I have been a student of audio my entire adult life. I started out recording to a Minidisc four-track recorder when I was 17 and then finally got an opportunity to work at a recording studio in the US during my studies there. This was a time when the digital revolution was just kicking off and little did I know how much things were about to change.

Of course, a few years later everything changed to being computer-based. The main hurdle when you squeeze an entire studio into a computer and are forced to interface with it through the relatively small window of one or two computer screens is the mouse. Some have got used to it but many found it arduous.

So, along came the DAW controller. The first ones (and arguably the best ones) are hardware units that interface with your DAW via a specific protocol, usually an incarnation of MIDI control messaging. There are many: Eucon, Mackie, HUI, JL Cooper, etc. The advantage of these hardware controllers was that you got hands-on experience. You had faders that corresponded to faders in your DAW and you could mix from there as you would on a traditional analogue console. It’s tactile and feels like home.

As time went on everything changed. We went from large format analogue recording consoles with lots of outboard processors in massive commercial studios to the ubiquity of the computer-based home and project studio. Now, even the few commercial studios that remain are primarily computer-based. LFACs got replaced with infinitely scalable virtual mixers and outboard processing with plugins. One can argue the merits of one or the other but one thing’s for sure; it sped up the workflow and output of just about everyone who chose to forage at technology’s bleeding edge.

m.phase

Later on, the iPad and similar devices opened up a whole new world to how we interact with our DAWs. Virtual DAW remote apps now abound and they all basically have similar features: virtual faders and transport controls on a touchscreen interface. Some apps do more or less, like possibly plugin control, however, in some regards, the interaction with traditional faders on a touchscreen can still feel “disconnected’. You see a fader; it looks like a fader, but all you feel is a cold, hard touchscreen surface.

Enter m.phase, the newest and most radical of the available DAW control apps in the iPad world developed by the Austrian-based company manus.m.

To say m.phase is completely different from most DAW control apps is a vast understatement. In fact, if you have not taken the tutorial you may be completely lost as an audio engineer if you attempt to use it for the first time.

The first thing you’ll notice is that m.phase throws out anything traditionally thought of as a fader or pan pot. Its design philosophy is to enable the user to “blindly’ control their DAW of choice (it supports them all) via hand gestures that quickly become second nature the more you use it. This can be daunting at first because without a fader or a potentiometer an engineer can feel quite alienated. I was no different. But as time went on the workflow began to make sense.

Setup of the app is extremely easy. The first requirement is that your host PC or Mac is networked to the device. This is a simple exercise if you’re utilising a WiFi network. For Mac, simply use the MIDI Setup applet in Audio and Midi Setup to start a new MIDI session via the Network facility. For Windows it is necessary to download an application called rtpMIDI, which basically mimics the Network MIDI session facility of a Mac. The only real procedure is to start m.phase, select your device and press “Connect’. Done.

In your DAW you will have to add a new remote device on the Mackie Control protocol and select the network MIDI input and output linked to your device.

Lastly, you will have to setup m.phase for your DAW of choice and m.phase supports them all: Cubase/Nuendo, Pro Tools, Reaper, Logic, Ableton Live, Studio One and Bitwig Studio. This can be done in the setup by pulling up the bottom left corner tab in the app. In the setup menu you can also change the sensitivity of the touch gestures, change the colours of the interface and configure other options such as clip holding, auto-lock, flash feedback, channel link mode and fade out effects.

Everything is setup in m.phase to safeguard you against accidentally engaging an unwanted control and all parameters are controlled via shapes on the screen, which can be used in either split (for two channels) or single mode (single channel). You can select which bank of channels you want to work in, which are selectable by pulling down the bank selector triangles to the left and right of the channel names, which are listed in order in bank of eight at the top of the screen. You can drag down whatever channel you wish to work on into one of the large circles on the screen. To work on either channel in single channel mode, simply swipe in the upper corner of the respective channel. Other nifty features include record enable, return to zero and channel link which appear at the bottom of the touchscreen as further “swipable triangles’.

Fader level is controlled by using a single finger within the large circle that represents the channel you’re working on and using an up and down motion. Fine adjustments can be made by using two fingers. You can adjust the pan of the given channel by swiping your thumb to the left or right below the circle while your index finger remains pressed in the circle. Muting a given channel is achieved by performing a three-finger upward swipe and a three-finger downward swipe to unmute. Soloing is vice versa. Play and stop are achieved by using a three-finger tap on the screen at any time. To enter full transport mode for rewind or fast forward, perform a three-finger double tap. An up and down single finger motion will also adjust the master fader in this mode. To exit, simply perform a three-finger double tap to return to the channel strip.

The wrap

The m.phase DAW control app is truly unique. Granted, it takes some getting used to but once you get your head around the fact that it is designed to be operated without looking, you begin to see why it was designed the way it was. However, I did find that there were some things that you in fact had to look down for such as selecting which channel to work on. However, this is a small formality and didn’t bother me that much. All in all, the app is intuitive, responsive and is a funky, fresh take on touchscreen DAW control.