Loupedeck Creative Tool - Professional Custom Editing Console for Photo, Video, Music and Design

During the pandemic video editing has gone from something I did on the side to my sole source of income. I decided to treat myself to the Loupedeck CT, not knowing if it would really be worth the significant cost. I'm so glad I did! It immediately made a huge difference in my quality of life. Not only can I work faster, I produce better work because it's so much easier to fine-tune aspects of my videos. I've gotten much more creative with color because of how intuitive it is to just grab one of the dials and play with it until it's just right. And sometimes it just makes me approach my work with more positivity because it's so satisfying to use.If you're debating between this or the cheaper Loupedeck Live, I probably spend 95% of my time using the top half of the device, which is what you would get with the Live. If you're on a budget, that's a big savings for, in my opinion, all the important functionality. I do think the Loupedeck software underutilizes the possibilities for the main control dial, but just last week an update came out that enhanced it somewhat, so maybe I will find more use for that in the future.As an aside, while I bought the Loupedeck for video editing in MacOS, I've also taken advantage of it for gaming in Windows, and it's been lots of fun to program it to enhance my controls. The possibilities of what it can do in any app are pretty broad, and I feel like I've only scratched the surface.On the physical side, it feels well-built and solid, but also small, thin, and easily portable, and it tucks away easily when I don't need it. I put some tall rubber bumpers on the back edge to make it stand up at more of an angle, as it normally sits very flat.

I'm a graphics designer and also work with 3D architecture & visualization. I use many of the Adobe products. I watched many reviews on YouTube before I made my decision to purchase it. The LoupeDeck CT has all the features and customization controls that I need for my workflow. I also use Ableton Live and this will be a perfect adjunct as well. When not working, I find myself behind the controls of my favorite flight sims, MSFS 2020 & X-Plane 12. This will come in very handy for the flight controls. Anyway this is a very deep and powerful piece of kit & has a steep learning curve but the Loupedeck website and YouTube channel have a lot of helpful resources for learning. The Loupedeck CT cord is very short so I highly recommend a 6.6FT AINOPE USB 3.0 Extension Cable Type A Male to Female Extension Cord. This worked like a charm!

GREAT hardware. Software team SUCKS. Bought it in 2020 and it immediately improved my photo editing productivity. But I've lost functionality every time they update the software. Adobe Lightroom's new masking tools are a gamer changer and will also greatly improve my workflow. But when I select the masking tool in LR the Loupedeck CT buttons go blank, making the device completely useless. Loupedeck released a software update today and it didn't resolve the situation. I'll continue to wait for the next update, but wonder what won't work next time they update. I've stopped recommending this device to other photographers. My initial review of this product was 5 stars. But Loupedeck lost a star with every software update since my purchase.

Beside looking cool with all the shiny illuminated buttons and controls, the device has a lot to offer:Pros:- Beside the presets for several creativity tools I have - which come out of the box - I have also found some more profiles from other companies in the web (e.g. on1 - limited, but something is there) which is awesome.- With 6 programmable & rotatable knobs and a jog shuttle like controller +12 programmable buttons and so on really nice to adjus to your own liking!- With the nice task assignment functionality I was able to even use the device for other use cases (e.g. programming tools, app launcher, etc.)- Adding it behind a KVM let you share easily the device with multiple computers and each computer can have its own set of settings!- Uses USB-C - nice!Downs:- Not cheap!- Do not expect to get support for Lightroom 6 or before - or any non CC Adobe products. That would be really awesome - but those versions are apparently not supported (anymore). Makes you really wonder.- The support for Capture one is in there - and it is claimed that e.g. version 20 would be supported, but many functions do not work for the old version (even on the first screen). If you want to have nice display buttons and more controls you can buy the presets from another company for 35$. It's not that I do not want to earn more folks some money - but if you pay more than 500$'s you would guess that this is somehow included?- I couldn't see problems reported by other testers - however - I can see that with a lower viewing angle on the display in front of the monitor, the LCD display has a shimmering effect like oil in the water (rainbow pattern - starting with <60 degrees angle which is really a lot narrower than you would think). Not necessarily a showstopper but it is clearly annoying.- When adding app shortcuts (under "Run") you should not use quotes around the file names (like when copying them from Windows shortcuts) as these quotes will make the extcutable path unusable. So remove.Comments:- I did test on Windows so far, not on Mac yet. Only saw that the device didn't came on when it was connected over the lightning cable behind a KVM. But I didn't install the SW there yet.- Plan to watch some of the training videos (~20 minutes total) and it will help you to safe a lot of time later on as some things are not as obvious from the getgo but are getting really good to understand once you have heard the explanation.- Once you have set it up you can save your profile. You can then apply the same profile to another computer, correct the paths if neccessary and you are done!General verdict:The device is really useful and helped me to optimize my workflow for many things - and it is also a great eye catcher for sure.Plan to take some time to get into the device and all the controls to learn how it is getting used! E.g. I did not realize first that you can use a swipe on the display to advance to the next page.And - of course: It is quite a lot of money.

I’m a student in Graphic Design and this tool should be cheating. With that being said, This tool is Awesome everyone should have one. This tool already saves so much time and I’m just learning how to use it. You can program it to do anything or use the preset controls. If you’re looking for something to invest in and help you with your work then this is the tool you need to buy. It’s a little on the expensive side but worth every penny. I have a Surface Laptop Studio and this tool really helps when I’m drawing and my keyboard is covered. I use it the most in Adobe Indesign and Photoshop so far. I love it, buy one today.