Owning the Softube Console 1 and fader. (currently don't have the 3 but the 2 model) And many of their plugins I'm a big fan.
Took me some time to get quick with this unit .
some of the presets sound terrific.
Then I spent tons of time to build my own presets. That where the magic is. The best thing is you can make the the knobs subtle precise or extreme to your taste. For example mapped 4 dif controls to 1 knob. (Mapped ratio, threshold,knee and saturation all on 1 macro. Ratio very subtle where knee and saturation gained faster) nothing else on market can do that. Plus you have another 7 macros and you can select if you want big flow knob to affect some of them or all. I recommend just taking the time matching and being creative with parameters and dif plugins. Build 15-20 presents to start and you can mix and produce so much faster. I am hoping they include UAD Fabfilter and PA upcoming like Console 1 that be ultimate combo.

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This is a product that is most useful to a straight music producer using a lot of samples and premixed tracks. Its not really made for the mix or recording phases. I already owned the softube console one and fader and thought this was a logical piece to incorporate but it is limited to mainly softube plugins and dosnt come with most that you would want in the mixing process. You can use most UAD plugins with it but it is limited in its control mapping to 8 parameters and i couldnt figure out how to put them in the order i wanted them in the GUI. Its a fun toy and is useful in its niche but IMO most people arent going to use it much unless they already own the softube plugins and are mainly mixing stems and final productions.

I've founded and owned multiple production studios for almost 30 years. I've tried every control surface available for Cubase and Studio One at least once - trying to find that one piece of hardware that just works. And I was always disappointed. I've gotten so used to companies releasing a hyped and promising controller, only to be continually let down by the actual implementation. Either they don't integrate into my DAW, are buggy and unusable at launch, or don't take into consideration how you would use them with other control surfaces. They overlap functionality, provide terrible translation of hand control to software / plugins or any of 100 other disappointments.

The Flow Studio is literally the first controller that I unboxed, put on my mastering desk and within 20 minutes, was USING - in production. The Flow controller is an amazing piece of kit. Fast, perfectly designed, and so well integrated into the rest of the Softube system that its almost shocking. I've been using the Softube Console 1 Channel and Fader controllers for almost a year now. They both work very well, but the software was a bit immature when I started with them. Its taken a while for the implementation to catch up to the gorgeous hardware. Plus there was a bit of a gap where the controllers gave you great granular control, but didn't seem to cover all the bases in my workflow. With the Flow Studio and the latest software revision, man they nailed it.

The Flow Studio perfectly fills the gap of quickly moving from mouse and keyboard to fast and fluid hands-on-control, to the granularity of the consoles. I was a bit worried how it would work with the consoles and whether there would be overlap or other awkwardness in trying to integrate with the other surfaces. Nope, none. They do an amazing job of complementing each other, filling the gaps, and working together. It is so refreshing to see a company look at the WHOLE control surface flow and understand how to reinforce and complement the other pieces of gear to speed up production. Make a tweak on the Flow Studio and the OSD control and consoles instantly respond. Instantly, with no mess, no glitching, nothing. They just work TOGETHER. The Flow picks up where the consoles are lacking in speed and the consoles pickup right where the high-level fluidity of the FLOW starts to fall off.

I saw the Flow Studio popup online Monday and it looked so promising, I purchased one within an hour. And today for the first time in my studio, a production grade product exceeded my expectations literally right out of the box. Well done Softube, you earned it.

If you haven't tried the Softube hardware, get this, you will be glad you did. If you have the rest of the Softube hardware, get this, you will be glad you did. You do need to commit to the ecosystem to see all the benefits, but after so many disappointments with other platforms, I can say I'll be sticking with this one.

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