Loupedeck Creative Tool - Professional Custom Editing Console for Photo, Video, Music and Design

During the pandemic video editing has gone from something I did on the side to my sole source of income. I decided to treat myself to the Loupedeck CT, not knowing if it would really be worth the significant cost. I'm so glad I did! It immediately made a huge difference in my quality of life. Not only can I work faster, I produce better work because it's so much easier to fine-tune aspects of my videos. I've gotten much more creative with color because of how intuitive it is to just grab one of the dials and play with it until it's just right. And sometimes it just makes me approach my work with more positivity because it's so satisfying to use.If you're debating between this or the cheaper Loupedeck Live, I probably spend 95% of my time using the top half of the device, which is what you would get with the Live. If you're on a budget, that's a big savings for, in my opinion, all the important functionality. I do think the Loupedeck software underutilizes the possibilities for the main control dial, but just last week an update came out that enhanced it somewhat, so maybe I will find more use for that in the future.As an aside, while I bought the Loupedeck for video editing in MacOS, I've also taken advantage of it for gaming in Windows, and it's been lots of fun to program it to enhance my controls. The possibilities of what it can do in any app are pretty broad, and I feel like I've only scratched the surface.On the physical side, it feels well-built and solid, but also small, thin, and easily portable, and it tucks away easily when I don't need it. I put some tall rubber bumpers on the back edge to make it stand up at more of an angle, as it normally sits very flat.

I'm a graphics designer and also work with 3D architecture & visualization. I use many of the Adobe products. I watched many reviews on YouTube before I made my decision to purchase it. The LoupeDeck CT has all the features and customization controls that I need for my workflow. I also use Ableton Live and this will be a perfect adjunct as well. When not working, I find myself behind the controls of my favorite flight sims, MSFS 2020 & X-Plane 12. This will come in very handy for the flight controls. Anyway this is a very deep and powerful piece of kit & has a steep learning curve but the Loupedeck website and YouTube channel have a lot of helpful resources for learning. The Loupedeck CT cord is very short so I highly recommend a 6.6FT AINOPE USB 3.0 Extension Cable Type A Male to Female Extension Cord. This worked like a charm!

GREAT hardware. Software team SUCKS. Bought it in 2020 and it immediately improved my photo editing productivity. But I've lost functionality every time they update the software. Adobe Lightroom's new masking tools are a gamer changer and will also greatly improve my workflow. But when I select the masking tool in LR the Loupedeck CT buttons go blank, making the device completely useless. Loupedeck released a software update today and it didn't resolve the situation. I'll continue to wait for the next update, but wonder what won't work next time they update. I've stopped recommending this device to other photographers. My initial review of this product was 5 stars. But Loupedeck lost a star with every software update since my purchase.

I've been using a Shuttle Pro V2 for about 10 years. I bought it for use with Logic and Final Cut Pro, but over the years I've adapted it to work with lots of other software. Although I no longer edit audio and video professionally I cut my teeth on old linear editing suites and never really got past the shuttle wheels. The Shuttle Pro did what I needed but I wasn't getting all the use out of it that I could because I could never remember what buttons did what. I had been looking at different solutions for a while, including an iPad solution called Touch Portal. But all the while I would keep looking at the Streamdeck and Loupedeck, hover over the "Buy now" button and then move on. They're just a little too expensive.This fall I finally bit. I have an idea for controlling my amateur radio "remotely" from across the desk and combining a lot of the functions spread out over different apps into one concise interface. I've tried setting up Touch Portal and the Shuttle, but they're really limited to keyboard emulation. I also tested an iCon P1 Nano, but it had issues with newer versions of macOS, and is really designed to be used with preset audio workstation apps. The Loupedeck seems to be the best solution so far.The hardware feels great. It has just enough heft to not slide around the desk. but is small enough to fit into my MacBook bag. It would be really cool if it were wireless, but then it couldn't be as thin (and would need charged daily). It sits nicely on the right side of my keyboard (I'm left handed so the trackpad is on the left).What I like about the Loupedeck CT is all the knobs and buttons can be programmed for pretty much anything. So you can assign a button to trigger a MIDI command right alongside an OS event or application specific keyboard function. It is literally a blank slate out of the box. I was able to quickly set up buttons for my most used apps, using the icon for the app or a quick search online. One thing that was odd is that for some reason I wasn't able to add Photos without some hunting around (It's in /System/Applications/Photos.app, not in the default Applications folder). Once an application is open there might be some system-level controls available, like scrolling in Safari and email. I also set up a knob for increasing/decreasing text size. Volume control and screen brightness are in the macOS default template too.The templates are mostly geared toward professional audio video and photo editing. I use Final Cut Pro, Logic Pro, but not Adobe Photo suite because I just don't need that level of granularity. So there's no preset template for Apple's Photos app, unfortunately. That's the one that sticks out because I'm sure there are plenty of professionals who would use Photos for a quick correction on a social media post (for example). And I'm on my own for applications like Metashape or most 3D Printing software. That's to be expected.It is difficult to set up but the software makes it go fairly smoothly. You have to think about defining an action first, get it set (might be a macro or several steps), then assign it to a button. Be ready to try a few times to get it right. But because it is so much more powerful than the Shuttle programming buttons is actually a little easier. Note that I had to downgrade the software to V5.9.1.19365 to get the Final Cut Pro plugin pages to load. The support tech who emailed me the solution said they are working on returning FCP compatibility, but it was a pretty bad unboxing experience to not have one of the "flagship" programs supported out of the box.I should also mention the Command Post program. This is like the basic Loupedeck software on expert mode. I haven't dove into it too deeply yet, but if you're running FCP you'll need this program to get full use of the Loupedeck. Again, seems like Logitech needs to do better at updating Loupedeck. Really doesn't look good relying on a 3rd party app for a program featured on their own marketing.I'm sure I will get better at using this controller over time. For now it's a long steep hill to climb. But being able to run complicated macros and use better controls for tasks that need them it will be a great addition to any desktop, not just creatives.If only it weren't so darn expensive!