I'm curious about control surfaces, like e.g. Presonus Faderport 16 (
https://www.thomann.de/se/presonus_faderport_16.htm) . However, I have never really given them much thought before today, so I need your help with understanding and learning the basics. (Yes, I am the curious type)
1. Since I am in Europe, I have browsed Thomanns web store for surfaces (controllers, as they call them), and there are plenty. Some of them list numerous DAW:s on their compatibility list, but Reaper is not on any of them (edit: Reaper IS actually on the list for the Presonus). How do I know if a certain controller works right out of the box with Reaper?
2. Our wonderful community is working hard on "interfaces" and the likes, all in the name of a number of acronyms that mean nothing to me. Is this work being done to extend a certain controller's capabilities, or to establish basic compatibility for many of them? Or somewhere in between?
3. How would you describe the improvment in ergonomics? Do you still have to reach for the mouse and keyboard, or can you do it all from the surface?
4. Do these controllers work like an analouge desk in that you can move faders and turn knobs simultaneously?
5. Since the number of tracks in Reaper (at least for me) will almost always be greater than the number of channels on the controller, how does the mapping from Reaper tracks to surface faders work? What happens when I move tracks around in Reaper?
Please, forgive my ignorance :-)
Thankyou for reading