WEBVTT 00:00:00.150 --> 00:00:03.510 - Hello everyone. Some years ago on Linus tech tips, 00:00:03.510 --> 00:00:09.470 I looked at this thing, the Pallete Gear, this is basically a control surface for video editing, 00:00:09.470 --> 00:00:12.660 photo editing, color correction, and so on. 00:00:12.660 --> 00:00:16.870 It's supposed to be like better in theory than using a keyboard and mouse for certain things, 00:00:16.870 --> 00:00:20.380 and it does look really cool, but the software was a big disappointment 00:00:20.380 --> 00:00:23.850 and I provided them with a lot of feedback 00:00:23.850 --> 00:00:26.483 and many years later, guess what? 00:00:27.370 --> 00:00:31.230 They came out with a whole new version using some of my feedback. 00:00:31.230 --> 00:00:36.160 So I'm actually really excited for this one. We're going to find out if the Monogram, 00:00:36.160 --> 00:00:41.960 they've rebranded I guess, is any better. Ooh, the master console. 00:00:41.960 --> 00:00:46.080 It's supposed to be compatible with the old system as well, and we got an add on 00:00:46.080 --> 00:00:51.040 because this one does not have the slider module as a part of it. 00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:54.629 So let's take a look here. You've got, 00:00:54.629 --> 00:00:58.660 here we go. Okay. Thank you. Well, you're welcome. 00:00:58.660 --> 00:01:03.660 This is unnecessarily large and let's take a look here. 00:01:03.684 --> 00:01:07.120 Okay. This is the core, very important 00:01:07.120 --> 00:01:10.880 without that nothing works. We've got, is it? 00:01:10.880 --> 00:01:14.677 It is! It's USB-C. Thank you. 00:01:14.677 --> 00:01:19.950 Look at that. Look at the amount of, the amount of foam in here! 00:01:19.950 --> 00:01:22.980 Okay. Oh my God. 00:01:22.980 --> 00:01:27.140 This has two different things. You, you can, I don't, I don't even know, like, 00:01:27.140 --> 00:01:32.140 will this work as a good alternative to a tracker ball? 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:35.840 (popping) We will find out. These are buttons. (clicking) 00:01:35.840 --> 00:01:38.603 Very nice. Got three of these. 00:01:39.600 --> 00:01:43.550 And what else have we got? More buttons. (pieces clicking) 00:01:43.550 --> 00:01:47.644 Dials. (pieces clicking) Ah, they are also buttons. 00:01:47.644 --> 00:01:50.657 Very nice, I like that and they're not ratcheted. 00:01:50.657 --> 00:01:55.140 More buttons. (pieces clicking) More dials. 00:01:55.140 --> 00:01:58.963 And guess what? More dials. I really like it, 00:01:58.963 --> 00:02:03.600 you can snap it all together and do whatever you want. Let's also open up the add on module, 00:02:03.600 --> 00:02:04.563 which is, 00:02:06.610 --> 00:02:12.160 it's exactly what it looks like. It's sliders. I feel like you're less liable to accidentally 00:02:12.160 --> 00:02:17.479 rotate one of these when you push it, compared to one of these, the old dial, 00:02:17.479 --> 00:02:22.254 because this one's just so big. You see that? That's probably why they made them smaller, 00:02:22.254 --> 00:02:26.490 also 'cause you can fit more in, but I like that. You have the build quality of this is, 00:02:26.490 --> 00:02:30.189 is impeccable. And like it had better be for the price. 00:02:30.189 --> 00:02:34.200 It's this Aluminum? I think so. Let's look what the bottom looks like. 00:02:34.200 --> 00:02:37.400 You got rubber grip, which is the only way to go. 00:02:37.400 --> 00:02:40.670 Clearly someone from our inventory has a marked all of them. 00:02:40.670 --> 00:02:43.670 I really can't tell you much without actually trying it out. 00:02:43.670 --> 00:02:47.173 So (finger snaps) see ya right now! Okay. 00:02:47.173 --> 00:02:52.860 I've been using the monogram for a few weeks and I'll tell you about my experiences right after this word from our sponsor, CleanMyMac X. 00:02:52.860 --> 00:02:56.547 clean my Mac X is the all-in-one cleaning and optimization software for your Mac. 00:02:56.547 --> 00:03:00.170 With a simple and easy to use app, you can easily find out dated junk files 00:03:00.170 --> 00:03:04.170 and see what's taking up your valuable storage space. Stay up to date on what apps you have installed 00:03:04.170 --> 00:03:07.870 and what permissions you have, so you know who has access to your webcam and microphone. 00:03:07.870 --> 00:03:11.460 Use Smart-Scan to find and get rid of old cache files. While optimizing your computer, 00:03:11.460 --> 00:03:15.278 it also checks for any potential malware. It natively supports new Apple M1 Macs, 00:03:15.278 --> 00:03:18.290 for a smoother experience. Check out CleanMyMac X today 00:03:18.290 --> 00:03:22.430 and download a free trial by using the link in the video description. Monogram time. 00:03:22.430 --> 00:03:25.740 Oh boy, do I have so much to say about this 00:03:25.740 --> 00:03:30.680 and so little time and I've tried so hard to like list my thoughts in order, 00:03:30.680 --> 00:03:34.460 and I just, I can't, I can't even, it there's. (sighs) 00:03:34.460 --> 00:03:38.120 I've been, I've been emailing them about this for years. We've been going back and forth. 00:03:38.120 --> 00:03:41.537 Oh, by the way before I continue, look, I forgot to do this peel. 00:03:41.537 --> 00:03:45.740 (peeling) All right, it is better. 00:03:45.740 --> 00:03:49.470 They've done a lot of the things I suggested, and they also didn't do a lot of the things 00:03:49.470 --> 00:03:55.193 that I suggested. I don't know. I give it like a 7 out of 10? For context, the Hasu USB keyboard converter 00:03:55.193 --> 00:03:58.640 that this puppy is hooked up to, I give that like a 10 out of 10. 00:03:58.640 --> 00:04:02.210 I give the Stream Deck XL's like a nine, maybe an eight sometimes. 00:04:02.210 --> 00:04:05.380 The Tangent Ripple, this thing is like an 8 out of 10, 00:04:05.380 --> 00:04:08.890 it's fantastic. I use this for color correction all the time. So I've only been using this 00:04:08.890 --> 00:04:13.790 for Premiere and Photoshop, all right? It supports lots of applications. 00:04:13.790 --> 00:04:16.900 They were like really proud that they have, Final Cut 10 support now. 00:04:16.900 --> 00:04:20.780 I don't use Final Cut 10, I've never used it, I can't evaluate it. Okay. We've got the GUI. 00:04:20.780 --> 00:04:24.480 We've got the software itself. We've got the hardware. 00:04:24.480 --> 00:04:28.010 We're going to talk about all those things. The GUI, I don't like it. 00:04:28.010 --> 00:04:31.990 It's this Apple inspired, let's make everything clean 00:04:31.990 --> 00:04:35.950 and simple design philosophy, that I really hate. 00:04:35.950 --> 00:04:39.820 If your product requires settings to get it to really work properly, 00:04:39.820 --> 00:04:46.363 you need to have those settings. And fortunately, what they did do is you can go to, file, 00:04:47.300 --> 00:04:50.980 preferences, and then click here to, advanced, 00:04:50.980 --> 00:04:56.490 and say all the way down here "Enable debugging of module settings via Manual Entry view." 00:04:56.490 --> 00:04:59.700 You can now go into the code sort of, and, 00:04:59.700 --> 00:05:03.170 and tweak things to a degree, that you cannot do with a standard GUI. 00:05:03.170 --> 00:05:08.831 And I will show you that coming up here, but like this feature alone, if you don't know about it, 00:05:08.831 --> 00:05:13.920 I don't think that Monogram is worth it. They haven't optimized it enough to where 00:05:13.920 --> 00:05:18.007 the standard settings are going to be usable enough, 00:05:18.007 --> 00:05:21.660 and there's just all sorts of stuff where if you don't know about it, 00:05:21.660 --> 00:05:25.386 then you're doing yourself a huge disservice and the developers are doing you 00:05:25.386 --> 00:05:29.200 a disservice by not telling you about it, because there's like right now, there's no manual. 00:05:29.200 --> 00:05:32.290 First of all, you can go choose a, a profile that already exists. 00:05:32.290 --> 00:05:36.860 So like, let's say, I want one for Premiere, it comes blank, and then you can put up the list of like, 00:05:36.860 --> 00:05:40.300 there's some pre-made ones and that's nice. It's nice to start from there. That's good. 00:05:40.300 --> 00:05:43.370 All of that works, but then as soon as you start trying 00:05:43.370 --> 00:05:48.050 to actually change stuff, it's really frustrating. So I'm going to click on adjust any property. 00:05:48.050 --> 00:05:52.210 And first of all, this window is too small. This needs to be twice the size. 00:05:52.210 --> 00:05:55.448 So you've got this huge list to scroll through and find stuff, 00:05:55.448 --> 00:05:59.130 and then, (laughing) the options 00:05:59.130 --> 00:06:03.520 are inside the list. Put these options somewhere else. 00:06:03.520 --> 00:06:08.420 Don't put them in the list that I have to scroll through, and especially if I go back to it, 00:06:08.420 --> 00:06:12.710 I'm now scrolled to some other position. It's really annoying. Let's go to customize for this one. 00:06:12.710 --> 00:06:16.800 Look at what I've got here, I've got down and up, but you only know, 00:06:16.800 --> 00:06:22.120 by clicking on it, that there's additional options. Oh, it turns out that's Shift Down, right? 00:06:22.120 --> 00:06:28.459 And this is Shift Up, but why are you hiding these? Show me everything that I'm working with, 00:06:28.459 --> 00:06:33.010 as I'm working with it. Stop hiding (bleep) in your GUI. 00:06:33.010 --> 00:06:36.150 Okay, here's another problem. There's only five settings for sensitivity. 00:06:36.150 --> 00:06:41.490 I told them (laughing) two years ago, there's insufficient granularity. 00:06:41.490 --> 00:06:46.830 I found out through talking to them, that sensitivity 00:06:46.830 --> 00:06:50.240 is actually just events per turn. 00:06:50.240 --> 00:06:54.610 This thing right here, these are orbiter modules. They have two components to them. 00:06:54.610 --> 00:06:59.260 They have the ring around the edge and then have the tilt mechanism in the middle. 00:06:59.260 --> 00:07:05.158 This works similarly to a joystick. The application itself gives me a very nice output 00:07:05.158 --> 00:07:08.530 of what it's doing, and I actually have this where 00:07:08.530 --> 00:07:13.450 you can see some of them will snap depending on the settings. 00:07:13.450 --> 00:07:17.290 And this one snaps all the way to the X and Y. 00:07:17.290 --> 00:07:22.310 So that's kind of cool. It is Tilt Mode. Now the ring around the edge, 00:07:22.310 --> 00:07:26.270 how the sensitivity works, is there's 240 events 00:07:26.270 --> 00:07:30.860 per full rotation. The high corresponds to a nine, 00:07:30.860 --> 00:07:34.387 and then the, the low sensitivity is a five, but those numbers are meaningless. 00:07:34.387 --> 00:07:38.400 Here's the real numbers. Low sensitivity on the Orbiter Ring, 00:07:38.400 --> 00:07:41.736 is actually 15 events per full rotation. 00:07:41.736 --> 00:07:45.810 The next one is 30, the next one is 60, the next one is 120, 00:07:45.810 --> 00:07:49.720 and finally up here at the top at high, that's 240. 00:07:49.720 --> 00:07:53.393 And that means that if you're doing color correction and what you want is maximum sensitivity, 00:07:53.393 --> 00:07:56.600 and then you want to change another setting. 00:07:56.600 --> 00:08:00.600 The step, I can change that all the way up to a 50. 00:08:00.600 --> 00:08:04.810 You actually have access through the manual entry that I showed you how to do, 00:08:04.810 --> 00:08:08.405 to much finer control, and this is so important. 00:08:08.405 --> 00:08:12.440 What you want is like step 0.7. 00:08:12.440 --> 00:08:16.200 That's the amount that will be added to whatever variable it is, 00:08:16.200 --> 00:08:20.660 per rotation or tilt or something. 00:08:20.660 --> 00:08:26.279 There's oh, I wish I could, I wish I could summarize this better for you guys. Latency, latency is a big problem. 00:08:26.279 --> 00:08:30.037 Let me show you a simple test. Photoshop, let's open that up. 00:08:30.037 --> 00:08:34.974 I can change the brush size by moving this module here, 00:08:34.974 --> 00:08:38.580 but you can see that the delay 00:08:38.580 --> 00:08:42.123 between me moving this, and it actually changing on screen, 00:08:42.123 --> 00:08:45.760 is quite significant. Remember how slow and laggy 00:08:45.760 --> 00:08:49.733 the zoom was on the Loupedeck? Look at how slow and laggy it is! 00:08:49.733 --> 00:08:53.360 Well, guess what? You know, I think it's a little better here, 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:57.860 but it's not great. And again, compare that to my own 00:08:57.860 --> 00:09:02.390 personal AutoHotkey script, that does it instantaneously with the mouse, 00:09:02.390 --> 00:09:07.000 and you'll see that that's what this device should be doing. 00:09:07.000 --> 00:09:10.145 Now here's the thing, I told them about this, and they said, 00:09:10.145 --> 00:09:17.197 "Ah yes, we know. We've been working with Adobe for the last 10 months on this UXP plugin, 00:09:17.197 --> 00:09:20.940 which is due to be released," they said, late summer. 00:09:20.940 --> 00:09:24.910 And they sent me a video of significantly better 00:09:24.910 --> 00:09:28.180 performance in Photoshop. And I think that's great. 00:09:28.180 --> 00:09:32.220 There's some other things where, for example, a changing brush size. 00:09:32.220 --> 00:09:38.108 That needs to be exponential. Really, it's just going one pixel at a time, 00:09:38.108 --> 00:09:41.970 reducing the diameter. That's not how it should be. 00:09:41.970 --> 00:09:47.550 It needs to be exponential, and that is what they did in the UXP plugin. 00:09:47.550 --> 00:09:52.110 So this will be better. Also, the zoom is not exponential 00:09:52.110 --> 00:09:55.530 and it needs to be, and that's what they ended up doing. Let me show you one other thing 00:09:55.530 --> 00:09:59.260 that's disappointing about the software or hardware, I don't know. It stutters. 00:09:59.260 --> 00:10:02.470 This is something that they said they have not seen before, 00:10:02.470 --> 00:10:06.701 but like, this is actually a pretty big problem. I'm going to move my hand very slowly 00:10:06.701 --> 00:10:10.031 and as evenly as I can, and you can see, 00:10:10.031 --> 00:10:14.043 see that? There is a stutter that should not be happening. 00:10:14.043 --> 00:10:18.060 I was using this to jog around in Premiere 00:10:18.060 --> 00:10:21.910 and it was really great. The only job controlled better, 00:10:21.910 --> 00:10:25.040 is the one on the Logitech craft keyboard, because of the stuttering, 00:10:25.040 --> 00:10:29.270 it's still not good enough. There's a lot of work that they can do to improve their application. 00:10:29.270 --> 00:10:32.670 For example, next and previous profile. Why do I only have those options? 00:10:32.670 --> 00:10:35.970 I should be able to target a specific profile that I want to go to. 00:10:35.970 --> 00:10:40.030 Guess what? The Tangent Ripple allows me to do that. Searching through presets is different 00:10:40.030 --> 00:10:43.046 from searching through customized, and if you really want to like, find specific stuff, 00:10:43.046 --> 00:10:47.591 you want to search through customize. What I'm going to do is, search for a transition, 00:10:47.591 --> 00:10:51.740 and you're about to see how dumb this is, where, 00:10:51.740 --> 00:10:55.270 oh my gosh. Like, first of all, look at how huge the menu is! And it's so tiny. 00:10:55.270 --> 00:10:58.370 I can't see anything! Okay, we've got apply video transition 00:10:58.370 --> 00:11:01.700 to both ends of clips. Apply video transition to ends of clips. 00:11:01.700 --> 00:11:06.376 Apply video transition to front of clips, and apply video transition. 00:11:06.376 --> 00:11:10.650 (laughing) And every single one of them has the entire menu 00:11:10.650 --> 00:11:13.730 of every single transition. 00:11:13.730 --> 00:11:17.210 Why, why Monogram? You make that a separate setting, 00:11:17.210 --> 00:11:21.536 don't make it in the menus. That's dumb. And there's all sorts of stuff like that. 00:11:21.536 --> 00:11:24.630 I'm not perfect. (laughing) 00:11:24.630 --> 00:11:29.920 If you take a look at this GUI, that I designed for them like two years ago, 00:11:29.920 --> 00:11:34.130 I emailed this to them and they're like, "Well we're not sure what problem this is supposed to solve." 00:11:34.130 --> 00:11:37.390 And I look at it now, and I'm like, what the (bleep) was I thinking? It's horrifying, 00:11:37.390 --> 00:11:42.833 and I'm so glad that they didn't do it, but it has all of those controls laid out for you, 00:11:42.833 --> 00:11:48.080 where you can see everything, and affect a lot more than they currently have. 00:11:48.080 --> 00:11:52.007 I recommended that they have the ability for pressing a button 00:11:52.007 --> 00:11:56.127 and for pressing and turning a button, to do different things, 00:11:56.127 --> 00:12:00.460 and they did it! They did it! Click on a dial and go to customize 00:12:00.460 --> 00:12:04.720 and check it out. We've got turn, press and turn, and then just press. 00:12:04.720 --> 00:12:07.860 What else have we got? Low sensitivity on that, Dial turn yes. 00:12:07.860 --> 00:12:13.330 - [Brandon] Taron, how long is this video going to be? - I, I told you my, my thoughts on this are so scattered. 00:12:13.330 --> 00:12:16.850 There's so much, there's so much I haven't even gotten to, and I've been renting for like an hour. 00:12:16.850 --> 00:12:20.300 I'm sorry! The Adobe API sucks. 00:12:20.300 --> 00:12:24.480 Okay. And with so many of the problems that I'm encountering with this, 00:12:24.480 --> 00:12:28.600 it's because it's not supported in the Adobe Premiere Pro, 00:12:28.600 --> 00:12:32.510 API. And there's only so much that the Monogram developers 00:12:32.510 --> 00:12:37.493 can do to get around it. I've been in the API, I've seen just how much stuff is missing. 00:12:37.493 --> 00:12:40.810 Like I told, I told the Palette Gear, now Monogram guys, 00:12:40.810 --> 00:12:43.920 two years ago, please have the option, 00:12:43.920 --> 00:12:50.910 to turn a track off and to turn a track on, like to activate the track. 00:12:50.910 --> 00:12:55.166 They still don't have it, because it's not in the API. The API only has 00:12:55.166 --> 00:12:59.750 (finger snapping) toggle, right? So you don't know if your track is on or off. 00:12:59.750 --> 00:13:03.495 There's no good solution other than, let's just wait and hope that Adobe makes their API better. 00:13:03.495 --> 00:13:07.472 And because the Monogram supports so many applications, 00:13:07.472 --> 00:13:12.410 their developers are spread thin, and there's just a lot that they don't know about. 00:13:12.410 --> 00:13:16.299 They don't know how it should work in certain applications. How can you screw up ripple deletes? 00:13:16.299 --> 00:13:20.550 Oh my gosh, what happened?! I'm in a different sequence now. 00:13:20.550 --> 00:13:24.380 They've probably tested it with only one sequence open and they thought, oh, it's great! 00:13:24.380 --> 00:13:27.725 It works. Pack it and ship it. Every single function that 00:13:27.725 --> 00:13:32.798 they have in here needs to be closely examined by a developer to see 00:13:32.798 --> 00:13:36.830 how should this work, where should the bounds be? If it's on a slider, you know, 00:13:36.830 --> 00:13:40.470 where should the minimum and maximum be? Should it be logarithmic? Should it not be? 00:13:40.470 --> 00:13:43.510 Should there be an acceleration? Should there not be, right? 00:13:43.510 --> 00:13:48.018 It really, really depends. Like a Photoshop brush, it has to be logarithmic. 00:13:48.018 --> 00:13:52.470 (record scratches) - [Future Taron] Hello, future Taron here doing the edit. This lack of optimization and tuning, 00:13:52.470 --> 00:13:57.350 on the Monogram functions is why it's so important for the software to have more 00:13:57.350 --> 00:14:02.400 and clearer customization options. Now you might think that the manual entry mode, 00:14:02.400 --> 00:14:05.670 allows you to use any options you want, but that's not true. 00:14:05.670 --> 00:14:09.537 Even for the stuff I know the code for, the input validation is so extreme, 00:14:09.537 --> 00:14:14.160 it sometimes doesn't even allow you to do it. For example, let's try to change a color here, 00:14:14.160 --> 00:14:18.570 nope, you can't. You're only allowed to use one of these preselected 14 colors. 00:14:18.570 --> 00:14:24.570 They say they're going to fix that, but I'm still worried about other stuff. What if I want to turn sensitivity of 7.5? 00:14:24.570 --> 00:14:28.960 Check and save. Nope. What if you want to change the acceleration curve? 00:14:28.960 --> 00:14:33.090 Well, you can't, I don't know if there's any code for that at all. And again, there's no manual right now. 00:14:33.090 --> 00:14:36.323 What if you want a different value in the middle of a slider versus the beginning and end? 00:14:36.323 --> 00:14:39.960 Well, there's no option for that either. - I still like it. 00:14:39.960 --> 00:14:42.980 There's still a lot of can do. My suggestion for you will be, 00:14:42.980 --> 00:14:46.690 if you're thinking about buying this, go to the website 00:14:46.690 --> 00:14:50.160 and look through the manuals for the different applications, 00:14:50.160 --> 00:14:53.970 that doesn't exist yet, but they tell me that there will be manuals. 00:14:53.970 --> 00:14:59.610 That's important because if there's certain things that you need to be able to do with a control surface, 00:14:59.610 --> 00:15:03.050 and they're not in there, you shouldn't buy it. Right? 00:15:03.050 --> 00:15:08.160 And I would say, if you're thinking about getting this for color correction in Premiere, don't. 00:15:08.160 --> 00:15:11.860 I still think the Tangent Ripple is, is a much better experience 00:15:12.910 --> 00:15:16.500 just because it uses tracker balls. - Hi, future Taron, again. 00:15:16.500 --> 00:15:19.910 Now to present their side, they thought about doing tracker balls, 00:15:19.910 --> 00:15:23.645 they decided not to. Here are some emails from our back and forth. 00:15:23.645 --> 00:15:27.590 It's much easier to hold consistent pressure and direction on Orbiter than it is to continuously 00:15:27.590 --> 00:15:32.650 move a tracker ball at a constant velocity. That's true. The orbiter modules are definitely usable 00:15:32.650 --> 00:15:36.230 for color correction. I just, I really still prefer the tracker balls. 00:15:36.230 --> 00:15:39.430 You might be able to get used to it, I still haven't. - [Taron] By the way, 00:15:39.430 --> 00:15:44.707 there's one more thing that you might not realize at first, you can't just put this together any way you want. 00:15:44.707 --> 00:15:48.074 Like you can't put this here, It will not work because 00:15:48.074 --> 00:15:51.476 the, the little connectors are only on one side. 00:15:51.476 --> 00:15:57.240 Because it's compatible with the old pallet gear stuff, you actually could do something like this 00:15:57.240 --> 00:16:00.349 and then make that work. 00:16:00.349 --> 00:16:03.580 That'll work, but, 00:16:03.580 --> 00:16:08.160 it's just not it's not quite as modular as you might expect, so just be careful about that too. 00:16:08.160 --> 00:16:11.690 I want to like this product so much more than I do. 00:16:11.690 --> 00:16:15.806 I still give it like 7 out of 10. I think it's going to be, 00:16:15.806 --> 00:16:19.590 and it already is pretty great for some stuff, 00:16:19.590 --> 00:16:23.271 but like, it really depends. It needs more work. They should hire me as a consultant. 00:16:23.271 --> 00:16:26.460 Despite the issues, there's still a lot of cool things 00:16:26.460 --> 00:16:32.140 you can do with it. It's pretty damn good, but it should be better. 00:16:32.140 --> 00:16:35.680 A lot of that is on Adobe though at this point, unfortunately. 00:16:35.680 --> 00:16:37.123 Thanks for watching. 00:16:39.190 --> 00:16:41.823 Subscribe to Short Circuits.