Anybody using an S3?

Anyone here using an S3 with Nuendo? How is it, full service (like S6/Sys. 5), or buggy (like the Artist Series)?

Hi, I am working with a S3 for over one year now, mostly in Pro Tools but also did a few mixes in Nuendo.

The concept is great (especially when switching between the two DAWs from time to time, since it is always the same workflow with S3,) faders and knobs feel very “pro”.
Layouts and Autobanking makes mixing incredible fast, on PT I am even almost faster on S3 compared to a d-control or a S5MC.

But there is one huge issue, which makes it hard for me to recommend this unit for a Nuendo-User:

Simple Volume-Control with faders (and that’s propably the most used part on a fader-controller) is not working in a professional sense:

First, the 0dB-position of the fader does not send a 0db-Signal to Nuendo. Means, that every time you touch a fader without moving it(!), on purpose or not, a parameter is written in volume automation, mostly -0.2dB, but it varies up to -0.7dB. That is awful, even if you nearly cannot hear a 0.2dB-amount, you have your project full of unintended automation data. And an unintended volume-automation of 0.3 or more can be heard properly and is absolutely inacceptable.

Then, trimming volume with S3 is also not working like it should. In Nuendo the faders switch to a middle position, this is of course also reflected by the faders on S3, but the parameter feedback on S3 does not follow this. When you want to make a slight adjustment of lets say 1 or 2dB, the S3 reports you adjustments of more than 10 or 12dB. And on dialog mixing I have to admit I almost never leave the trim modus. So I have to deal with this bug all the time.

These two issues are not acceptable for a Nuendo Fader Controller imo, both do not occur working with S3 in Pro Tools.

One third, but minor, showstopper is the implementation of Hi/Low-Cut. Since in Nuendo this feature is not implemented into the EQ-section, you also cannot control this when accessing the EQ-mode on S3. Means, that everytime you want to adjust the cut filters you have to leave EQ-mode, switch into so called Input-mode, and back. At least in my workflow, adjusting freq and slope of the filters is a normal task during EQing, so this actually slows EQing down, using this controller.

Yeah, I was afraid that this might be the case, based on my experience with the Artist Series. :frowning:

:unamused: …did I hear somebody say we want a mini Nuage?

(LOL),Yes please!

No, I would rather expect Steinberg to address this issue. They say, that they are supporting EUCON control surfaces, so the faders should work without any restriction.

Despite of that, the S3 is a great surface, all Nuendo features I need are implemented, I like the concept, and of course there is full PT-implementation, which in my working environment ist absolutely essential.

Can somebody verify if these issues with S3 continue to exist today?

I am also interested if the relative volume issue after bank switching is still a problem, or if Steinberg/Avid have fixed this yet.