- Tangent’s new Wave 2 Color Grading Panel Evaluation
- Color Grading Panels In contrast
- Utilizing the Wave2 in Premiere Professional and DaVinci Resolve
When you’re in search of an inexpensive color grading panel then Tangent Wave has an ideal vary of choices that might be simply what you’re in search of.
On this submit I take a hand’s on take a look at considered one of their latest panels, the Wave2, a comply with as much as their now decade-old authentic all-in-one Wave panel. I’ll discuss what it’s prefer to grade on it, how simple it’s to arrange and what it really looks like below your fingers, plus evaluate it to Blackmagic’s equally priced Micro panel.
Because of the staff at Tangent for sending me a evaluate unit to check out.
I’ve beforehand reviewed fairly just a few totally different panels on this weblog which you’ll be able to take a look at in additional element in these posts:
Click on to see full measurement
I’ll shortly structure the panorama of all that Tangent has to supply alongside facet the well-known panels from Blackmagic Design.
The foremost distinction between these two producers is that Blackmagic Design’s solely work with DaVinci Resolve, the place as Tangent’s can drive an entire host of various software program together with DaVinci Resolve, Adobe Premiere, FCPX, Assimilate Scratch, Autodesk Flame and plenty of others.
This can be a present checklist from least costly to costliest*, commensurate with their specs and capabilities:
*As priced on Amazon or B&H on the time of writing.
There are, after all, many different panels obtainable for colorists to select from and this earlier submit walks you thru a lot of them intimately.
Tangent Wave2 Evaluation
Purchase on Amazon International Shops
Tangent initially demonstrated the all new Wave 2 color grading management panel at NAB in 2017 as a prototype alongside facet the then code-named Tsunami (now Arc).
On the time I chatted with Tangent co-founder Andy Knox about these new panels, who had this to say in regards to the Wave2:
The inclusion of shows to label the operate of the 9 tender knobs and 9 tender buttons on the panel is essential to permit the panel to carry out way more features than the variety of bodily controls would in any other case counsel.
A full 12 months later, they had been again at NAB 2018 to disclose the ultimate designs, together with a number of enhancements primarily based on skilled consumer suggestions.
In comparison with the unique Wave1 design the brand new Wave2 has a a lot smaller footprint minimising the quantity of desk area it’s good to use it, and making it far more moveable for on-set use.
The Wave1 additionally used out-dated mechanical pickups, the place because the Wave2, Ripple, Parts and Arc all use optical encoders for sustained correct efficiency over time.
One of many distinctive traits of the Wave1 was how loud and ‘clacky’ the buttons sounded when pressed, because of the hole plastic development.
On the Wave2 the buttons nonetheless do have that particular ‘clack’ sound, slightly than say a quiet rubbery press like on the Parts. Whether or not it’s as loud or clackey because the Wave1, I don’t know, nevertheless it’s nonetheless there.
When you’re already arrange with an present Wave panel you’ll be able to merely swap it out for a Wave2 and your whole software program will proceed to operate accurately as it is going to merely see it as successfully the identical panel.
What do you get?
Within the field is the Tangent Wave2 panel packed in some properly formed foam inserts, which you possibly can simply hold for packing into one thing like the Pelican 1495 laptop computer arduous case, and a good size, 2m USB cable. That’s it, because the panel is USB powered it doesn’t require any energy bricks or additional cables.
On lifting the panel out two issues would possibly instantly strike you.
The very first thing is how mild weight it’s, because of the sturdy however all plastic construct. The opposite is the observe balls falling out onto the ground as you neglect that (just like the Ripple) they’re not locked in.
One way or the other I managed to do that a few occasions while lifting and carrying the unit round, or flipping out the fold-out ft below the unit, which assist to cease it transferring round in your desk and angle it in a extra upright path in direction of the consumer.
It will have been good, as with the Ripple, if Tangent had included a tender carrying case for the balls too, however to be sincere you’re greatest storing the unit in it’s authentic field or in a conveyable arduous case just like the one from Pelican. Anyway, it’s not an enormous deal in any respect, however simply one thing to pay attention to.
The footprint is nearly equivalent to my trusty Wacom Professional Medium pill (model 4), which made it very easy for me to pop on to my (considerably) crowded desk once I wanted it, on high of the Wacom pill.
Holding the Wave2 in a single hand and my 15″ Macbook Professional within the different, you’ll be able to actually really feel how mild it’s when in comparison with one thing I’m very acquainted carrying round with me, so there’s no motive to not take it with you on the go.
Setting Up the Wave2 panel
Establishing the panel to be used with both DaVinci Resolve or Adobe Premiere Professional may be very straight ahead and detailed in these older Wave1 arrange guides:
It’s equivalent to the method of organising a Ripple panel, which I’ve described in nice element on this earlier submit. So bounce over there to discover ways to arrange a Tangent panel in FCPX, Resolve or Premiere after which come again right here to maintain studying.
The method is just about plug and play after setting a desire or two.
When you’re utilizing FCPX it’s properly price downloading the free Commandpost.io plugin which now contains native help for all of Tangent’s panels. Learn the useful consumer information right here too.
It’s price noting that as a result of limitations on Blackmagic Design’s facet, the panel can solely use Resolve’s default structure and may’t be customised to your individual preferences.
I had the Wave2 plugged into my OWC Thunderbolt 2 Dock and it appeared to work simply high-quality all through my testing. I additionally had it straight linked to my 2013 Mac Professional. The ultimate notice of the Tangent Resolve consumer information (above) makes clear that in the event you do join the Wave2 by way of a hub it have to be a powered hub that may ship at the very least 500mA to linked units.
Wave2 Color Grading Controls
As you’ll be able to see the Tangent Wave2 packs numerous management and performance right into a small area. The Tangent web site lists the total controls as:
- 3x Programmable trackerballs with Grasp dials
- Particular person reset buttons for ball and dial
- 2x Further buttons for SHIFT / ALT and so on.
- 9x Programmable buttons
- 9x Programmable knobs with integral push button resets
- 3x Shows to label programmable knobs and buttons
- 9x Programmable operate buttons
- Normal transport controls with jog dial
What you are able to do with these buttons and knobs varies from software to software, however just a few issues stay constant.
The dials above the three crimson tracker balls work because the ‘rings’ that are historically across the exterior of the balls.
These correspond to your Raise, Gamma, Acquire controls (A.Okay.A. Shadows, Mids, Highlights) and your three correlated color wheels. Above every of those are devoted reset buttons for the ‘rings’ and balls. (Circle icons)
These are the identical trackballs and rings as on the Ripple, and have the identical easy traction and accuracy. Evaluating them to the construct high quality of the BMD Micro panel, I appear to recollect the trackerballs having a smoother feeling to them however given how far more the Wave2 delivers of the Micro, I’m not complaining an excessive amount of. To satisfy the identical value level compromises must be made some the place!
The knobs are the identical top quality ones as on the Aspect Kb and really feel nice to work with. Primarily based on the default settings in Premiere Professional you’ll seemingly wish to enhance their sensitivity, so it require much less turns for larger changes, or create a bigger/smaller motion set below the ALT performance. Urgent a knob resets it’s related parameter.
Talking of the ALT performance, urgent this reveals a secondary layer set of controls for every button and knob and so on, which actually helps to increase the variety of controls the panel can work with. In Premiere a few of these defaults embrace shortcuts for copy, paste, paste attributes, or full-screen show.
Having these is absolutely useful though in Premiere Professional you would possibly wish to add a button for ‘by-pass grade’ to the highest layer set of controls, as an alternative of getting to press two buttons directly. Properly, in the event you use it as typically as I do anyway!
The addition of the show is a big leg up over the BMD Micro panel, and actually makes the cash you make investments on this panel repay dividends.
This digital textual content show updates to label every of the controls above (knobs) and beneath it (buttons) relying on what half or mode of the present software you’re in.
On this picture you’ll be able to see that the show can slot in two strains of textual content with (I believe) a 9 character restrict per line. This results in some inventive abbreviations however all in all it’s exceptionally clear what every management does.
So if it’s not apparent, having a display screen is good and makes life a lot simpler when utilizing the panel, particularly in the event you’re not used to utilizing one.
Though working with controls that aren’t labelled is feasible, you’re relying solely on the reminiscence of the operator to press the proper button, and when that fails you find yourself losing time wanting up what every button does once more. Over time this productiveness drag is more likely to diminish, nevertheless it’s nonetheless a drag.
That is additionally why I like grading with the Aspect Kb in Adobe Premiere over utilizing the Ripple or different ‘unlabelled’ units. That is additionally why Tangent created the floating HUD for Ripple customers.
For the Wave2 consumer, the one problem then is to recollect what the 1-9 Perform Keys and the ‘Earlier/Subsequent’ arrows (above the operate keys) are set to. When you’re studying the panel, conserving a print out checklist could be useful!
Lastly, having the Transport controls can be a wonderful addition for shortly leaping to the following clip, or scrubbing via a clip or sequence with the jog shuttle dial.
It’s additionally price mentioning that the Wave2 panel has two fold out ft, to assist angle the panel in direction of you which of them improves the ergonomics a bit.
Additionally every thing feels simply inside attain when resting your wrists on the entrance of the panel, so aside from reaching up just a little to regulate a knob or two you’re not flailing across the place looking for a management.
If Tangent had gone with rings as an alternative of dials, it could have additionally freed up a bit extra space on the panel to possibly have given you a bit extra ‘wrist-rest-room’ on the entrance, while sustaining it’s compact footprint.
Customising the Controls
The Wave2 picked up my enhancing arrange, which I had initially created for working with the Aspect Kb in Premiere Professional, via customising the structure within the simple to make use of Tangent Mapper software.
I’ve described tips on how to customise your layouts in numerous element in that earlier submit so bounce right here for the steps required.
Color Grading in Premiere Professional with the Wave2
Working in Adobe Premiere Professional with the Wave2 was numerous enjoyable. Utilizing a management panel simply makes the method of color grading a mission far more intuitive and fascinating.
As an alternative of creating muscle cramp transferring particular person sliders round separately, you need to use each palms to manage at the very least two parameters on the identical time. It additionally helps hold your eyes on the picture as an alternative of the management sliders, which is significantly better option to grade.
The Wave2 updates to no matter part of the Lumetri panel is lively once you’re within the Coloration workspace and has controls for nearly all of the parameters.
The management mapping is totally customisable so you’ll be able to set issues up the way you’d like. As I discussed earlier than you would possibly wish to make use of a few of the empty buttons in a lot of the Lumetri menus so as to add ‘by-pass grade’ to a high stage button.
The Adobe Premiere Professional Customisation Information is price a learn for a strong introduction to utilizing the panel with Premiere together with what all the controls do.
Within the default mapping the F1-9 keys carry out the next features, however you possibly can in all probability remap these to extra helpful instructions and simply hammer on the Up/Down arrows to maneuver part.
- Lumetri – Fundamental
- Lumetri – Artistic
- Lumetri – Curves
- Lumetri – Color Wheels
- Lumetri – HSL Secondary
- Lumetri – Vignette
- Modifying Workspace
- Coloration Workspace
- Edit Mode
One of many first issues that you simply would possibly wish to regulate within the Tangent Mapper is the extent of sensitivity of the knobs in order that it takes much less turns to make substantial changes. For my tastes it was just a little too taxing in it’s authentic setting.
I did expertise just a few bizarre glitches while utilizing the panel in Premiere Professional. For instance, I’d press the (actually helpful) Full Display screen button and more often than not it could immediately leap to a full display screen view of the picture. Typically it could do nothing after which a minute later it could reply.
It’s potential that connecting via my USB hub was inflicting the issues, however I didn’t do any scientific testing to root out the issue!
With the ability to shortly transfer the Wave2 onto my desk, plug in a single cable and get grading in Premiere Professional is a good factor. When you’re an editor doing numerous your individual grading then the Wave2 might be essentially the most helpful, inexpensive panel you should buy.
Color Grading in DaVinci Resolve with the Wave2 Panel
My expertise of color grading in DaVinci Resolve 15 (beta 3) with the Tangent Wave2 was each a joyful and irritating one.
The irritating half is that the Person Interface (UI) doesn’t replace as you progress via the totally different sections of the management menu. This implies you could be displaying controls for the Qualifiers on the Wave2 however the Resolve interface continues to be on one other component corresponding to curves or Energy Home windows.
That is significantly problematic as a result of the Wave2 management set for Resolve is way deeper than that of Premiere Professional. When you flick via the 18 totally different menus within the Tangent Wave2 Resolve Set Up Information, you’ll get a way of what I imply.
There are even devoted mappings for working in stereoscopic 3D.
This disconnect between the panel and the interface can result in a good quantity of confusion between the place you’ve moved to on the panel, and the place that very same part of the Resolve UI is situated.
It’s additionally properly price studying the information to study some helpful issues corresponding to the truth that the Transport controls gives you Earlier Clip / Subsequent Clip however with ALT (on the Wave2) chosen provide you with First Body / Final Body.
Or that urgent the 2 up/down arrows collectively will bounce you to the Grasp Menu for the 9 buttons and knobs.
Or that the F1-F9 buttons present the next controls:
- Begin Dynamic
- Mark
- Base Reminiscence (+ALT Base Reminiscence Reset)
- Seize Nonetheless
- Play Nonetheless
- Step Node <
- Undo
- Redo (+ALT Add Parallel node)
- Step Node > (+ALT Add Serial node)
Working with the panel is nice enjoyable although – that is the joyful half – including and customising a Energy Window with the panel’s controls is far more intuitive and fluid than grabbing management factors with a mouse of pen.
By default the speed of adjustment was noticeably stronger in Resolve than Premiere Professional and so if you wish to regulate these settings to fit your preferences you are able to do so below:
DaVinci Resolve > Preferences > Person > Management Panels
Total the expertise is an effective one, with a really quick and responsive relationship between your palms and the picture on display screen.
Despite the fact that you’ll be able to’t customise the mapping there are numerous controls at your finger suggestions.
If Blackmagic Design did allowed a tighter integration with third celebration panels that may be an ideal assist for multi-app colorists and editors, however there’s additionally the inherent chance that much less folks would possibly purchase BMD panels…
Last Ideas on Wave2 Management Panel
As an editor who color grades most of my very own work, typically within the video enhancing software program I’m chopping in (slightly than round-tripping to Resolve, for instance) the Tangent Wave2 is the primary full panel that I’ve used that has felt like a smart addition to my {hardware} arsenal.
The function set of controls is huge sufficient to accommodate every thing I would like to attain, while the compact type issue signifies that it gained’t swamp my desk when it’s in use (or the cabinet when it’s not).
At $950/£650 the panel is affordably priced and given how a lot it will probably do, feels about proper given the ‘cheapness’ of it’s plastic casing, from an aesthetic perspective.
The Tangent Wave2 can be nice worth in comparison with what you get for identical cash with the Blackmagic Design Micro, each by way of controls and customisability. Having a devoted show which updates is an enormous motive to contemplate this panel over others.
Plus the truth that you need to use it with all kinds of submit manufacturing purposes which makes it a much more versatile piece of package.
In comparison with the Micro it’s additionally really moveable, weighing far lower than the 5 Kg that the BMD Micro weighs. So it’s light-weight, compact design is an actual profit.
It will have been good to see rings on the panel, slightly than dials, for the color wheel controls, however presumably this is able to have elevated the value level, or differentiated it much less between Tangent’s fully-fledged Aspect Suite, which does have rings.
To conclude: if I used to be going to spend near $950/£650 on a color grading panel, I’d spend it on the Tangent Wave2.
