Icon Pro Audio is proud to announce the QCon Pro X, its new flagship DAW control surface. The new QCon Pro X is designed to get you out of “the box” of your computer and into your music. It is a dream for any producer or composer than requires uncompromising quality and function from a world class control surface.

Featuring nine (9) touch-sensitive motorized faders with 10-bit resolution and eight (8) rotary dual-function encoders, the QCon Pro X was designed with functions typically found on large format consoles. A 12 segment LED meter-bridge and a Dual 2×56 large backlit LCD Display quickly and accurately monitors eight (8) channels at a time with unlimited Banks. Interchangeable DAW specific modules allow the QCon Pro X to operate as a plug and play control surface for Pro Tools, Cubase, Nuendo, Samplitude, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, Reason, Reaper, Studio One, and Bitwig. Using more than one DAW? No problem. Presets on the QCon Pro X can also be switched manually, and overlays for all supported DAWs are included in the box.

QCon Pro X also gives you tactile control of your VST, RTAS, Direct X and AU Plugins. Dial in EQ frequencies, Q or gain with the rotary encoders. The values of different parameters are shown on the upper LCD screen. Control Virtual Instruments as well. There’s also a “FLIP” button for fader control of plug-in parameters. Automation of track and plugin parameters is also made easy with QCon Pro X. Write fader rides just like you would on any large format analog console using buttons for familiar functions like GROUP, WRITE, TOUCH, LATCH and TRIM.

With the QCon Pro X you get the best of both worlds; the total recall, power and flexibility of your DAW with the look, feel and functionality of a sturdy piece of hardware. $899.99 MAP

Icon | Pro Audio

Hi-Res images can be found HERE.

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Wow

Where is AAX?

According to their website:

"Built-in Mackie Control for all DAWs listed (except for ProTools which uses Mackie HUI Protocol)"

That tells me that their support for Pro Tools (and AAX) is limited to HUI.

Am I wrong?

You're probably right Bruce. Otherwise they'd have to support EUCON which is unlikely (if possible because Avid).

Anyway, nice controller. Kind of too much for me so I think I'll be set for a Icon Platform M to complement my old Euphonix MC Control. Can't really pay for an Artist Mix right now...

That is correct. HUI is the supported Pro Tools format.

Third party control surface developers don't have access to EUCON, Avid keeps it for themselves and forces everyone else to use HUI. That's why third party controls surfaces always seem crippled in Pro Tools compared to other DAWs.

Hence, one of the reasons Avid bought Euphonix!

Can't necessarily blame a company for figuring out a way to corner the market, at least to some degree, can we?!

Of course Avid has every right to lock other developers out of EUCON, but it's a bummer for us end users because without penetration into Pro Tools the market for high end third party control surfaces is pretty much dead and there's very little choice. The only high end hardware surfaces left are the two by DAW developers (Avid and Yamaha/Steinberg).

Indeed it sucks for Pro Tools users (I'm on the boat) that Avid seems to be pushing us towards the very expensive options.

Anyway, it's good to see Icon trying their best and actually putting something out there. Kind of the same feeling that I had when Behringer released their controller, in the sense that some manufacturers are paying attention to this "DAW-controller situation" and trying to answer it.

Hopefully if competition steps up it will force Avid to do something different and hopefully less expensive, but that's a lot of "hoping"!

Well the combination of an Artist Mix (or two or three) along with the iPad app and Transport or Dock is actually a pretty powerful controller for PT. You have to step up to the S3 to get VCA spill, but with the iPad app you can jump your faders around a big session and switch between fader layouts quickly anyway. IMO it can be kind of a disjointed experience working between the iPad and the physical controllers, but it does work well (when EUCON isn't acting up of course, and provided you have the iPad connected via a 5 ghz or wired connection).

To get back to the QCon.. One of my biggest gripes about lower end control surfaces is the build quality and fader quality, so I'm interested to know more about the build quality of the QCon Pro X, especially the type of faders used. I like that it has separate screens for the knobs and faders, things can get lost in a jumble on shared LCD's/OLED's.

I use Cubase and Studio One.. S1's control surface support is meh, but Cubase has the best or one of the best remote control protocols.. Does the QCon Pro X support all of the MCU features described in the Cubase Remote Control Devices manual?

One more thing.. The manual lists QCon service centers in Hong Kong and Germany, is there a service center for QCon products in the US?

Thanks!
Michael

Another question for Icon..

The website mentions QCon XS expanders coming soon.. Do you know what the dimensions of the expanders will be? I'm curious to know how wide 24 and 32 fader setups will be.

I am also interested in expanders.

I hope the HUI is stable enough for use in Pro Tools. I am more interested in Platform M though.

I don't think I will ever shell out that much for Artist Mix.

Hey Guys!
My name is Brian and I handle some tech support and social media stuff for Icon Pro Audio. I thought I'd hop in here and try to field whatever questions you guys have.
I have some answers for the stuff above already, let's see if I can clear some things up.

Quote:

Where is AAX?

We will be looking into AAX sometime soon!

Quote:

I'm interested to know more about the build quality of the QCon Pro X, especially the type of faders used.

I personally have a Pro X on my desk, and it feels pretty heavy and sturdy. We use Alps faders from Japan, the same faders MCU uses. I'm told they're some of the most expensive faders on the market, and that many other major manufacturers are using cheaper quality stuff.

Quote:

Does the QCon Pro X support all of the MCU features described in the Cubase Remote Control Devices manual?

Yes, we rarely hear complaints or issues from users regarding Cubase. The entire QCon line (Lite, Pro, and Pro X) should all support Cubase well.

Quote:

is there a service center for QCon products in the US?

Yes, as far as I'm aware Mixware (the original poster of this thread) handles our US service and repairs.

Quote:

The website mentions QCon XS expanders coming soon.. Do you know what the dimensions of the expanders will be?

Unfortunately I don't have the dimensions of the XS units yet, but the Pro X is 473mm wide. My guess is the XS will be about 330mm.

Quote:

I hope the HUI is stable enough for use in Pro Tools.

While I don't personally use Pro Tools, I know many of our users do. From what I've seen most features should work just fine.
If you're interested in a particular feature, feel free to ask and I can check on it for you.

Thanks for your interest and feedback guys!
If anyone has any other questions feel free to post here. I'll do my best to keep an eye on this thread and keep it updated with answers.

Good stuff, thanks for answering these questions Brian!

I'll follow up with Mixware about US support if I decide to pick up one of the QCon controllers.

What the hell, it costs 50% more in Europe!

My pleasure, If you have any other questions you can always submit a ticket on our website too.

That seems odd. I know the prices do vary a lot depending on market/retailer though. You should check for other retailers online/in your area.

I'm using HUI with a Novation Nocturn, it's stable and it works well, but I'm almost sure HUI can't control AAX.

@ Brian,

Glad to see this thing is shipping at last!

Can you advise what typically does the the lower and upper LCD strip display?

I'm currently using the Q Con Pro, but this looks like it is better specifications for the fader and meter resolutions. Plus it's much better looking.

Sure thing. The top strip shows your channel names (whatever you've named channels in your DAW), and when you're adjusting a fader or encoder it shows the level the encoder or fader is at.
The bottom strip shows the channel number for each fader (ie: CH1, CH2, and so on.)

We will be looking into the ability to do other things with the strips in the future as well. Such as possibly swapping the bottom with the top LCD.

Great question, Thanks!

Thanks Brian,

Sounds like there is a good case for developing what each strip shows. What initially comes to mind is maybe have it show the current pan position rather than the channel number, as once I've named my channels, I don't need to see the number on the control.

That could be very useful for owners of the Softtube Console 1 and Pro Tools... Interesting.

I don't think I've seen that feature in a controller before?

This looks nice. Surprised there aren't more comments. Other threads have been a nuclear meltdown over not having a decent, well-built controller with meter bridge, etc...

I'll probably be picking this up once the extenders are out. I can finally put my Mackie MCU to rest. Main unit works fine, just the extenders are trash.

Are you thinking this will help bridge the gap of Console One not necessarily following the Daw track selection, or the channel rename issue?

can it operate the JoeCoControl for new bluebox recorder?

This is a great question. I had never seen that device before. I'm going to ask our engineers, and I'll get back to you on that!

Actually, now I'm not so sure do to the auto-naming issue... Maybe if you have a C1 plugin on all your tracks in your session? Hmm...

I've reached out to our engineers to see if the Pro X would be able to play well with the Console 1 as well. Forgot to mention that!

Are any units actually in users hands or are they still in the shipping phase?......because i ordered one and its on back order....if the 1st shipment were already sold, then when can we expect the next shipment to retailers?

iconofficial, this seems like a great release! Very nice ;-)

Will this 2nd generation of the QCon Pro X also be available any time soon in a grey-ish metallic colour (so it will fit my iMac nicely)?