Hands On the Tangent Ripple Colorist Control Surface and Tangent HUD

September 8, 2016

A hands-on overview of the most affordable color correction control surface on the market today—the Tangent Ripple.


Working with the Tangent Ripple In Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve

(plus–how the Tangent HUD is a terrific extension)

In the film Minority Report, Tom Cruise is seen using augmented VR to quickly navigate through reams of audio, video and text information using his hands and voice. At the time of the film’s release (2002), it was a vision of the future that felt like it was only 5 years away. Almost 15 years later, it still feels like we are only 5 years away (but not a day closer) from that User Interface dream. That is unless you’re a colorist using the Tangent Ripple (or any other colorist control surface). Then we’re right there with Tom Cruise!

The Tangent Ripple - An Entry Level Colorist Control Surface
The Tangent Ripple is a light-weight, portable entry-level colorist control surface.
This Insight shows you how the Tangent Ripple works with Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve.

The Ripple is the entry-level control surface from Tangent (you can check pricing or purchase it here from B&H Photo). It provides functionality where you want it most, manipulating RGB values across three tonal ranges (shadows, midtones, highlights). Colorist control surfaces encourage experimentation with multiple different corrections very very quickly. As the image updates immediately in front of them the colorist having to take their eyes off the image.

The Ripple is considered entry-level because it’s a minimalist design, purely to keep the costs down

As you’ll see in the video below, the Ripple is extremely lightweight and portable. Its simple design makes it easy to master. Its streamlined size allows it to fit on the crampest desktop (or DIT cart).

If you’re a part-time colorist, the Ripple is your no-brainer add-on purchase. For a very low cost of entry, you get a huge boost in productivity. And because there are so few buttons, you won’t be overwhelmed with controls.

But its minimalist design also threatens to be a curse

To keep the cost of the Ripple well below the $400US threshold, it doesn’t have any kind of alphanumeric readout. Which means, for all the part-time colorists who are most attracted to this device—the few buttons it does have, it’s easy to forget what they do.

Also – the Lumetri Color panel has a TON of controls that the Ripple could be programmed to manipulate. And out of the box, the default settings have the Ripple constantly changing what its controls manipulate. Normally, you’d get lost remembering the Ripple’s mappings without extensive practice; which gets us to a new software feature from Tangent, the HUD.

This Insight will demo a new feature designed specifically for the Ripple—the Heads-Up Display (HUD).

Currently, the best app to see the new HUD in action is in Premiere Pro CC 2015.3 (or later). You’ll also need to download the latest Tangent HUB drivers if you want this feature to work.

Basically, the HUD is an on-screen display that shows you precisely what your controls will do as you work your way through Premiere Pro. It’s way easier to show you than to explain here, so be sure to watch this Insight’s video and see it in action. You’ll also learn how you can customize the HUD’s display and why the HUD is not useful in DaVinci Resolve.

Note: The Ripple is not yet directly supported in Final Cut Pro X.

When the Tangent Mapper starts to work properly with FCPX, I’ll be sure to do an Insight to show you the possibilities in that app with the Ripple.

More information on Mixing Light about the Tangent Ripple:

Enjoy!

-pi

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Comments

Homepage Forums Hands On the Tangent Ripple Colorist Control Surface and Tangent HUD


  • R.NeilHaugen
    Guest

    Nice presentation. I’m currently working with both the full Elements panel and a Ripple, sorting out which is best for … what. The Elements is quite a tool, but there are times if I’m just doing simpler work in PrPro, that realistically, the Ripple is … well, the best tool. I’ve got things mapped in the Basic tab so the Temp is the left-right axis of the middle ball, and tint the up/down axis, so I can actually adjust both with that ball simultaneously. And tabbing through is rather slick.

    That surprised me … that at times, in the I’m-an-editor-now mode, I do prefer the Ripple. Full-bore colorist mode, um … no.


  • Patrick Inhofer
    Guest

    I’ve not been a big fan of mapping sliders to the trackballs – but that’s why having a Mapper increases the value of the hardware… customize the hardware to match your preferences.


  • R.NeilHaugen
    Guest

    I’ve been totally surprised by how useful the Basics panel is since mapping the balls to the sliders as noted above. Didn’t hardly ever touch that panel before with mouse or pen-tab … now … it’s a pretty decent tonality tool as far as it goes.


  • ANDRE LUIZ R
    Guest

    For those who already has the Tangent Elements, Tangent Ripple, Tangent Wave 1 and 2 or use the Tangent Elements VS, I would like to present the TWB 2.

    A software that will transform your Tangent Panel in something way powerful, with even more control of the Davinci Resolve than Mini Panel. And even you can use it to control all the EDIT tab too, using it as a Speed Editor with more control than it.

    And you can use TWB 2 with El Gato, Loopdeck and any other MIDI controller that has a Mapping software with OSC Support. And you can combine Tangent panels and other midi controllers too, and event Tablets and Ipads with Elements VS.

    TWB 2

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