Recording - June 2011 - 28

JBL MSC1 Monitor System Controller

5' 6" from its side wall, and the speakers are 4' 5" from the rear and 7' 10" from the front wall. In other words, not an optimal layout for audio at all! After running the RMC corrections, the software’s onscreen graph showed me that the Right speaker (next to the wall) had bad frequencies at 61, 75, and 138 Hz that it cut fairly drastically—up to 9.6 dB in the low mid. On the Left speaker, it found 5 bad nodes at: 136, 139, 169, 182, 247 and 259. Here the deepest cut was only about 5 dB however. It also dropped this speaker’s volume by 0.5 dB. System #2: In my studio, which is heavily treated, bass trapped and uses KRK’s flagship E8B monitors atop a pair of Primacoustic Recoil Stabilizers, it still managed to make adjustments at 70, 202, 258 on the left and 70 and 262 on the right, with an average cut of 3–4 dB. I found these numbers interesting as my speakers and mix position are equal distances from the side walls, although the right side of the room does include a (treated) door right at the first reflection point. System #3: My home mixing spot is the worst of the three, located at the end of an average home hallway, and at the bottom of a staircase. My small 4" powered monitors sit with one speaker all but nestled into the corner. Here, oddly enough, RMC did the least amount of correction, with the left speaker being adjusted only 4.1dB at 114 Hz, and the right speaker (the wall speaker) being adjusted 3.9 dB at 79 Hz and –5.9 dB at 114 Hz. It also brought the right speaker down a whole 3 dB. When I bypassed the RMC, I was now aware of the volume mismatch and low-end build up; strangely, while RMC seemed to do the least quantitatively in my home listening area, it was here that my ears heard the greatest qualitative difference. It will be hard to turn this little box off and send it back! In every instance the unit did its job and essentially cleared out the low-end muck and mids, resulting in a clearer listening experience. It was also a great teaching tool; I like having a graph that shows the problem spots. Final thoughts The MSC1’s main competition in room correction is IK Multimedia’s ARC (reviewed February 2009) and the KRK ERGO (reviewed February 2010). These are all very different products. ARC is primarily a software package; the ERGO hardware is a FireWire audio interface, albeit a simple one, with a choice of two speaker sets (one of which can be a subwoofer) but few dedicated monitor-management features. Also, we must mention price: the MSC1 streets for much less than what the others cost. Even if you never touch the room correction software, the MSC1 is a great and simple monitor controller with stellar bass management. But you’d be missing out if you never used the RMC, so I recommend a careful and patient approach to setup, with a spare laptop handy in case you can’t get your regular rig to work smoothly. Once you get the right results, the MSC1 will make your monitor setup sound better. Price: $375 ($299 street) More from: JBL Professional, www.jblpro.com. Screenshots of RMC results for the three listening areas tested in this article: the author’s office, his main studio, and his home mixing room (top to bottom). Note the speaker and MSC1 data displays in the top two screenshots.
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RECORDING JUNE 2011

Paul Vnuk Jr. (vnuk@recordingmag.com) is a recording engineer, producer, recording artist, and sound designer, living and working in Milwaukee, WI. Check out his latest audio adventures at www.majale.com.

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Recording - June 2011

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