This unassuming wedge-on-a-desk certainly has a few tricks up its sleeve, going one further than the esoteric pro options by putting the controls on the interface itself. While products such as Mackie’s Big Knob Studio, and SPL’s discontinued Crimson carved out niches as mid-priced prosumer ‘controllerface’ products, those on even smaller budgets had to wait for Fluid Audio’s SRI-2. Here is our choice of six monitor controllers which illustrate the breadth of choice and the quality of what’s out there: 1 - The Networked One - Focusrite R1 Users of Genelec’s SAM monitors can control them directly using the company’s GLM software. Units such as the Focusrite R1 and DAD MOM for Avid MTRX/DAD AX32 support this functionality. Increasingly, pro audio interfaces can also be controlled remotely to this end.Ĭontrollers for stereo, multichannel, and Atmos workflows require differing feature sets. Standalone desktop monitor controllers see all inputs and outputs physically passing through them.įrequently the choice of pros, ‘rack and remote’ systems see dedicated rack mount I/O controlled by a conveniently placed remote unit. For surround there is still a range of choices as this sector of the market is mature but for Atmos the choices are rather more narrow. For stereo work there are many, many choices, from inexpensive passive devices to top-dollar offerings. Not all monitor controllers are the same in terms of form factor and suitability for different types of work. On the output side, this selection can be routed to different monitor pairs and headphones, with output switching available along with facilities to cut or dim the output or do quality checks such as for mono compatibility and polarity. On the input side, DAW main outputs, cue sources, as well as system sounds, and perhaps the odd minijack or bluetooth connections so beloved by artists and producers, can be selected and summed together where required. Subs can be linked to stereo ‘satellite’ speakers as desired on many controllers.Īny controller sits in-between available audio inputs and outputs. Having those references on the end of a button press is hard to beat.Īlternative Speakers - Having a ‘B’ pair, or more pairs (or singles) of significantly different loudspeaker monitoring can be used for extra insight into the mix. Reference - Being able to fly in different sources and reference mixes for comparison is an indispensable mixing tool. Many controllers allow polarity inversion of one channel for sides-only monitoring for stereo mixes. Mono - one of the most basic quality checks for compatibility on different systems. Mute - the classic hard-stop button to kill sudden noise, re-patch inputs or to take phone calls.ĭim - being able to turn down the monitors by a fixed, known amount the same amount every time is essential in level-calibrated setups. Having the following features at the engineer’s fingertips is different to having to tab into an interface’s mixer app to navigate to and click on the relevant control. Monitor controllers make life easier, and for those working in the mixer-less studio some kind of control is essential in all but the most basic of setups. Why Bother With Standalone Monitor Control? We look at six standalone options to check out for the mixer-less studio. With monitor control coming with the console or control surface in larger facilities, studios great and small working without a console still need control of their monitoring setups regardless.
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