Logitech MX Creative Console Review: Handy Control Inputs, If You Put In The Effort

Logitech Creative Console

Advantages

• If you don’t know the keyboard shortcuts for your apps, this can be very useful
• Dial supports three Bluetooth connections
• Highly customizable
• More convenient media controls than on many keyboards
• You can upload your own icons

Disadvantages

• The dial needs a stepped option, not just a free rotation
• Can’t set the action ring to appear in a fixed place on your screen
• Configuring the profiles the way you want can be tedious and unpredictable

A little over a year ago, Logitech LoupedeckLogitech Inc. is known for its popular programmable devices designed to streamline workflows for professional creatives and streamers, such as the Elgato Stream Deck and Razer Stream Controller products. The MX Creative Console is the first model under the Logitech brand, joining the company’s MX line aimed at advanced users, such as the Master Series. It has undergone a complete redesign to be more accessible to creative professionals who can find all-in-one console designs and their complex customization software intimidating. One key change is the split between the button console and the dials, which are now two separate pieces.

It also costs $200, which makes it a lot cheaper than most Loupedeck models. Despite the lower cost, it offers many of the same features as the $559 flagship Loupedeck CT. Plus, it includes three months of Adobe Creative Cloud for both new and existing users. It ships on October 14 — I tested it with early versions of the software — and initially the product will support a limited number of applications:

• Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, Illustrator, Express, Audition, Premiere Pro and After Effects
• Capture One Tethering Software for Photographers (Mac Only)
• Ableton audio/video editing software
• Spotify, VLC, Apple Music
• FaceTime, Discord and Zoom
• OBS, Twitch, Streamlabs (Windows only), VMix (Windows only), and Phillips Hue

However, it’s possible that more will be available by the time it launches.

This doesn’t mean you can’t create your own profiles for other applications, but without the plugin support you’re limited to hackish mapping of hotkeys and macros. The plugin is essential, because it Logi Options Plus app to access the full programming interface, giving you direct control over more settings without having to manually configure every action. There are OS settings included for both Mac and Windows, which is nice. And in November, Logitech plans to add the ability to back up your settings, which is crucial.

The CC is available in light gray or dark gray and consists of a Bluetooth MX Creative DialPad. This also works with the $15 Logi-bolt Bluetooth adapter and the USB-C MX Creative Keypad.

The DialPad features four programmable buttons per application, a large free-spinning dial (meaning no start or end point, and no haptic feedback to indicate specific spots or units rotated), and a free-spinning roller. It supports connection to up to three devices and runs on AAA batteries, which last up to 18 months.

The Keypad is a button pad with nine visible assignable buttons and a pair of previous-next page buttons. It supports up to 15 pages of assignments per application. It comes with a stand with a cable router that holds it at an angle. I wish it were adjustable, because the fixed angle doesn’t work for me and doesn’t work when I lay it flat. Someone could probably design a custom version and 3D print it. I can’t, though.

With Options Plus loaded, you can bring up an on-screen Actions Ring, an app-specific, programmable overlay ring of controls. You select a tool and then manipulate it with the DialPad or other device. In many cases, these functions are the same as those on the Keypad, but they’re handy for situations where you’re already moving your mouse around the screen. Unfortunately, the Ring always appears at your cursor, which can be frustrating if you reflexively move to the bottom of the screen to avoid accidental changes as you press mouse buttons. For some people, having the Ring appear at your cursor makes sense, since you don’t have to move anywhere to start selecting. But I’d like to have an option for those of us who work differently.

To program everything, you basically drag and drop from a list of actions to the control or button; each set of these is a profile, and each application can have multiple profiles. It can automatically load a default profile based on the application or tool within the app that you have switched to. As with the Loupedeck, you can get user-contributed profiles for this in the Logi Marketplace.

But as far as I can tell, if you want to be able to use multiple profiles within an application, you have to manually add a Switch Profile button for each profile you want to switch to, and within each profile you want to switch from. If there is a slider for it in the interface, you will have to adjust it via a knob or roller if you want to use it with the CC.

Even more annoying is that the software doesn’t let you add buttons from other profiles or merge profiles for frequently used or custom functions that you want in each profile. For example, I need multiple types of screenshots that are accessible from every app. I test keyboards and many of the small ones don’t have a PrtSc key, so I have to remap at least one shortcut in the Game Bar, which is a nightmare. (Almost every combo says, “That shortcut doesn’t work. Pick a different one and try again,” rather than telling me which Are available.)

There are also some limitations that Logitech has little control over because they are not in the API. And in my case, there are a lot of things that I want it to do that it can’t. For example, Adobe doesn’t have an API for Camera Raw in Photoshop.

In my case, it can’t provide direct access to the numeric fields, at least from what I’ve seen in Lightroom and Photoshop. (I think you’d have to create macros if you wanted to use the dial.) But I want to be able to go to specific values ​​for exposure changes, like 0.3, 0.7, etc. It’s faster for me to just click in that box and type it in than what CC can do with the API.

And using the free-spinning dial for anything precise is frustrating unless you have excellent control in your non-dominant hand (which I don’t), no matter how slow you set the speed. I need feedback that tells me, “yes, you’ve moved one unit in that direction” or “yes, this is the halfway point for volume or brightness.” So, for example, I’ve had to remap the top buttons on the Dialpad in Lightroom from undo-redo to previous-next photo to keep from flying past the photo I wanted. Honestly, I’ll probably just stick with the arrow keys. In a perfect world, it would work like the scroll wheel on some gaming mice, letting you switch instantly between free-spinning and stepped modes. Not everyone feels the same way, but if that’s the case for you, be warned.

I find the Keypad more convenient than the DialPad, in part because you can add multi-step actions to a single keypress, like filtering by flag, selecting all, and exporting in Lightroom. A lot of actions are just easier to perform on the keyboard once you’ve memorized the shortcuts — it’s not worth trying to break your muscle memory. But for things you only do occasionally, it can be faster than trying to remember where it is in the interface.

One problem is that I’d like to rearrange them to put the things I do most often on the first few pages and group them differently. You can move the buttons around, change the fonts, colors, backgrounds, and so on of the icons, but I couldn’t find an easy way to move them from page to page. There’s really no faster way to find a rarely used tool in more than two or three pages of choices if they’re not organized your way. I also couldn’t find a way to batch edit them, say to change the background colors or fonts to color-code them for an entire toolset or application. There are only two global settings, for key brightness and to toggle automatic profile switching on and off.

Logitech says it will likely add Options Plus settings to G Hub eventually, which would make it a lot more useful for streamers and others who own Logitech gaming gear. So there’s no need to run two utilities; the company already does this with its MX Brio webcam. Yay!

How much you’ll like the MX Creative Console really depends on a lot of variables, including what applications you use frequently, whether or not the shortcuts you need are burned into your brain, how dexterous you are with the hand you need for the dialpad, how much customization you’re willing to put into if the default profiles don’t cover enough of what you need, and more. I think there’s something for everyone here, but whether it’s worth $200 if you don’t really need it is another story.