Jazzmutant Dexter Controller surface for DAW has landed..

looks like it is ready now, here’s the newsletter content..
Bordeaux, July 6th 2007. JazzMutant announces Dexter release.

JazzMutant is glad to announce the release of Dexter, the latest addition to its range of multi-touch enabled controllers. While the Lemur’s modular concept aimed at maximum versatility and adaptability, Dexter is devoted to one unique master plan: bringing the power of Digital Audio Workstations to your fingertips in a creative and user-friendly manner. For the first time, controlling DAWs feels natural instead of adding an intermediate level of complexity. In a word, Dexter amounts to what DAW users have been longing for years : A Controller. At last.

HASN’T EVERY MUSICIAN OR PRODUCER FANTASIZED ABOUT CONTROLLING THEIR FAVOURITE DIGITAL AUDIO WORKSTATION BY TOUCHING THE ACTUAL USER INTERFACE DIRECTLY ON THE SCREEN? JAZZMUTANT HAS PARTNERED WITH LEADING SOFTWARE COMPANIES TO MAKE THIS DREAM A REALITY.

Dexter, by JazzMutant, redefines the very interaction between digital audio workstations and their users. This laptop-sized control surface has been designed with only one purpose in mind: making the user experience more pleasant, more efficient and more satisfying.

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Great ergonomics_

Hands on Control : At the foundation of Dexter’s groundbreaking concept lies JazzMutant’s patented Multi-touch Display Technology. Unlike traditional touch-sensitive displays, Dexter’s sensor lets your ten fingers perform simultaneous actions on-screen with immediate response. While this means basic operations like levelling multiple tracks are perfectly possible with Dexter, it also allows for novel and intuitive ways to navigate inside a project and interact with its various aspects like equalizers, inserts and surround panning. Dexter’s virtual widgets are immune to wear-out, and make DAW controlling feel and look natural.
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Seamless Integration with thorough visual feedback : Visual feedback has long been the Achille’s heel of controllers. The Dexter brings such a complete feedback to the user, that securely allows to switch off their computer’s display altogether. Indeed, never has a controller been as tightly integrated with Digital Audio Workstations. JazzMutant has partnered with the leading DAW producers to offer visual feedback and two-way communication. The entire state of your project is constantly mirrored on Dexter’s screen: track and effects names fully displayed with no abbreviations, level meters, timecode, as well as precise surround position and exact EQ curves are updated in real-time.
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Unprecented precision : In order to provide the finest precision of control, JazzMutant introduces a whole new concept with Dexter: that of zoomable controllers. You can now tweak the resolution you want to achieve from a set of controllers in real time. Zoom in on your faders when you need that extra bit of precision in a mix. Zoom out when you’re looking for the widest range achievable. Zoomable controllers are priceless when it comes to adjusting the threshold of a compressor or the cutoff frequency of a filter. Dexter brings matchless precision to your mix that top-of-the-range physical faders not even can compete with.

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Intuitive workspace_
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Crystal-clear mixing interface :_ One glimpse suffices to get acquainted with Dexter’s workspace. Its design goes to the point and is immediately understandable: all functions are available through explicit icons. The main interface on Dexter accurately mimics the mixer of your DAW. For greater visual comfort, each individual track is pictured with a specific color that represents its current state: shades of blue differentiate active tracks from muted ones, while red or yellow backgrounds make record enabled or soloed tracks stand out from the rest.
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Full-featured channel edit :_ Get a full overview of what’s going on in any particular track from the Channel Edit page: equalizer and insert parameters, surround panning and bus sends are conveniently placed for maximum efficiency.

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Instant Navigation_
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Bank Navigation :_ Dexter has been designed to offer the most immediate access to any feature of your Digital Audio Workstation. With conventional control surfaces, navigating inside a large-scaled project can rapidly turn into a nightmare. Instead, Dexter introduces the most evident way of browsing through your project, by including an arsenal of fancy widgets making operation more efficient and pleasant than ever. The smart Overview widget displays a miniaturized view of the whole mixer, showing up to 64 tracks at a time with levels and color-coded states. Swiping a finger across the view discloses the content of each bank of tracks, making each one of them accessible in a snap.
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Track Filtering :_ For smarter navigation a unique set of buttons allows you to rearrange Dexter’s mixer on the fly. These allow instant sorting of your channels based on your needs. Press the View Solo button to display only the soloed tracks on the screen. With Dexter, channels you don’t need, will never get in your way.
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Dynamic Grouping :_ Dexter features a convenient mode of operation that lets the user create groups of tracks on the fly. Press the Group Edit button and choose with your finger whichever tracks should belong to the currently selected group. When you’re done, you can display any one of 8 saved groups at any given time, each containing any number of tracks.

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Superb Plugin Interface_
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Outstanding EQ controller :_ Dexter’s beautiful EQ controller will amaze you straight away. Exactly mirroring the filter curve of your sequencer’s EQ, this appealing interface particularly benefits from multi-touch technology in order to bring spontaneity and precision to the uppermost level. Dexter’s EQ controller offers a dual operation mode, where vertical axis movements can either control the gain or the slope of a particular band. It also features the same zooming capabilities as track faders for best accuracy. This way, you can zoom around a particular frequency, lock it when you’ve found a resonance, and proceed to setting up the Gain or quality factor.

User friendly FX tweaking : Dexter succeeds where almost any other control surfaces have been failed so far: setting up insert effects. Forget about those unnatural key sequences to access a particular parameter of an insert on a track. Dexter lets you jump from the touch of a finger to a unified interface that shows every effect and parameter in a clear way. The upper tabs let you switch from one insert to the other, while a drawbar at the bottom of the interface facilitates navigation among the numerous parameters of plugins. Distinctive faders allow to control your insert parameters, as well as read all automation data from your DAW.

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Unique Surround Panner_

With its unique palette of tools dedicated to sound spatialization, Dexter is a dream come true for multi-channel work. Its breakthrough surround panner provides live monitoring of up to eight channel positions in the surround space. Sound sources can be naturally moved around with the tips of your fingers in the most intuitive manner. For maximum flexibility, you can easily hide any tracks that you do not wish to manipulate. To ensure better control over trajectories, the lock buttons on the sidebar let you preserve either the angle or the distance form the center of any track.

Availability:
Dexter is now available from any authorized dealer. Please locate the nearest retailer or distribution partner on www.jazzmutant.com.