I'm not sure where to put this thread, but this seems like the most logical place for it. Feel free to correct me if it should go somewhere else.

So I'm interested in the CS18 as a Studio One controller. What's catching my eye on it is the fat channel section, which I thought would have a similar integration system with Studio One as the Studio 192 interface. In essence with a Studio 192 each channel in Studio One has its own fat channel(I know thats not exactly how it works but just work with me here for a sec). I think having something similar on the CS18 would be an incredible leap as far as DAW control goes. Essentially what I'm thinking is adding an additional option for the encoders at the top to control the fat channel, which would automatically be on every track in S1. And when its selected, the user would have the ability to select a channel and immediately start tweaking EQ, Compression, and the other fat channel modules just the same they could on a normal studiolive mixer(or any digital mixer for that matter). Wouldn't even require a hardware change as it could all be done in code, and to me not having it integrated seriously seems like a missed opportunity. I realize that as a stock effect in studio one, the fat channel CAN be controlled via the CS with a decent amount of integration, but it still requires the user to drag and drop a new instance onto each track, and then open it up on the mixer each and every time, which makes sense for normal plugin control, but not for channel strip control.

To understand where I'm coming from here, understand that I want to be able to mix completely OTB, but That just plain isn't possible for me. Even if I had the money and space for a 96 channel SSL or Neve console I still wouldn't have enough channels to mix my sessions on. And DAW controllers just haven't been able to replicate the experience enough. Fader control is great, but I don't have access to convenient access to simple channel strip controls. CS18 is different in this regard. Its only a software update away.