The Audio Aficionado (Aaron Brown's Blog)

I’d like to say I loved this device.  When I lift my feet while I use it I can tell it would really improve my workflow!  Yes, you read that correctly.  Regretfully, the AlphaTrack has a big problem.  If any devices attached to the computer it plugs into aren’t properly grounded, or perhaps on a different circuit, then the device is rendered COMPLETELY USELESS.

I wrote Frontier and the only solutions the have are to solve the ground problems, wear an anti-static wrist band or using a laptop isolated from power. The apartments in SF aren’t grounded well, I’m not about to wear an anti-static wrist band just to mix, and I tried unplugging the laptop with no success.  Removing external drives on a different circuit isn’t what I call a solution anyway.  It’s pretty astounding they couldn’t isolate the fader and knobs from the circuit to prevent this issue.

To be fair almost everything else about this device seems great.  The way it maps to Cubase 5 is elegant and easy to use.  It even maps to plug-ins pretty well.  I’m sure you can find reviews on the web saying how great the device is.  The controls are great with one exception.  The encoders are also pretty useless.  They are WAYYYYY too finely tuned.  This means it takes about 5 full rotations to go from far left to right panning.  No, the resolution isn’t adjustable.

So in the end this great idea, with mostly great execution, is rendered unusable by a seemingly easily fixable design flaw.  I regretfully go to return it tomorrow.  Goodbye AlphaTrack.  When I wore thick soled shoes you were almost entirely a great device!

Video Demonstration of the Grounding issue below.

-Aaron Brown