Bitstream is a total pain to work with by most accounts.
Have you used one?
I wasnāt even aware of the Bitstream until now. It certainly looks like a good controller if you have a use for all the extra controls.
As for the UC4, it is completely solid and easy to program from the unit. The faders are small, but surprisingly usable.
Iāve got it set up with faders controlling track levels on my Digitakt through the MIDi port, the buttons and crossfader controlling a couple of loopers in Ableton and the encoders controlling a few plugins via the USB connection.
Itās always worked perfectly.
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Mine arrives Monday!
No but researched it very heavily a few years ago as it seems a super powerful dream controller. The programming sounded like more work than I was prepared to take on.
I would be interested if any OS came out to improve this aspect.
Received mine for chrismas (self gift 
), and Iām a bit disappointed by the quality. Itās my first Faderfox controller, and for 275e at least I expect an english quick start guide and not a german-only sheet. The plastic feels cheap, and the feeling of encoders/faders does not feels great, so a bit bummed for the price.
Still, thereās not much choice for compact controllers with knobs and faders that can be programmed without a computer, so Iāll probably forget these flaws once Iāll start playing with it and my M8.
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Something that really bothers me: is there a way to make the knob change the value faster, besides the acceleration curves? I would like the knobs to be more reactive, but acceleration is hit and miss and I lose all precision with it. I would like to keep the linear response, just a faster one.
Is that possible?
I donāt think so, I believe that thereās only acceleration or the standard āno accelerationā speed per encoder.
One thing is that you may set it to work on a much finer scale if using CCAh mode, but thatās the opposite of what youāre asking for. Are you sure youāre not accidentally using that? Most likely not. Hereās what the manual has to say about it. āCCAh: Two control change commands (MSB/LSB) in 14 bit highres mode (values 0 to 16383).ā That is 16383 discrete values, as opposed to 128, so it takes a lot longer to āsweepā through.
Given that you are not using the encoder in CCAh mode and the acceleration is disabled; another way to proceed then would be to perhaps set a more narrow window/range for an encoder turn to address. It may feel more responsive in practice that way, but it requires a lot of fine tuning, potentially making it a somewhat finicky process. I believe youād have to do that on the receiving devices and (set a min and max) to feel the difference.
Edit: Or do I have that backwards? Now Iām thinking that setting a smaller range would make it feel less fast (but more precise). I would just need to try itā¦ I canāt wrap my head around it right now! 
Iāve heard this elsewhere and, yeah, the encoders are a bit āsandyā. Once I got used to them I didnāt mind them at all, though. They are very consistent, and their acceleration is really handy for working with 14-bit values. As far as the ācheapā plastic, I just thought it was kind of ugly at first, but itās pretty rugged for plastic. I expect it to age much better than, say, the Nanokontrol (which, to be fair, is at a much different price point).
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I had my friend over for a jam and they picked up the UC4 and told me that they think it has the aesthetic and feeling of a 1980ās car stereo head unit with an 8 band equalizer. I kind of looked perplexed for a moment as I flashed back to the late 80ās and recalled an upgraded car audio system in my life which certainly did resemble the UC4. Black plastic with a similar finish, similar knob caps, a basic display, silkscreened text and some green accents.
Passionately loving this controller; I defended its build quality and honor! I agreed that it maybe has a simple kind of utilitarian look, but it works so nicely and is by no means flimsy at all.
My only issue with the UC4 would be that it serves as my only set of faders in the studio - and theyāre really short ones. For most of my purposes; theyāre not the best for controlling gain.
Otherwise Iām still super impressed by UC4 overall. I canāt deny that it feels extremely solid in practice. The form factor is a dream. The encoders break in and start to feel easier to turn after some time. I also found it forgiving to program, which happens to be pretty rare for MIDI devices in general.
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I love mine for controlling Ableton. Its super easy to automap to parameters with it, which is awesome.
I need to try it for more stuff. Octatrack, blueboxā¦I have a bunch of things I could probably plug this thing into. Its such a cool little controller.
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Button to CC mapping is nice for the Octatrack for discrete parameter values, as in the Freeze Delay control mode. This is more useful than a continuous range of values for parameters based on rhythm or pitch. For example, you can set all 8 to control retrigger time, where button 1 is 8 steps, button 2 is 6 steps, button 3 is 4 steps, etc.
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Hey, Im trying to send transport, clock and midi notes from logic > through my UC4 to my > octatrack, do you mind advising as to how to do this?
Thanks in advance.
Joel
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Liam Killen just made a video about the lack of easy documentation about controlling the Octatrackā¦ Im curious what you come up with.
Le dot.
That should be easy enough to set up.
On the UC4, go to setup mode and select routing āROU1ā using encoder 2.
This will pass any midi received from the USB through to the MIDI DIN output merged with any MIDI from the UC4 faders, encoders etc.
It will save automatically when you exit setup mode.
I canāt help you with the specifics of Logic, but it should be set to send MIDI, clock etc through the faderfox usb interface.
The Octatrack should then be set to receive MIDI, clock, transport through itās MIDI port.
Hope that helps.
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Thanks for getting back to me, I worked out the routing in the end, was easy enough once I find the routing set up in the manual.
Cheers
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Alrighty, fellow UC4 usersā¦ How are we keeping track of whatās what? Anyone print an overlay? stickie note? if I take more than a week away, Iāve forgotten quite a bit and have to reverse engineerā¦ Now, Iām referring to having multiple pages. I think just one page is easy, but Iām getting myself lost, and as much as I get irritated with screens, the iPad is starting to look like a better midi controller for remembering WTF is W.
Iāve got the pc4 (no screen, more knobs) The best approach for me is keep it simple and consistent. So all my drums (except kick) are always mapped to delay and reverb. My tones are mapped to frequency and res. If I want to do anything else, Iāll just mess with the parameters on the actual box.
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Thatās all well and good. Iām using it for some of the hidden options of the Mood MKII, a few devices with multiple pages that are also a pain. And, as Iām typing, itās likely I should just use a screen.
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Ah right, stickers or cardboard temples it is then. 