Recording - June 2014 - 44

B Y M I K E M E T L AY

From the original and often-imitated Transient Designer to a wide variety of monitor control devices and
effects processors, SPL has a reputation for gear of impeccable quality...
usually selling for prices that reflect
that quality. So when I got a first
glimpse at NAMM of the Crimson, a
full-featured high-end audio/MIDI
interface, I was intrigued to hear that
it promised SPL quality and some
pretty remarkable routing options for
well under $1000.

SPL Crimson USB Audio Interface/Monitor Controller
Exquisite audio quality meets unprecedented flexibility in a small interface

Big, brawny, and beautiful
The Crimson is built to dominate a
desktop with a solidly-built and nicely
tapered metal case whose top-panel layout is easy to work with for long sessions.
At any given time, the Crimson can
record and/or play back up to six channels, four analog and two digital.
There are eight analog inputs, four
active at a time: two XLR Mic preamps
with up to 60 dB of gain and individually switchable 48V phantom power and
75 Hz 6 dB/octave lowcut filters; two
1
/4" TS Instrument inputs with a hefty 1.1
Megohm input impedance on the front
edge of the unit; and four rear-panel balanced 1/4" TRS Line inputs. Note that
there are no input selection switches; it's
all done by plugging and unplugging
cables. For Inputs 1 and 2, plugging in a
Line input disables the corresponding Mic
input; for 3 and 4, plugging in an
Instrument input disables the corresponding Line input. This is a sensible setup,
considering that most small studios don't
use patch panels, and swapping cables
on a desktop interface is easy and quick.
44

RECORDING June 2014

Each analog source has its own Gain
control, and there's basic metering for all
four inputs: green signal-present LEDs at
-42 dBFS, yellow LEDs at -6 dBFS (these
should flicker occasionally at best), and
red Overload LEDs. Note that the red LEDs
are reading the converter inputs-they
indicate "start over, you've killed your
track" digital clipping, not analog-friendly
"pushing the inputs for warmth" overload.
Additionally there are three stereo
Source inputs. These aren't routed to the
USB port; they're meant for reference
audio sources that can be listened to at
the Speaker and Phones outputs. You get
three: balanced TRS, unbalanced RCA,
and a minijack for your iGizmo. If you
want, you can plug in the output of a mic
preamp to the Left channel of Source 1
alone, turning it into a Talkback source.
The RCA and minijack inputs have built-in
preamps that boost their gain by 10 and
15 dB respectively for a better match to
the balanced inputs; these can be defeated with DIP switches under the unit.
Analog outputs include two Speaker
pairs, A and B, on XLR and balanced TRS

respectively, both controlled from one
large master Volume pot. The Speaker B
outputs can be adjusted via rear-panel
trimpots to match levels with the Speaker
A outputs, and as we'll discuss below,
Speaker B can be repurposed for a variety of other uses if you don't have a set of
permanent check monitors in your control
room. Two 1/4" TRS Phones outputs with
separate volume controls are on the front
edge of the unit, next to the two
Instrument inputs.
S/PDIF I/O on RCA, MIDI I/O, a
power port, and USB round out the rear
panel; the Crimson uses an external wallwart power supply and has no on/off
switch. If desired, the Crimson can operate as a dual preamp/DI, A/D and D/A
converter, and monitor controller with no
computer attached.
Output routing and monitor control
The Crimson's monitor scheme assumes
that Speakers A and Phones 1 are always
for the engineer in the control room, but
that Speakers B and Phones 2 may be
used by the engineer or may be dedicated

Recording - June 2014

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