating and simply crashed when any control touched until the control surface preference setting provided the proper introduction. Once you start working and are staying mindful of what the Loupedeck wants to do to help, the little slab soon starts to