Recording - September 2014 - 26

By Mike Metlay

An introduction to a handy piece of studio gear
you might not realize you need

So what's a monitor controller?
A monitor controller is essentially a small selfcontained device that attempts to replace the comprehensive routing system of a large mixer's master
section. Ideally it will accept signals from one or
more audio sources you might want to listen to at
any given time, and let you select which of them is
routed to your listening device... where by "listening device" I mean one or more sets of speakers,
perhaps a subwoofer, and at least one set of headphones. It will offer easy-to-reach hands-on control
of basic functions that are laid out neatly enough so
you can use them with no fuss. Even a user of a
very small studio will eventually find one of these
beasts handy... as I did.
Let's run down the various features that you
can expect in a monitor controller, and along the
way I'll help you figure out which ones are more
or less critical to your own work situation. That
will help guide you to a controller that will work
well for you. I've chosen not to list prices here
and instead focus on features; you can shop
around for bargains easily enough on your own,
and should let your needs be the primary guide
for your buying decision rather than trying to
lowball on price.

This past Spring, I ended an 18-month period of relative musical inactivity and
threw myself back into live performance, composing and recording original
music, and a regular Internet streaming-radio presence as both DJ and live performer. To help this go smoothly, I rethought and rebuilt my home studio from the
walls in-the first such rebuild in over a decade. (Longtime readers will remember my series of Fade Out editorials from the last time I did this, back in 2001.)
I freed up a lot of space and got myself a much less cramped work environment by the simple expedient of selling, mothballing, or giving away the vast
majority of my old gear. My new rig is tiny and simple, revolving around a
small desktop mixer/audio interface and a couple of computers rather than a
mixing console and outboard recorder. In other words, it's very similar to what
many of you are using right now.
By and large, the transition was smooth and the results have been a lot of fun
so far, but there was one glaring exception: hearing what I was doing. I had
gotten very used to my old mixing desk, a decently well-appointed console with
a fairly sophisticated control room/monitor section. With that big board out of
the picture, I no longer had a centralized box that let me route audio from multiple sources to my headphones and monitors reliably. But whatever-I could
patch together a solution and get along, right?
My "solution" lasted less than a week. It involved a tiny 4-input outboard
mixer plus an inline attenuation box patched in between my audio interface,
my main mixer, and my monitors. Cables were strewn everywhere, the audio
quality was questionable, it was impossible to keep levels consistent, and the
whole kludge was constantly threatening to go sliding off its precarious perch
and drag my Equators off their stands and onto the floor... To heck with this!
It was time to bite the bullet and install a solution that would keep everything neat,
tidy, audible, controllable, and predictable. It was time for a monitor controller.

Inputs and outputs
The very simplest of these devices are called
"speaker switchers" or "line selectors". They're
basically stereo switch boxes: you plug in one
input and flip a switch to send that signal to one
of several outputs. For some studios, this is
enough-it lets you switch your control room output from your audio interface between two or
three sets of check monitors. These are usually
passive devices; they don't supply any gain, so
they don't require a power supply. Hosa makes
a very serviceable 1-in/3-out model with a click
knob, and Coleman Audio makes an excellent
1-in/3-out model with pushbuttons.
If you need more than this, you're going to want
a proper monitor controller, which allows you to
input two or more stereo signals and output them to
two or more sets of speakers, plus headphones.
Count the number of stereo sources that you're
going to want to listen to, and count the number of
sets of monitors you want to send audio to, and
there's your input/output count. You can always
budget for a unit with an extra set of ins or outs if
you think your studio might expand some day.
Since adaptor cables are fairly inexpensive,
don't let the type of input and output jacks available
be the sole driver of your decision to buy or not

meet the

Monitor controller

RECORDING September 2014

Recording - September 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Recording - September 2014