Monogram Creative Console Is Shipping

Monogram sent the announcement today. See the screen capture below. For those who aren't familiar with Monogram, it's Palette Mark II.

Who else is planning to use Monogram for video editing? What about virtual production? Matt Workman recently demonstrated Monogram with Cine Tracer on his YouTube channel.

This Monogram page shows the apps for which there will be presets. Final Cut and DaVinci Resolve will be roll your own: https://monogramcc.com/workflows/video/

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This is Matt Workman's Cine Tracer/Unreal Engine demo. Among other things, it shows the Orbiter module in use:

Last week, Monogram posted a video showing the Console controlling Logic Pro X. This will be one of my own principal uses for the Console:

Won't do much for grading, it seems. Editing and sound, yes.

Won't do much for grading, it seems. Editing and sound, yes.

Armando Ferreira using Monogram’s predecessor, Palette Gear, with Premiere Pro, colour grading from 3:10:

This does look interesting for the supported applications. For Resolve, I like Glenn Venghaus's repurposing of the Arturia Beatstep midi controller, which has excellent support for editing, audio in Fairlight, and color grading. It's a bit of a pain to set up initially and it takes a while to build muscle memory for what the buttons and dials do in the different modes, but once you get past those hurdles it's quite efficient.

https://posttools.tachyon-consulting.co ... 8d115eb4b3

The editing functions are really nicely done:

This does look interesting for the supported applications.

The Monogram app comes with presets for certain applications, but they are just that, presets. You can set up your own controls for other applications. It will work with any app that uses hotkeys. If you wanted to, you could use it to control your browser.

This shows how the Monogram app works, using Adobe Creative Cloud as an example:

Re ordering...

The Monogram Creative Console, which is Palette Gear Mark II, was launched as a Kickstarter project. Manufacturing was delayed due to the pandemic. The Consoles (three versions) are now shipping. One can also purchase individual modules.

Monogram, which is based in Canada, does not charge sales tax on sales to other countries. Shipping, at least to the U.S., is very reasonable.

Re the Orbiter module... Controllers like Orbiter are a recent development. In music composition and performance, this kind of hardware is used to control “expression” in digital instruments. The two videos in post #2, on Unreal Engine/Cine Tracer and Logic Pro X, show what Orbiter does. Monogram has several examples of photo, video and music uses for Orbiter on its web site.

The problem with Color Grading in Resolve is that nobody can access the trackball functionality by keyboard shortcuts. Fully understandable, since BM is obviously financing the development of Resolve by selling consoles. Loupedeck CT has the same restriction, great for all other pages but not for Color. I doubt Monogram will be any different.

The only one who found a way around this (a tedious and complex one) is Glenn Venghaus. I can wholeheartedly recommend his solution to Mac users. Not much muscle memory needed anymore to have a start, you can now use any old tablet with a browser as a HUD.

The problem with Color Grading in Resolve is that nobody can access the trackball functionality by keyboard shortcuts. Fully understandable, since BM is obviously financing the development of Resolve by selling consoles. Loupedeck CT has the same restriction, great for all other pages but not for Color. I doubt Monogram will be any different.

The only one who found a way around this (a tedious and complex one) is Glenn Venghaus. I can wholeheartedly recommend his solution to Mac users. Not much muscle memory needed anymore to have a start, you can now use any old tablet with a browser as a HUD.

It depends on what you want to do. Venghaus’s app only works on MacOS, only with two specific MIDI controllers and only with DaVinci Resolve. With the Akai controller, cost is about US$450. The Arturia controller costs less, but Vengaus says that this option has less functionality. The Arturia is also a cheaply built, old product that at this point has a pretty limited market. I wouldn’t be in a hurry to purchase one.

Monogram Creator App screen captures, v. 4.0 released today. These screen captures are for MacOS, but the app also works with Windows. The captures show the Grid (app collection), Lightroom Classic, Keyboard mode and MIDI mode. The icons in the Grid show presets that come with the app. I like the concept of the "Universal" mode.

Monogram's planned manufacturing schedule coincided with the coronavirus hitting China. The upside is that there was a long alpha and beta testing period for the app, apparently with hundreds of participants, due to manufacturing delays.

Looking forward to receiving the hardware.

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Well, for the majority, who is probably on PC, there are no alternatives other than the Loupedeck CT (which is not bad either for Resolve). You are right, maybe I didn't make it clear enough, Glenn's solution is Mac only and will probably never be ported.

I'd like to contradict, though, in regards to the Beatstep. It is already quite functional once you get used to it, far better than a keyboard and mouse. And it's cheap and pretty sturdy, many musicians are not really nice with their equipment

Christian Henson, film composer and co-founder of Spitfire Audio, released a video yesterday about Spitfire's new partnership with Abbey Road Studios. His controller of choice for dynamics and expression is Palette Gear. shown just under his left hand in this screen capture. Monogram Creative Console is Palette Gear Mark II. I'll be using Monogram with Logic and Spitfire's BBC Symphony Orchestra library as well as for video and photo editing.

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Henson made this video about Palette Gear when he started using it as his controller three years ago. It’s on his personal channel rather than the Spitfire Audio channel:

I've tried a few of these consoles and at the end of the day, it just doesn't work well with Resolve or a bit of a challenge to get muscle memory going. The Loupedeck came the closes but unfortunately, no to Resolve color page. I still use the Tangent Element Android app with an old tablet for the device (

) since Resolve 12 and that works for me but moving on to a Contour Shuttle for most of the control lately because the non-tactile feel from the tablet does slow me down sometimes.

Anyway, if BMD won't release any SDK for Resolve so that others can build suitable consoles, I hope someday soon that they will make a console that's in the likes of a Loupedeck usability and affordability (in the $199-$250 price range). Until then, I don't think I'm ready to replace my keyboard and shuttle setup.

Anyway, if BMD won't release any SDK for Resolve so that others can build suitable consoles, I hope someday soon that they will make a console that's in the likes of a Loupedeck usability and affordability (in the $199-$250 price range).

Loupedeck currently makes two consoles for video editing. Loupedeck CT is US$550 and Loupedeck+ is $250.

Loupedeck currently makes two consoles for video editing. Loupedeck CT is US$550 and Loupedeck+ is $250.

Yep, aware of both their products. We got the Loupedeck+ when it first came out and we're still using it for LR. The CT is much more programmable. Both won't [fully] work with Resolve. It's not a Loupedeck problem. So my hope is that a BMD control somewhere in the Loupedeck price points will be nice for the individual (non-production company) users on a budget. Probably wishful thinking right now because this has been asked way back when.

This is finally happening. FedEx says that my Monogram Traveler Console is on its way from Hong Kong. Coinciding with shipping, Monogram also uploaded a number of videos to its YouTube channel today: https://www.youtube.com/user/paletteUI

It's also worth noting that Glenn Venghaus has a Black Friday special for his app (30% off), which is for Mac owners who use DaVinci Resolve: https://posttools.tachyon-consulting.co ... 16fd43adaa

See Uli Plank's comments about this solution earlier in the thread.

Looks like I'll have my Monogram Console this afternoon. When I've had chance to play with it a bit, I'll post initial impressions.

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[/quote]We got the Loupedeck+ when it first came out and we're still using it for LR. [/quote]
Do you know if you can make two of the knobs on the Loupedeck+ contrast and Pivot? that's all i want

We got a Monogram Creative Console. Although it is limited to whatever is available in keyboard shortcuts, it works. Specifically, we configured its wheel to zoom in and out in the timeline, and a series of buttons to switch applications. Works well alongside the Speed Editor.