4
Baby HUI
Bab
y
HUI
Introduction
Baby HUI gives you hands-on control of all of
your DAW’s parameters. Now you can create a fade
with a real fader. Move a HUI fader and your DAW
“makes note” of your action and mirrors it on the
computer screen. Similarly, when you make a fader
move on your screen, Baby HUI’s fader moves, too.
Adjust the pan control by turning one of Baby HUI’s
rotary encoder knobs and the DAW takes care of
the rest. In fact, mouse-clicking is practically a
thing of the past — with Baby HUI, what used to
take multiple mouse-clicks and key combinations can
now be accomplished with the push of a button or
two. You can use Baby HUI’s hands-on controls to
do everything from recording a single track to
adjusting aux send/return levels, automating mixes,
and mixing programs for surround-sound.
Touch-updatable moving faders, rotary and push
encoders, and an ergonomically laid-out control
surface make Baby HUI the logical choice for
returning analog-style control to your digital world.
You can do so much with Baby HUI. It’s a mix
control surface that sets new levels of interactivity
within today’s and tomorrow’s DAW environments —
it will grow with your system, DAW software
upgrades, etc. Baby HUI can greatly improve your
creativity while diminishing your workload and the
repetitive grind of multiple sessions.
General Overview
Baby HUI’s control surface is divided into two
main sections—the Channel Strips Section and the
Master Section. It was designed to look and feel like
a small mixing console, but with one big difference.
No audio actually passes through Baby HUI. Instead,
SIGNAL
SIGNAL
SIGNAL
SIGNAL
SIGNAL
SIGNAL
SIGNAL
SIGNAL
END
BANK SELECT
CHANNEL
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
-
+
-
+
-
+
-
+
-
+
-
+
-
+
-
+
SEND 1
SEND 2
SEND 3
SEND 4
PAN
READ
MUTES
BYPASS/OFF
FADERS
TRANSPORT
MEM LOC
UNDO
WRITE
PANS
TOUCH
SEND LVLS
MIXER
EDIT
SHIFT
REC RDY
REC RDY
REC RDY
REC RDY
REC RDY
REC RDY
REC RDY
REC RDY
BABY
+
0
–
+
0
–
+
0
–
+
0
–
+
0
–
+
0
–
+
0
–
+
0
–
IN
OUT
RTZ
RECORD
PLAY
STOP
FAST FWD
REWIND
MUTE
SOLO
MUTE
SOLO
MUTE
SOLO
MUTE
SOLO
MUTE
SOLO
MUTE
SOLO
MUTE
SOLO
MUTE
SOLO
CHANNEL SECTION
MASTER SECTION
Thank you for choosing Mackie Designs for your
Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) control solution.
Baby HUI™ provides the familiar feel of analog-style
mixing to your DAW environment. But it also
delivers the most complete feature set and software
compatibility of any control surface available today.
The History of HUI™
When Mackie Designs introduced HUI (Human
User Interface) in 1997, it was one of the industry’s
first affordable motorized touch-sensitive fader
controllers available for Digital Audio Workstations
(DAWs). Digidesign
®
was the first to provide support
for HUI with its Pro Tools
®
DAW, and over time
other DAW manufacturers have recognized the value
added by supporting HUI in their software.
Now in 2002, Mackie introduces Baby HUI. As
the name implies, it is a scaled-down version of the
original HUI. Though it doesn’t have as many buttons
and controls as its big brother, it retains the essential
controls that are most useful for tracking and mixing
on a Digital Audio Workstation.
What is a Controller?
One of the big drawbacks of any DAW is having to
use a mouse and keyboard to perform things you
used to do on an analog mixer. Clicking on a visual
representation of a fader and trying to drag the
mouse smoothly in order to achieve an amazing fade-
out is difficult, if not impossible, for many of us.
Likewise, turning a “virtual knob” on a computer
screen just doesn’t cut it for some folks. And that’s why
Mackie Designs created HUI, and now, Baby HUI.
