Recording - June 2011 - 26

System #1 is located in my office at a large church and has a pair of 5" monitors, a MacBook Pro and a MOTU UltraLite (first generation). It took me almost two hours of back and forth level setting before I nailed a usable snapshot of my room. Granted, this was my first engaged by the buttons on the unit itself. software runs a thoroughly detailed Flash- time; I’ll say now that I have the hang of The only times you need to connect the based movie to guide you step by step the process and can complete it in 15 MSC1 to your computer are: when you through the process of hooking up the minutes or less on a cooperative system. want to “shoot your room” with RMC, cables, making audio adjustments, and “Cooperative” is the key word here, alter the bass management; alter the eq finally sending and capturing the test though. On system #2, for instance, settings; or reset the unit and/or update tones. which is a PC-based studio setup with a its firmware. The USB connection pair of Lynx AES16e cards hooked is only for controlling the MSC1; it to an Aurora converter, I had no doesn’t carry audio. luck after an hour and a half of trying to get my levels right. I suspect Controlling your monitors the problem is that the MSC1 softSetting room correction aside, ware sees the AES16e as a “typias a monitor controller alone, the cal PC sound card” with adjustable MSC1 excels in its class. As a internal volume levels, and it is not. basic monitor controller for switchEven trying to boost the levels with ing between sources and speaka mic preamp still did not work. ers, it is easy to set up and small System #3, my home system, is a enough to stay out of the way. laptop PC with a first-generation More than that, it’s clean and quiet Native Instruments Kore audio while offering plenty of gain for interface. The Kore’s input level most mixing situations. The knobs was almost 18 dB too low for what and buttons feel great, and special the MSC1 needs for an accurate mention must be made of the main level reading. volume knob that is ultra smooth Interestingly, I was still able to and accurate. shoot both these rooms with my Putting the unit’s control capabilMacBook Pro and get good results; ities over the top are its simple but I just hooked up the MSC1 to the effective eq for subtle room tweaklaptop’s onboard line input and ing to taste, speaker delay comheadphone output jacks, and I had pensation, and its built-in bass each room measured in 15 minutes management which is perhaps the or less. So the moral here is that best I have seen in a standalone depending on your chosen interface, third-party unit under $700. While there may be some speed bumps or it’s true that this unit doesn’t have non-starts; your best solution may be talkback or audio interfacing, the to use your DAW computer’s internal MSC1 has essentially no competisound card for calibration. tion featurewise at anything Note that this isn’t “cheating” in approaching its price. any way; the MSC1 measures and compensates for deviations in freControlling your room quency response on whatever With all that in hand already, audio path you use for RMC calinow we add RMC. In simple brations, so the results will be fine terms, this process sends a series if you use the internal sound card of test tones out into your room rather than your main audio interfrom your monitors and listens to face... or even a different computthem on a measurement mic. The er! Once you’re done, the room software analyzes what it hears correction data lives in the MSC1 back, and translates that into a set itself and remains effective as long of eq adjustments (filters) to lessen as you don’t move your speakers. the effects of room modes and The MSC1 has a tutorial that walks you through system boundaries on your low-frequen- setup and RMC calibration. In these sample screenshots, Test results you can see how the software guides level settings and cy sound. Here is where the rubber meets These settings, as mentioned mic placement before the room tones are played back. the road, and in all three instances above, are stored in the MSC1 the MSC1 found something to corIn practice, I found the actual process rect in my rooms. box after the test process is over, and can be engaged with a button press even with less than smooth, depending on my comSystem #1: My work office measures puter and audio interface; while JBL does 9' 10" x 13' 2". It is set up first and forethe computer disconnected. its best to make the process universal... it most as an office; the desk faces out Setting up and shooting the room isn’t, really. I tried the RMC setup process towards the front of the room and is locatHere is where the MSC1 experience on three different systems in three differ- ed next to a side wall. The speaker sweet gets a little tricky; it will take some time, ent rooms, and each experience had its spot is a 30" triangle, but the right speaker the first time you try to do it. The included share of hiccups. is 17" from its side wall, the left speaker is
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RECORDING JUNE 2011

JBL MSC1 Monitor System Controller

Recording - June 2011

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