Logitech Artistic Console
Execs
- If you do not know the keyboard shortcuts to your apps, could be very helpful
- Dial helps three Bluetooth connections
- Extraordinarily customizable
- Extra handy media controls than on loads of keyboards
- Can add your individual icons
Cons
- Dial wants a stepped choice, not simply free spinning
- Cannot set the actions ring to look in a set spot in your display screen
- Getting the profiles configured the way in which you need could be tedious and unpredictable
A little bit over a yr in the past, Logitech acquired Loupedeck, identified for its standard programmable units designed to streamline workflows for skilled creatives and streamers, just like the Elgato Stream Deck and Razer Stream Stream Controller merchandise do. The MX Artistic Console is the primary mannequin underneath the Logitech model, becoming a member of the corporate’s MX line aimed toward superior customers, just like the Grasp collection. It is undergone an entire redesign to really feel extra approachable for inventive professionals who might discover all-in-one console designs and their complicated customization software program intimidating. One key change is the break up between the button console and the dial capabilities, which at the moment are two separate items.
It is also priced at $200, making it rather a lot cheaper than a lot of the Loupedeck fashions. Regardless of the decrease price, it gives lots of the identical options because the $559 flagship Loupedeck CT. Plus, it consists of three months of Adobe Artistic Cloud for each new and present customers. It ships on Oct. 14 — I examined it with early variations of the software program — and initially, the product will help a restricted variety of functions:
- Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom Basic, Illustrator, Specific, Audition, Premiere Professional and After Results
- Seize One tethering software program for photographers (Mac solely)
- Ableton audio/video modifying software program
- Spotify, VLC, Apple Music
- FaceTime, Discord and Zoom
- OBS, Twitch, Streamlabs (Home windows solely), VMix (Home windows solely) and Phillips Hue
Nevertheless, extra might change into out there by the point it launches.
This does not imply you may’t create your individual profiles for different functions, however with out the plugin help you are restricted to hackish mapping of keyboard shortcuts and macros. The plugin is essential, because it permits the Logi Choices Plus app to entry the total programming interface, providing you with direct management over extra settings with no need to manually configure every motion. There are working system settings included, each Mac and Home windows, which is good. And in November, Logitech plans so as to add the flexibility to again up your settings, which is essential.
The CC is available in gentle grey or darkish grey and consists of a Bluetooth MX Artistic DialPad — it would additionally work with the $15 Logi Bolt Bluetooth adapter — and the USB-C MX Artistic Keypad.
The DialPad has 4 programmable-per-application buttons, a giant free-spinning dial (that means there isn’t any begin or finish level, and no haptic suggestions to point particular spots or models rotated) and a free-spinning curler. It helps connection to as much as three units and runs on AAA batteries, rated to last as long as 18 months.
The Keypad is a button pad with 9 seen mappable buttons and a pair of previous-next web page buttons. It helps as much as 15 pages of mappings per utility. It comes with a stand with a cable router that holds it at an angle. I want it have been adjustable as a result of the mounted angle does not work for me and neither does mendacity it flat. Somebody may in all probability design and 3D print a customized model. Not me, although.
When Choices Plus is loaded, you may pop up an onscreen Actions Ring, an app-specific, programmable overlay ring of controls. You choose a software after which manipulate it utilizing the DialPad or one other machine. In lots of instances, these capabilities are the identical as these out there on the Keypad, however they’re useful for conditions the place you are already mousing across the display screen. Sadly, the Ring at all times pops up at your cursor, which could be irritating for those who reflexively transfer all the way down to the underside of the display screen to stop unintentional modifications whereas urgent mouse buttons. For some of us, it popping up on the cursor is smart, as a result of you do not have to maneuver wherever to begin choosing. However I might like an choice for these of us who work in another way.
To program every thing, you principally drag and drop from an inventory of actions to the management or button; every set of these is a profile, and every utility can have a number of profiles. It might probably mechanically load a default profile based mostly on the appliance or software inside the app you have switched to. As with the Loupedeck, you can get user-contributed profiles for it in Logi Market.
However so far as I can inform, if you need to have the ability to use a number of profiles inside an utility, it’s a must to manually add a Change Profile button for each profile you need to swap to and in each profile you need to swap from. If there is a slider for it within the interface, it’s a must to alter it through a dial or curler if you wish to use it with the CC.
Extra annoying, the software program does not help you add buttons from different profiles or merge profiles for continuously used or customized capabilities you need in each profile. For instance, I would like a number of forms of screenshots accessible from each app. I take a look at keyboards, and loads of the small ones haven’t got a PrtSc key, so I’ve to remap at the very least one shortcut in Sport Bar, which is a nightmare. (Nearly each combo says: “That shortcut will not work. Decide one other one and check out once more,” moderately than telling me which of them are out there.)
There are additionally some constraints that Logitech has little management over as a result of they don’t seem to be within the API. And in my case, there’s loads of stuff I would like it to try this it will probably’t. As an illustration, Adobe does not have an API for Digicam Uncooked in Photoshop.
In my case, it will probably’t present direct entry to the numeric fields, at the very least as I’ve seen in Lightroom and Photoshop. (I believe it’s a must to create macros if you wish to work round utilizing the dial.) However I need to go to particular values for publicity modifications, like 0.3, 0.7 and so forth. It is sooner for me to simply click on into that field and sort it than something CC can do given the API.
And utilizing the free-spinning dial for something exact is irritating, until you have got glorious positive management in your nondominant hand (which I do not), irrespective of how low a pace you set it to. I would like suggestions that tells me, “sure, you have moved a unit in that course” or, “sure, that is the midway mark for quantity or brightness.” So, for instance, I ended up having to remap the highest buttons on the Dialpad in Lightroom from undo-redo to previous-next picture to cease flying previous the picture I wished. Frankly, I am going to in all probability simply maintain utilizing the arrow keys. In an ideal world, it will work just like the scroll wheel on some gaming mice, the place you would swap between the free-spinning and stepped modes on the fly. Not everybody feels the identical, however for those who do, contemplate your self warned.
I discover the Keypad extra helpful than the DialPad, partly as a result of you may add multi-step actions to a single button press, resembling filter by flag, choose all and export in Lightroom. A whole lot of actions are simply simpler to carry out with the keyboard for those who’ve already memorized the shortcuts — making an attempt break muscle reminiscence is not price it. However for the stuff you solely do often, it may be sooner than making an attempt to recollect the place it’s within the interface.
One drawback is that I might like to have the ability to reorganize them to place the issues I do continuously on the primary pages and group them collectively in another way. You’ll be able to transfer the buttons round, change the icon fonts, colours, backgrounds and so forth, however I could not discover a simple option to transfer them from web page to web page. Looking for a little-used software in additional than two or three pages of decisions if they don’t seem to be organized your means actually is not sooner. Nor may I discover a option to batch edit them, for instance, to alter the background colours or fonts to paint code them for a whole toolset or utility. There are solely two world settings, for key brightness and to toggle the automated profile switching on and off.
Logitech says that it will in all probability, finally, add the Choices Plus settings to G Hub, which might make it much more handy for streamers and others who’ve Logitech gaming gear. So there isn’t any must run two utility functions; the corporate already does this with its MX Brio webcam. Yay!
How a lot you’d respect the MX Artistic Console actually is dependent upon loads of variables, together with which functions you employ continuously, whether or not the keyboard shortcuts you want are branded into your mind or not, how dextrous you’re with the hand you will want for the Dialpad, how a lot customization you are keen to do if the default profiles do not cowl sufficient of what you want and extra. I believe there’s one thing right here for everybody, however whether or not it is well worth the $200 for those who do not actually need it’s one other story.