When it comes to the higher end of the audio production world, there is no doubt that Digidesign's Pro Tools systems, combining quality hardware/DSP and software, are the dominant platform.

Over the years technology has evolved with modern computers and interfaces making good use of the benefits of Thunderbolt.If you fancied the well-specified, Firewire-based I/O of Digidesign's Digi 002 but didn't need its control surface functions, you now have a cheaper alternative in the shape of the Digi 002 Rack. Without the popularity of the Digi 003, not forgetting the previous Digi 002, we may not have even had so many small control surfaces available to us today. In some small way, all third party small form factor motorised control surfaces that followed the Digi 003 over the years were in some small way a little tribute to the Digi. It was a sad day when the Digi 003 discontinued, it was also a shame that we never saw a Digi 004. The Digi 003 had the same type of motorised faders as the C24, same digital dual-line scribble strip, same mushroom encoder caps but at a fraction of the price, and it was also an all-in-one solution including a very usable audio/MIDI interface and monitor control section. The 003 desk felt like a mini C24, which at the time cost over £7,000. When I took delivery of it back in 2007 it felt like a proper premium product, in many ways it still does today. Modern third-party control surfaces, of course, have to be cross-compatible with a range of popular DAWs, which is completely understandable, but the magic I feel when I use the Digi 003 isn’t in any of the offerings we have available today. The top products available to us today, listed earlier, are all proof that these types of control surfaces are in fact quite popular in the audio production industry, but I feel none of them really captured the essence of the Digi 003, which I think is a real shame.ĭon’t get me wrong, the Digi 003 wasn’t without its faults but what made it special was its deep integration with Pro Tools. After the Digi range of Digidesign audio interfaces and control surfaces were discontinued by Avid, a gap in the market opened up for third-parties to release their own takes on an 8 fader compact control surface. I consider the Digi 003 Factory to be the best motorised 8 fader control surface for Pro Tools of all time.

Digi 002 vs digi 003