Avid S1

Sources split — and the split runs almost exactly along the DAW you use. In Pro Tools, the S1 gets everything EUCON offers: VCA and folder-track spill, plug-in parameters spilled across all eight encoders, input and output routing, groups, and the full advanced-automation set (preview, capture, trim), with track colours mirrored on the soft keys. Reviewers and Pro Tools owners agree that no HUI or Mackie Control surface comes close, including owners who compared it directly with SSL's UF8. Outside Pro Tools the picture changes. Logic, Cubase, Nuendo and Pyramix are EUCON partners, and several owners report Logic and Cubase working well — but Cubase and Nuendo users spent years fighting hidden tracks still appearing on the surface (fixed in Cubase 11), report bugs, channel-count errors and missing folder spill, and one Thomann owner who works 99% in Nuendo calls it a Pro Tools controller first. Ableton Live, Studio One, Bitwig and FL Studio have no EUCON support at all; EuControl can expose the S1 as a Mackie Control device to them, which works, but loses most of what makes the surface special.

Sources split, but on a narrower question than it first appears. The Avid Control app — free, running on an iPad, an Android tablet or even a cheap Amazon Fire — is praised by nearly everyone: it supplies meters, EQ and dynamics graphs, track lists, a monitoring section and pages of soft keys, and several reviewers who expected a gimmick ended up calling it the best part of the system. Avid Control Desktop can also put the meters on a computer screen without a tablet. What divides owners is EuControl, the background application the hardware cannot run without. Reviewers who had it working found it powerful and well documented; Sound On Sound spent several hours on a case where it simply refused to see the surface until an update fixed it. Owners report surfaces drifting out of sync, freezes and disconnects, Apple silicon troubles and fussiness about network setup, and a Production Expert panellist moved to SSL partly over EuControl crashes. Avid's own release notes back both camps: they admit 2023 performance problems and describe 2024.10 as a major stability release fixing more than 50 issues and 2025.3 as fixing more than 20 bugs, and a 2026 Sweetwater owner calls the current build very solid.

Sources split on feel, with a clear majority on the positive side. Reviewers and most owners describe the 100 mm touch-sensitive faders as smooth, quiet and precise and the buttons as the S3's — firm and tactile, a clear step up from the Artist Mix, with mute and solo finally labelled the familiar way and the record and select keys moved out of the fader throw. Encoders are speed-sensitive and touch-sensitive, and the eight track-coloured soft keys earn praise. The dissent comes in two forms. On feel, one Production Expert panellist found the faders scratchy enough to switch to SSL, a Sweetwater owner returned his saying the faders felt cheap and popped off with little force, and a few owners find them no better than the Artist Mix, a little light or with buttons that feel cheap. On layout, there is no transport section, jog wheel or hardware meters — transport has to be programmed onto soft keys, bought as an Avid Dock or left to the keyboard. Owners who already used the space bar shrug; buyers who wanted a self-contained desk do not.

Sources split along the line between people who reviewed loan units and people who owned them for years. Reviewers describe a sturdy plastic chassis — not the metal of the S6, but clearly more solid than the Artist Mix — with S3-derived faders and buttons; owners on Thomann, Amazon and in Production Expert's panel largely agree, and a French video reviewer found its finish far less prone to smudges than the Artist Mix. Against that sits a run of owner failure reports: one Reddit owner went through five defective units (each replaced promptly by Avid), another returned two for the same fault, a Sweetwater owner had two faders fail in year one and the whole unit die in year two, another had two fader motors stop after years of use, and a Thomann buyer's power supply died within two days. Smaller complaints recur too: fingerprints behind the screens, a display window that scratches, a tablet rest that collects dust. One forum regular sums up its reputation as a gamble unless the unit is insured.

Sources split on what the S1 actually costs. Reviewers and Pro Tools owners see the only affordable way into EUCON — Avid does not license it to other hardware makers — and a fraction of an S4 or S6 for much of the same workflow; owners with two or three S1s and a Dock describe it as close to a large console for a fraction of the cost. The sceptics count the rest of the bill. The surface is designed around a tablet, transport lives on a separate $1,000-plus Avid Dock, and a single-fader PreSonus FaderPort or an SSL UF8 covers a lot of the same ground — one Production Expert panellist chose the UF8 after pricing an S1 plus a new iPad at about £1,400 against £900. Thomann owners repeatedly call the price high but say they would buy again. A French reviewer who already owned an Artist Mix concluded the upgrade was not worth it for him, while recommending the S1 to first-time buyers. Street price is $1,295 against a $1,495 list.

Deliberately minimal and network-based, and the network is where the complaints land. The back panel holds a locking DC power inlet, a power switch, a quarter-inch footswitch jack, a Gigabit Ethernet port and a USB port that only charges a tablet — no USB connection to the computer, no 5-pin MIDI, no audio. Reviewers note that a wired Ethernet link is required, and Avid's guide highly recommends a standard Ethernet router or switch. Owners echo that advice the hard way: one returned his S1 after having to assign static IP and DNS addresses by hand, another owner's two motorised faders stopped following Pro Tools, and the advice in his thread was to keep EUCON traffic on its own network interface or switch, and a Thomann owner warns that a tablet on Wi-Fi is sluggish and unreliable compared with a wired link. Others report a plain direct connection, or a tablet on home Wi-Fi, working without trouble. Unlike SSL's UF8, it does have a power switch, a detail Ant's video counts as a plus along with the locking power connector.

“Whereas Avid Control can communicate over Wi-Fi, the S1 requires a wired Ethernet link, as well as a mains power connection for its laptop-style 'line lump' PSU.”

Sam Inglis, Sound On Sound

“I ended up having to dive into the settings on the S1 itself to assign static IP and DNS addresses, as it connects through Ethernet and apparently had incompatibilities with other devices on my network.”

bst_qba, r/protools

“Don’t mix Eucon and other traffic on the same network interface. Highly unreliable.”

Minimum_Significance, r/protools

A modest footprint, with caveats about depth and height. At 316 × 377 mm and 1.89 kg it fits between a keyboard and a monitor, and owners say it is smaller than they expected — one mixes on the road and carries it in a backpack. But it is deeper than the Artist Mix it replaced, and the raked tablet rest raises the back to just over 10 cm, so a tablet in place can push a monitor upward. The rest does not fold away, which one Thomann owner who never used a tablet found irritating, and the playing angle is fixed and fairly low — one owner points to aftermarket enclosures to raise it. It always needs mains power and an Ethernet cable, so it is a surface you move between rooms rather than one you run from a laptop on the go.

“It’s the perfect size for ease of use without taking over your desk and has an efficiency of layout that very few fader-based controllers can match.”

Dan Nicholls, Mixdown

“ich mische viel in venues „on the road“ und die s1 passt super in einen Rucksack!”

Pascal609, Thomann owner review (German: "I mix a lot in venues on the road and the S1 fits nicely in a backpack!")

“The surface height is not adjustable, and the angle is low.”

Gary B., Sweetwater owner review