New Music Gear Monday: Softube Console 1 Compact Controller

Anyone who’s ever mixed on a real console and then gone back to mixing with a mouse knows it can be a letdown. Your hands miss the knobs, and your ears miss the instant feedback of turning something and hearing it change right now, not after a click and a drag. Softube built a following by trying to close that gap, and now they’ve made it easier to close no matter how small your room is with the new Console 1 Compact.

Console 1 Compact is a hardware control surface that brings Softube’s console-mixing concept down to a footprint of around 9 by 8 inches.

It’s half the size of the existing Console 1 Channel Mk III, yet it still delivers the same channel strip sections across two switchable layers instead of one, so you’re not sacrificing control to save desk space.

It’s All In The Feel

The unit uses 16 touch-sensitive Analog Feel potentiometers with more than ten times the resolution of the earlier Mk II generation, so the turn of every knob has real weight behind it.

On the upper right is a single high-resolution screen that shows everything from EQ and compressor curves, to VU metering, to track information at a glance, while RGB LEDs shift color to match whatever section is active.

The whole thing is built with an anodized aluminum top and the same Nordic-inspired finish as the rest of the Console 1 line.

And It Comes With . . .

Compact ships with Softube’s Core Mixing Suite, which includes a tape and preamp section, a shape and transient tool, two equalizers, three compressors modeled on the FET Mk II, Bus, and Opto processors, and a drive section built around Softube’s saturation work.

From there, the system opens up to third-party channel strips from Chandler Limited, Weiss, SSL, Empirical Labs, and others, all controllable from the same hardware without any mapping required.

Console 1 Compact works across every major DAW including Logic, Pro Tools, Ableton Live, Cubase, Studio One, and Reaper, and every session stays fully recallable whether you’re running Compact, Channel, or Fader. It connects to your workstation via USB-C, and requires an iLok to operate.

For anyone tracking on the road or mixing in a bedroom studio without room for a full-size controller, this is a real way to get console hands-on control without giving up the desk.

Console 1 Compact carries an MSRP of $499. You can find out more here or watch the video below.

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