Contour Multimedia Controller Xpress | Ergonomic Jog Dial
Contour Multimedia Controller Xpress | Ergonomic Jog Dial for Video Music Image Editor | USB Multimedia controller for PC and Mac | 5 buttons | 7 Speed Jog Ring – Black
 |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Weight | 0,14 kg | 0,26 kg |
| Dimensions | 11 cm x 11 cm x 3 cm | 19,7 cm x 11 cm x 3 cm |
| Programmable buttons | 5 | 15 |
| OS | OSX & Windows | OSX & Windows |
| Connection | USB | USB |
| Driver | Available on Driver-page | Available on Driver-page |
| Plug-and-play | Driver needed | Driver needed |
| Macro | No | Yes |
| Weight: | 140 g |
| Dimensions: | 11 x 11 x 3 cm; 140 Grams |
| Brand: | Contour |
| Model: | 7000-ED |
| Colour: | Black |
| Batteries Included: | No |
| Manufacture: | Contour Design |
| Dimensions: | 11 x 11 x 3 cm; 140 Grams |
Feels really good under the hand. Easy to add custom labels. I use it with DaVinci Resolve18 and it makes my workflow easier and faster. Wish I’d bought it a long time ago.
It’s cheap. Does the job. And it works. The software is a bit of a pain and the rest isn’t great for me personally, however the nice feature is it comes with a sheet of pop out words to put in the buttons. Handy little touch there.
The software however is very old and I’m concerned by the lack of updates it receives. The application detection works fine for most things, but with newer (and stupid) UWP apps you can expect some issues as they don’t have a standalone .exe executable file which the Contour software needs to be pointed at. UWP apps (mostly things you download from the MS store) use a wrapper process that the software can’t detect on a per-app basis. Blame Microsoft for that, but I’m sure there is a workaround and I don’t see any movement from Contour on fixing it. Setting up specific settings for every single app you use is a pain, but once it’s done it’s done. For example, opening/closing/switching tabs in Chrome, jumping to the search box etc. is all a breeze once you take the time to set it up (and you don’t even need to look down at the keyboard like you would with hotkeys), and while the software does have default setups for popular apps there’s no onscreen display or anything so you’re best off setting it up yourself in a way that makes sense to you, instead of learning someone else’s profile. It is *effort* to get this thing working for you, and a certain amount of muscle memory has to be built up before it becomes truly useful.
TLDR;
If you need something to streamline workflow and that feels pretty damn nice to use (and kinda futuristic) then go for it. If you can’t think of a use for 15 extra keys/macros you can use instantly without looking at your keyboard, a spinny wheel and a rotatey thing, you don’t need it. But it will still make your desk look cool. It’s quite an old device now and software updates seem few and far between, I don’t know if a v3 is coming but be warned, this may be as good as it gets.
Price paid, 89.99. It has been around since 2015 but has maintained approx. the same price throughout. I’m happy enough.
Great addition to my home video editing suite. The primary reason for purchase was the scroll wheels for use with Davinci Resolve and I debated between this and its cheaper sibling and I’d neither the financial resources nor desk space for Loupedeck or Blackmagic kit. In the end I opted for this having the few extra programmable buttons which, along with a multi button Logitech gaming mouse, gives me a fantastic array of tools without going near menus or keyboard constantly at my fingertips, being a lefty I’ve mouse in left hand and shuttlePRO under my right. I reconfigured from the default Davinci configuration very slightly and its taking a little time to remember the button functions without reference to the labelling, especially if I’ve not edited for a week or too (only do amateur home video so not using frequently). I am pleased I went for this over its cheaper sibling as the extra buttons are a real benefit.
Build quality seems great and the ergonomics perfect for me. The software is spot on, once you’ve configured it for the focus application it flawlessly switches as you bring the application forward, (my gaming mouse seems a little temperamental on this score). All in all, its the best video editing aid since getting Davinci Resolve, I highly recommend this device, its probably equally useful for audio suites and other video editors.
I’m using a Windows 11 desktop machine with, as you will have read, Davinci Resolve, easy setup and zero issues
This was fiddly to set up and I had to find tutorials on the internet, but after altering my udev rules I could use this in kdenlive to move through video files.
This is a plain vanilla but reasonably priced product. You don’t get a milled steel bearing supported spinnable steel control wheel which when flicked spins smoothly for 10 seconds. You do get a solidly made shuttle control which with research and trial and practise will make video and audio editing easier and faster.
Programming it is simple but you need to delve into your softwares quirks to get the best.
I really would recommend it for those who don’t expect perfection out of the box and who are prepared to make an effort which will pay off in the short to medium term.
This fits in my hand very well. I use it for video editing with Davinci Resolve. Having quick access to all my favourite shortcuts in my left hand, and navigating round with the mouse in my right hand seems to speed up the whole process for me. The dial works perfectly moving through footage frame by frame and the jog wheel works reasonably well scrubbing through.
Need to explore how I can use this in other applications because the software can be configured differently for different applications.
This product has saved me so much time and effort! I do audio editing in Studio One (although any DAW should be the same) and this has saved me so much work. I can edit a whole podcast without the keyboard at all – just the ShuttlePro V2 and mouse. I changed a few buttons functions (which was very easy) and BOOM! It just sits there saving time and energy. I use it for music and podcasts, and it is just so easy to use. As I said above, why has it taken me so long to find this? I can see the same would be true for video editing… a really, really helpful product which I highly recommend
Once I worked out how to set this up (watching many youtube clips) I really like what you can do with it it. Now it is all set up it works really well and simplifies my workflow. The only negative is that the software to configure it is difficult to use and not very intuitive.
if it wasnt for the uptodate software having problems, then this would have 5 stars.
I wanted this for video editing, BUT, as they are programmable buttons, i used it to replace a G-13 controller. However the software kept sending “num lock” on programmed buttons. Sadly this wasnt a new problem and has people complaining about it. So the solution was to find the previous version of the software, and it works fine.
Just a shame contour couldnt be bothered to fix it.
I also had some issues with the beta driver they recommended.. so it was all a bit unnecessary at first. I think my story was perhaps a little unusual, since I haven’t found anyone else complaining about teething troubles… but here’s the main thing…
Contour were just fabulous! – I was given such good customer service! – they sent me a new one straight away just because the paper inserts had been omitted from the previous (which may have not even been their fault) and then they sent me a mail with a step by step guide to quickly get it up and running with Big Sur. It was easy in the end – and now my ShuttlePRO v2 is up and running and it totally enables me to edit video faster.
I’m not sure I’m really going to need its functionality in Photoshop or Lightroom – even though I use both apps frequently. I’m a huge keyboard shortcut user anyway and I have a Logitech MX Master 3, a Wacom tablet and a Elgato Stream Deck already on my desk which are all configured to aid my workflow on creative projects. But we’ll see here – perhaps there is a place for it in some of the other apps it delivers to in time.
The main use of the ShuttlePro for me is to navigate the timeline, zoom in and out and do some of the more frequent tasks when video editing without having to dart around the keyboard as much.
So I’m right handed – and I use the ShuttlePro with my left hand, and my mouse on the right – and this seems to be the most ergonomic solution for me. I still hit a lot of keyboard shortcuts too – but less often – so it’s definitely faster for me overall…
I haven’t got into the depths of using macros and stuff yet perhaps I will expand into this as I get better.
While I’ve got a the tools for photography (Loupedeck and Intous Pro tablet) I’ve always found video editing to be a chore that frustrated me to the point of giving up repeatedly.
I stumbled across this product by going down a YouTube rabbit hole; and can honestly say its changed my life, I now enjoy editing video as much as photographs.
Its sturdily built with good tactile feedback and crazy amounts of customisation with the control surface itself. Used in conjunction with the Loupedeck and I can’t see any need to upgrade to a full control surface for any amateu
I brought this for Premiere and after effects at first it would not reasign the functions but I reinstalled it and found that it worked well. The odd thing is that if I changed the buttons in premiere pro nothing happens however if I changed the premiere elements settings it worked for CS5 premiere pro.
I bought to use with Cubase 10. The set up was a bit fiddly, partly my fault as I assigned the wrong key commands. But the manual implies the tray icon shows the name of the application/profile in use but doesn’t in my experience.
The build quality doesn’t really fit with the price, I’d expect it to be more like 50 for this quality. It’s not logitech quality.
The software to configure profiles works, but it isn’t great. A small dialog box with drop down menus, why not a big full screen application?
Not one to rave unnecessarily, but this is probably the best money I have spend on an editing accessory for Premiere Pro.
Initiallu a keyboard editor, I wasn’t sure if I could adapt to using this product. However it has become an indesspensible part of my daily editing usage, and an extension of my left hand! The most useful ferature I find is the frame by frame shuttle wheel – which has a great feel to it when you need to get frame accurate.
Absolutely don’t hesitate. This is superb! (and I have not been paid to rave about this product!)
I bought this primarily to help ease my audio and video editing workflows in Adobe CC on PC, specifically the 2020 suite. Whilst I eventually got this to work the way I wanted to it wasn’t an out of the box solution like they’d have you believe.
The profile list in the device control panel holds a nasty surprise for Premiere Pro users especially – the software seems unable to distinguish between Elements and Pro and because it appears to work on matching the EXE filenames for the profiles. Elements and Pro’s EXE files must either be named the same or very similar because the solution to my problem was to delete the Premiere Elements profile, then the Premier Pro Capture profile before being able to make use of the Premiere Pro Edit profile. Even then I had to edit that to get it exactly how I wanted (the scrub functions were not what I was expecting from the shuttle and jog wheels so I had to edit the configuration).
To be honest I’d recommend you delete all the Premiere profiles and create your own. The control panel supports this in a not too simple way to use (would have been nice if the profiles were stored in a format you could edit in a text editor, like XML) but you can do it.
That said now I have it working how I want it’s doing the job nicely. My only other issue now is that I’ve realised I want more functions at my fingertips so I’m now seriously eyeing this thing’s larger sibling.
Minus one star for the hassle, but a steady 4 stars because it is value for money.
I purchased the Contour Design ShuttleXpress – Black (5 buttons and 2 wheels) to replace the multimedia functions (PLAY, PAUSE,STOP, VOL UP/DOWN, ETC) that require multiple key strokes on my PC keyboard.
I wanted INSTANT and dedicated buttons to mute, turn the volume up etc. I looked at various (cheaper price and cheaper looking) USB volume switches, however after reading another review I purchased the Contour Design ShuttleXpress.
The Contour Design ShuttleXpress is very well made, matte balck in colour and the buttons are high quality. The buttons (5) make a small ‘click’ sound when pressed. My impression is this will last for many years.
One slightly confusing point reagrding the software should be noted. The software knows the application that currently has your focus and transparently set the buttons (and wheels) to the setting for that software. So, for example if you move from the Windows dsktop to Adobe Acrobat Reader, the buttons are changed to those in the profile for Adobe Acrobat Reader. No user intervention is needed this is a seemles change and instant.
Becuase I wanted consistent key functions (PLAY, PAUSE, VOL UP etc) across all the software I use, I needed to update the supplied ‘GLobal Settings’ profile that you download and use with Contour Design ShuttleXpress.. I set my 5 buttons to PLAY/PAUSE, BACK TRACK, MUTE, FWD TRACK, STOP (Escape in my case). The Shuttle Wheel was set to VOL UP/DOWN and the Jog Wheel set to Fast FWD/REV.
Keep in mind that some multimedia buttons are a function of the software you use (although things like MUTE, VOL UP/DOWN etc tend to be standard).
In addition the software (you download it from the Contour Design homepage) also allows you to modify the supplied profiles for various software products (there are 100+ provided when you install the driver/sotware).
Overall I’m giving the Contour Design ShuttleXpress 5/5 starts becuase its perfect for my needs.
P.S. I note that the Contour Design ShuttleXpress has been in production for many 10+ years and virtually unchanged. There is a more advanced model however is you are lookign to add some dedicated buttions the Contour Design ShuttleXpress is more than adaquate becuase you effectively have 5 Buttons + 2 Jog and 2 Shuttle (thus 9 ‘buttons’).
Highly recommended, I wish I bought one years ago! APA July 2020
All that was necessary was to program 4 functions:
* Fullscreen Youtube (F11) – Right middle button
* Play / Stop – (Space) – Left middle button
* Timeline Back (left keyboard arrow) – Left wheel
* Timeline Forward (right keyboard arrow)
The wheel function can be used to retain a single speed, or to speed up incrementally the further you turn the wheel. I set mine to a single speed since I only need to job back 10 seconds at most in the majority of situations.
Software installation was a breeze and although ‘Bare bones’ it doesn’t need to be anything else. It’s simple and functional. Just make sure to have your system open the software upon boot if you want it to be ready to use.
This device has helped me learn piano so much more effectively. I’m a graphic designer and content producer by trade, though I haven’t ventured into using this for anything else and don’t see the need to. the option is potentially there for anyone else though – particularly those people involved in media. I’d imagine it will work just fine with the Adobe CC suite.
My only 2 gripes iare that the wheel is very shallow and therefore a distance from optimal. Jog wheels usually have a fair bit of height as resemble a heavy, old school, hifi volume knob. On this device however, streamline, modern design appears to take priority. Next, I’d have liked more surface area for my palm to rest rather than reaching downwards upon it in a claw like fashion. This of course is rectified with the premium model…whichadmitedly, I am considering.
Overall, highly recommended!
The setup I found not at all intuitive, but the Jog & Shuttle is invaluable. You will need to spend some time assigning the button functions for your specific program if the pre-assigned ones dont suit your purpose. The software setup is a bit clunky – it basically switches to operate with whatever the active window is (which it calls its focus) and comes with operational formats for a whole range of Windows programs so if you switch from say Premiere to Word it will follow you and start to work with Word. Fair enough but it is not a dedicated controller for any one program. You will still need a mouse, but this will seriously speed up some key operations like go to start, go to end of clip, mark in, mark out etc. The jog and shuttle dial is brilliant for scrubbing through timelines and makes located a particular frame very easy
It comes with no drivers or instructions, both of which have to be downloaded from their customer support forum. The software should be installed before plugging the ShuttlePro in. It sort of works but the standard configurations do not suit my workflow and both Lightroom and Photoshop had to be changed. I found that in some cases the changes to the existing configuration would show as being saved but the old action would play. The only way I could get around this when it happened was to make a small macro and run that instead. Also when editing the standard settings the keyboard would stop working and it was necessary to reboot the computer a couple of times.
The really annoying thing though is that when I’m using Lightroom it defaults to an older version of LR with different commands. The two versions of LR appear in the dropdown menu in the taskbar but I cannot get it to change. Once I have figured out how I want to use all of the buttons then I plan to overwrite the older LR with the same commands as the new one.
In use it works most of the time but not always and sometimes I have to use the mouse to click on a selection or layer to get it working again. However when it works, which so far has been about 90% of the time, it does help. It isn’t possible to do sme things like changing a brush opacity and flow as there is no way I can find of emulation the combination of keyboard strokes and mouse action required. The support forum seems to have many questions but few answers.
Other solutions I have looked at have been much more expensive and so I am giving this 4 stars based on value for money as well as functionality.
I bought this as a replacement for using my mouse to move the Lightroom/Photoshop/Nik Software sliders up/down/left/right. It has made me pay WAY more attention to the photo I’m editing rather than; how far my mouse has moved, if I’ve veered off-course and not properly moving the slider, my mouse-movement of my hand compared to the pixel-movement it has made on screen (by way of poor mouse optics or mouse pad feed back), and so on…
I have become more creative then before (split toning is much easier!), and editing has become more enjoyable because of it. Totally worth the spend, albeit 10-15 too much for what it is (IMO).
Fair warning, the software can be a bit of a pain to work if you have antivirus that blocks it. Immediately add it’s program files directory to the ‘ignore’ list.
I use it with Adobe Premiere Pro.
I’ve found it to be a great asset when editing. It’s much more efficient than the keyboard for having your commonly used shortcuts (you may want to play around with it quite a bit and test it out with a project.) I changed a few things around the more I used it.
The program detection isn’t great, there were 2 presets for Premiere Pro and 1 for Elements – it always applied the elements preset when working in Pro which was a bit of a pain, so I ended up deleting it.
It then applied the Premiere Pro preset I hadn’t modified, so I also deleted that.
WINDOWS 10 USERS: In order for the device to work properly, the icon for the shuttlexpress software has to remain visible in the taskbar. To do this, right-click on your taskbar and click ‘Settings’. Then select the option ‘Select which icons appear on the taskbar’. From here, find the option for ‘Shuttle Device Helper Application’ and switch it ON. This should fix the problems.
ADOBE PREMIERE CC USERS: You might notice that the device isn’t doing the things you’ve mapped it to. This is because for some reason the software detects Premiere CC as Premiere Express, and so the mappings are incorrect. To fix this, click once on the shuttlexpress icon in your taskbar and select ‘Adobe Premiere CC Edit’ from the list. This should force it it behave better.
Makes activities more efficient on my MacBookPro at the click of a button or the twist of a dial. Just remember that the principal of this is assigning keyboard shortcuts to the buttons or wheels, so if it isn’t possible to do an action on your computer with a keyboard shortcut, then this won’t work magic for you – don’t blame this device. Do your research first – for example, i wanted to use this to have a master control of all volume (regardless if i was in YouTube, or iTunes etc) however the program associated with my audio interface does not have keyboard shortcuts so it won’t work, but i have found some happy compromises within the individual programs. It doesn’t look like it works with the mac keyboard function key shortcuts either (i.e. F10, F11 & F12 for volumes) Maybe some 3rd party apps would introduce some keyboard shortcuts but i’m not inconvenienced enough yet to explore. I mainly use this for iTunes and zooming in and out in programs but it has a lot more potential for Cubase and Photoshop that i’m yet to exploit and in conjunction with some automated workflow tools (such as Automator on the Mac) you could make some really cool stuff happen assigned to the buttons or wheels – but then again you can also do with a keyboard.
This really is a useful device. Compared to all the other fancy 3D controllers it is cheap and effective. It can be easily configured to work with any program, and templates are available online for most common apps.
Basically all the controller operations are mapped to mouse or keyboard clicks; it is this that defines and limits what the controller can do.
It works best in apps where the jog wheel and shuttle wheel do something intuitive, like editing video and audio. I bought it to use with SDR (Software Defined Radio) apps like HD-SDR where using a mouse can be a pain.
Tried it with AutoCad which is OK but I couldn’t get it to do a smooth zoom in/out with the wheel.
It does pretty much what you’d expect. It adds a number of programmable buttons, a jog wheel and a shuttle ring that can be turned clockwise or anti-clockwise to 7 different extents. All functions can be programmed including the shuttle ring positions and transitions (e.g. execute one action when going to position 1 left and then execute something else as long as the ring stays in that position).
Having used it on both Windows and Mac I’d say the software is just a little bit more advanced and intuitive on the Apple platform as well as being bundled with more pre-created profiles. Both platforms were lacking the latest Adobe CC apps but these could easily be cloned from CS5/6. Be careful with the Mac driver though – you must download the correct one for your version of OSX. It took 3 or 4 complete system crashes before I realised I’d installed the wrong version of the driver – it’s not very clearly labelled on the web site. It’s also worth checking their support forum as it has links to slightly newer drivers than the download page.
I bought this for use with Final Cut Pro X . And I am very pleased with the way the shuttle pro integrates seamlessly with it.the product came with a cd , but the software on it was out of date and I recommend going to their web site and downloading the latest drivers and instruction book.
The thing that surprised me was just how many different template settings for other software come with the latest update,it cover many media creation apps like logic, Ableton live etc. but I had not expected it to have any use in things like safari, mail ,contacts , chrome etc.etc.. But it does, and the very clever aspect is you do not have do any switching to make it work with each app, it does it automatically, so if you have several programs open at the same time it automatically adapts to which ever window you have live at that moment….very neat!
It is also very easy to modify any of the button’s actions to suit your own preferences.
Overall, I’m very happy with the purchase.
I also use a silicon keyboard overlay with all the shortcuts for Final Cut Pro X (Kbcovers) which is brilliant and well worth the investment.
The Contour ShuttleXpress has — let me be clear about this since it is a consumer product — TWO dials. One, the single finger one, can function as fine adjustments back and forth, say frame by frame. The ribbed dial is spring-loaded are more suitable for moving large distances, say to the previous 5 bars of a song.
Build quality? Excellent. Almost flat, so no problems with ergonomy. Also, this one will last. Well built.
The software is excellent, and there is a large community on the web site for creating extra presets for new apps and discussing innovative new uses so YOU don’t have to. No worries though, it ships with templates for enough apps that the dropdown fills my large screen. Some of the apps I haven’t even heard of, and i have used a Mac since 1986.
Speaking of Mac, it works equally well with a PC.
Have I mentioned the programmable buttons? There are 5 of them, and some of them duplicate the transport controls on my Keyboard, so I just reassigned them. You can assign them to pretty much everything you can think of.
The driver automagically switches to an application’s jog shuttle settings once you are in it, so no fiddling around. Set it up once by installing the drivers and then plugging it in, perhaps tune the response speed to your liking and you are DONE.
Get the latest drivers for Windows and OS X here:
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Having used a Griffin Powermate for many years, I decided I needed more buttons. I first looked at the 3DConnexion products, but was shocked by the prices. Instead I bought the ShuttleXpress, and I am not disappointed! It has become so indispensable in every application that I am going to buy another to use at home. It is VERY easy to program and is perfectly reliable (the Griffin Powermate often wouldn’t start up on my work’s Dell PC, and sometimes would stop functioning altogether).
I use the Shuttle Xpress to control Adobe Illustrator (dial = zoom in/out, buttons = fit artboard to window, switch preview/outline mode, selection tool / direct selection tool, etc.), Adobe Photoshop, Adobe FrameMaker, Blender 3D, and loads more. Note that although Blender is a 3D design program, I’ve never felt any need to ‘fly’ through scenes, so nearly all of 3D Connexion’s marketing hype for their Space Navigator products is irrelevant to me. The Shuttle Xpress buttons can take me straight to front/left/right/top/camera views, and the dial(s) zoom me in/out, and that’s all that’s really needed when designing 3D models.
The ShuttleXpress works in any package that accepts keyboard commands (almost everything), and by default it acts as a wonderfully smooth and natural scroll up/down wheel in browsers and MS Word etc, which means you don’t need to grind away on your mouse wheel. This device really does speed up the way you work, and is an absolute bargain compared with the alternatives.
The shuttle was delivered on time and in good condition. I do a lot of wedding video work and this in the short time I have had it, has proved to be well worth the money. It makes both movie and slideshow editing much easier and quicker to perform. I use it in conjunction with a wireless scroll mouse and find for the most part, my keyboard has become almost redundant. I say almost as I still need the keyboard for titling and naming files, etc; My preferred choice of editing software is Sony Vegas, along with Sony DVD Architect and Sony Sound Forge Audio. The control works well with these programs. Would highly recommend this shuttle to others who need a good editing tool, but cant afford the more expensive deck type editing controllers. Its very slim and fits nicely under my left hand while editing. Like other reviewers, I have customized the buttons to suit my own style of editing.
Update! 23.02.2013
Just recently I noticed the ShuttlePro was cutting on and off which I eventually discovered was down to the connecting cable. Today it has packed in completely! Question now is, would Contour supply me with a replacement cable which I could fit myself, as the cable terminates in a small plug to fit the circuit board. If not it would mean having to shell out for a new ShuttlePro! The unit it self is still in good condition and seems a waist to have to throw it away. Moving this unit into place each time for use has for me shown up the only weak point and that is the cable. Otherwise has been a damn good unit, which over time has helped to speed up the editing process. Would still recommend to others!